Hettner, Alfred, 1859-1942, German geographer and teacher; a founder of modern German geography. His methodology and his materialistic philosophy, grounded in the work of Immanuel Kant, have had a great influence on Russian and Soviet geographers. He founded (1895) the journal Geographisches Zeitschrift and published Die Geographie: ihre Geschichte, ihre Wesen und ihre Methoden (1927).