Berann, Heinrich Caesar

Heinrich Caesar Berann (1915–1999), "the father of the modern panoramic map", transformed cartography by merging classical European painting techniques with modern mapping innovations. Born in Innsbruck, Austria, into a family of artists, he gained prominence in 1934 after winning a competition to create a panoramic map of the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. This marked the beginning of his career in crafting visually stunning, meticulously detailed maps for tourism and cartographic purposes. Berann painted over 100 maps, including iconic works for the Summer and Winter Olympic Games, such as Cortina (1956), Rome (1960), Innsbruck (1964, 1976), Sarajevo (1984), and Nagano (1998). He created ski trail/piste maps for major European resorts and collaborated extensively with National Geographic, producing masterpieces like Mount Everest (1962), the Pacific Ocean floor (1969), and a traveller’s map of the Alps (1985). His work with Marie Tharp and Bruce Heezen resulted in the groundbreaking ocean floor map. In his later years, Berann crafted four panoramic maps for U.S. National Parks, including Yosemite (1990), Yellowstone (1991) and Denali (1994).