Busching

Busching, Anton Friedrich, geographer, was born in 1724 at Stadthagen in Schaumburg-Lippe. It was while on a journey to St. Petersburg that he became sensible of the incomplete state of geography, and resolved to do what he could to improve it. After occupying the chair of philosophy at Gottingen, he accepted an invitation to become pastor of the Protestant congregation at St. Petersburg in 1761. In 1765 he returned to Germany and became head of the Greyfriars Gymnasium, founded by Frederick the Great, at Berlin, where he died in 1793. His Neue Erdbeschreibung was the first, geographical work of any scientific merit, and has been translated into most European languages. He also wrote theological treatises and valuable works on education. He is frequently cited by Carlyle in his Frederick the Great as a keen and reliable observer.