m.r.g. conzen studied geography, history and philosophy at the university of berlin between 1926–1932. one of his mentors was geographer herbert louis, who in turn was a disciple of the austrian geographer norbert krebs (krebs was a prominent pupil of albrecht penck and influenced carl o. sauer in his writings on the morphology of landscape). in 1933 conzen emigrated to the uk, where he studied at the victoria university of manchester first obtaining a diploma in town and country planning in 1936 and a master's degree in historical geography in 1942.