„Das komplizierteste Glied unserer hochorganisierten Kulturlandschaft“

This paper contributes to the history of German-speaking geography and the quantitative-theoretical turn. Instead of focusing on the history of ideas and theories, the article looks more closely at the geographic approach to the city and the early urban geography. We aim to show how the objects of geographical research and problematization are making theories and modes of thinking plausible. We argue that it is helpful to write the history of science along the objects of geographical research. The object, which helped making quantitative-theoretical thinking plausible and thus got plausible itself, we argue, is the city.