J. H. Von Thunen Essay

Ryan Trinter  Michael Mewborne  AP Human Geography 28 September 2014 J. H. Von Thünen

J. H. Von Thünen was born on his family’s estate in Oldenburg, Germany on June 24, 1783 (Johann Heinrich Von Thünen). He attended an agricultural school and proceeded to buy an estate in Mecklinburg, Germany (Johann Heinrich Von Thünen). There he tested his methods in agronomy, or practices of cultivation, as well as experimentations with his geographic model which was published in h is book The Isolated State with Respect to Agriculture and Political Economy. (“Johann Heinrich Von

Thünen”). Thünen continue d his studies in agronomy at his estate in Mecklinburg, eventually publishing one more volume of his book The Isolated State until State  until his death of

a stroke on September 22, 1850 (“Johann Heinrich Von Thünen”). A third edition of his book was published posthum ously (Johann Heinrich Von Thünen”).

J. H. Von Thünen is credited with creating the “Von Thünen Model” which was published in the first volume of The Isolated Estate (Rossenberg). It used four concentric zones surrounding a city to represent things that should be produced in areas relative to the city city in order to make itit self-sufficient (Rossenberg). The model states that dairying and demanding crops, such as vegetables and milk, would be placed in the closest zone to the city because of their need to get to the markets quickly. Then, the second zone would have the collection of firewood and timber for fuel and

building materials (Rossenberg). The laborious effort of transporting these materials creates the need for them to be relatively close to the city. The third zone would be crops that are less intensive, such as grains, than those in the first (Rossenberg). The easy transport of these materials allows them to be farther away from the city. city. The final zone is that that which contains pastures of domesticated animals (Rossenberg). Animals do not need to transported by cart like crops and materials do, therefore they can still be efficiently placed farther away from

the city. In the span of Thunen’s life, which was before industrialization, these four zones would theoretically create a self-sufficient city in which someone could live.

Works Cited

"Johann Heinrich von Thünen." Bio Bio.. A&E Television Networks, 2014. Web. 28 Sep. 2014. Rossenberg, Matt. "What Is the Von Thunen Model?"  About . N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Sept. 2014.