This is the complete English translation (and the original German language version) of the
biography of famous and influential Russian-German meteorologist climatologist Wladimir Köppen
(1846-1940) edited by his daughter Else with an updated bibliography of his publications.
Köppen's life stands out among the lives of many of his peers in that he has made lasting
contributions to atmospheric sciences and climatology (e.g. the Köppen-Geiger Classification of
Climates which is still being used and refined to this very day). He also made other important
contributions to meteorological research and the organisation of weather services. At the same
time Köppen has a scholarly publication record that spans eight (!) decades and comprises 560
publications. All this between many twists and turns in his life in Russia and Germany moves
and unexpected events he had to endure among them copious private problems such as the
untimely deaths of two sons the loss of a third and later the loss of his closest
collaborator and son-in-law Alfred Wegener. It is fascinating to read how the successful and
influential Köppen managed to wiggle out of all these personal quandaries successfully
building and refining his career in climate research until his death in 1940. For those working
in the sciences today Köppen's autobiographic remarks bear witness among other things to the
fact that the nuisances of bureaucracy theft of ideas and heckling grudges and minor
malevolence among peers are not new developments but have been around from the beginning of
the scientific disciplines although Köppen never engaged in them.
