Background
Fred K. Schaefer was born in Berlin, Germany in the family of metal worker
Fred K. Schaefer was born in Berlin, Germany in the family of metal worker
He attended the University of Berlin pursuing both undergraduate and postgraduate studies from 1928 through 1932. As an undergraduate he studied economics, economic geography, and political geography. As a graduate student he studied mathematics and population statistics.
He is considered as one of the pioneers of quantitative revolution. He died of a heart attack on June 6, 1953.
He was involved in politics as a member of Social Democratic party and after the rise of fascism he fled from Nazi Germany.
Kurt Schaefer was a whole man, a conscious member of the human race, a scientist, and an intellectual who remembered his humanist commitment. Later in the United States he became an inaugural member of the Department of Geography at Iowa.