Theodor von Heuglin
Encyclopedia
Ditzingen
Ditzingen is a town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about 10 km northwest of Stuttgart, and 12 km southwest of Ludwigsburg. The Hirschlanden transmitter is located near Ditzingen-Hirschlanden...
, Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
– November 5, 1876), was a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
explorer and ornithologist.
Biography
Heuglin was born in HirschlandenDitzingen
Ditzingen is a town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about 10 km northwest of Stuttgart, and 12 km southwest of Ludwigsburg. The Hirschlanden transmitter is located near Ditzingen-Hirschlanden...
(now part of Ditzingen
Ditzingen
Ditzingen is a town in the district of Ludwigsburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated about 10 km northwest of Stuttgart, and 12 km southwest of Ludwigsburg. The Hirschlanden transmitter is located near Ditzingen-Hirschlanden...
) in Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....
. His father was a Protestant pastor
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
, and he was trained to be a mining
Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, from an ore body, vein or seam. The term also includes the removal of soil. Materials recovered by mining include base metals, precious metals, iron, uranium, coal, diamonds, limestone, oil shale, rock...
engineer
Engineer
An engineer is a professional practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials, structures, machines and systems while considering the limitations imposed by practicality,...
. He was ambitious, however, to become a scientific investigator of unknown regions, and with that object studied the natural sciences, especially zoology
Zoology
Zoology |zoölogy]]), is the branch of biology that relates to the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and distribution of all animals, both living and extinct...
.
In 1850 he went to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
where he learnt Arabic
Arabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
, and visited the Red Sea
Red Sea
The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...
and Sinai
Sinai Peninsula
The Sinai Peninsula or Sinai is a triangular peninsula in Egypt about in area. It is situated between the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Red Sea to the south, and is the only part of Egyptian territory located in Asia as opposed to Africa, effectively serving as a land bridge between two...
. In 1852 he accompanied Dr. Christian Reitz, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n consul at Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
, on a journey to Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, and after Reitz’s death was appointed his successor in the consulate. While he held this post he travelled in Ethiopia and Kordofan, making a valuable collection of natural history specimens. In 1857 he journeyed through the coast lands of the African side of the Red Sea, and along the Somali
Somalia
Somalia , officially the Somali Republic and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic under Socialist rule, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. Since the outbreak of the Somali Civil War in 1991 there has been no central government control over most of the country's territory...
coast.
In 1860 he was chosen as leader of an expedition to search for Eduard Vogel
Eduard Vogel
Eduard Vogel was a German explorer in Central Africa.- Early career :Vogel was born in Krefeld. He studied mathematics, botany and astronomy at Leipzig and Berlin, studying with Encke at the latter institution. In 1851, he was engaged as assistant astronomer to director John Russel Hind at George...
, his companions including Werner Munzinger
Werner Munzinger
Werner Munzinger was a Swiss administrator and explorer of the Horn of Africa.-Biography:...
, Gottlob Kinzelbach, and Hermann Steudner
Hermann Steudner
Carl Theodor Hermann Steudner was a botanist and an explorer of Africa.- Education and early work :Steudner was born in Greiffenberg, located in Silesia, but grew up in Görlitz. He studied in Berlin and Würzburg botany, mineralogy and medicine...
. In June 1861 the party landed at Massawa
Massawa
Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa Massawa, also known as Mitsiwa (Ge'ez ምጽዋዕ , formerly ባጽዕ is a city on the Red Sea coast of Eritrea. An important port for many centuries, it was ruled by a succession of polities, including the Axumite Empire, the Umayyad Caliphate,...
, having instructions to go direct to Khartoum and then to Ouaddai
Ouaddai Kingdom
The Ouaddai Empire was originally a non-Muslim kingdom, located to the east of Lake Chad in present-day Chad...
, where Vogel was thought to be detained. Heuglin, accompanied by Hermann Steudner
Hermann Steudner
Carl Theodor Hermann Steudner was a botanist and an explorer of Africa.- Education and early work :Steudner was born in Greiffenberg, located in Silesia, but grew up in Görlitz. He studied in Berlin and Würzburg botany, mineralogy and medicine...
, made a wide detour through Abyssinia and the Galla
Galla
Galla can refer to:* A derogatory name for the Oromo people of Ethiopia* Galla * Galla * Galla Placidia, daughter of Theodosius I* Galla of Rome, 6th-century saint* Gallu, a Mesopotamian demon...
country, and in consequence the leadership of the expedition was taken from him. He and Steudner reached Khartoum in 1862 and there joined the party organized by Alexandrine Tinné
Alexandrine Tinné
Alexandrine Petronella Francina Tinne was a Dutch explorer in Africa and the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara...
. With her or on their own account, they travelled up the White Nile
White Nile
The White Nile is a river of Africa, one of the two main tributaries of the Nile from Egypt, the other being the Blue Nile. In the strict meaning, "White Nile" refers to the river formed at Lake No at the confluence of the Bahr al Jabal and Bahr el Ghazal rivers...
to Gondokoro
Gondokoro
Gondokoro was a trading-station on the east bank of the White Nile in Southern Sudan, 750 miles south of Khartoum. Its importance lay in the fact that it was within a few miles of the limit of navigability of the Nile from Khartoum upstream...
and explored a great part of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, where Steudner died of fever on April 10, 1863.
Heuglin returned to Europe at the end of 1864. In 1870 and 1871 he made a valuable series of explorations in Spitsbergen
Svalbard
Svalbard is an archipelago in the Arctic, constituting the northernmost part of Norway. It is located north of mainland Europe, midway between mainland Norway and the North Pole. The group of islands range from 74° to 81° north latitude , and from 10° to 35° east longitude. Spitsbergen is the...
and Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya
Novaya Zemlya , also known in Dutch as Nova Zembla and in Norwegian as , is an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean in the north of Russia and the extreme northeast of Europe, the easternmost point of Europe lying at Cape Flissingsky on the northern island...
; but 1875 found him again in north-east Africa, in the country of the Beni, Amer and northern Abyssinia. He was preparing for an exploration of the island of Socotra
Socotra
Socotra , also spelt Soqotra, is a small archipelago of four islands in the Indian Ocean. The largest island, also called Socotra, is about 95% of the landmass of the archipelago. It lies some east of the Horn of Africa and south of the Arabian Peninsula. The island is very isolated and through...
, when he died in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
. It is principally by his zoological, and more especially his ornithological, labours that Heuglin has taken rank as an independent authority.
Works
- The Fateful Journey', The Expedition of Alexine Tinné and Theodor von Heuglin in Sudan (1863-1864). Robert Joost Willink, Amsterdam 2011. ISBN 9789089643520
- Systematische Übersicht der Vögel Nordost-Afrikas (Systematic Review of Northeastern-African Birds) (1855)
- Reisen in Nordost-Afrika, 1852-1853 (Travels in Northeast Africa, 1852–1853) (Gotha, 1857)
- Syst. Übersicht der Säugetiere Nordost-Afrikas (Systematic Review of Mammals of Northeast Africa) (Vienna, 1867)
- Reise nach Abessinien, den Gala-Ländern, &c., 1861-1862 (Trip to Abyssinia, the ??, etc., 1861–1862) (Jena, 1868)
- Reise in das Gebiet des Weissen Nil, &c. 1862-1864 (Trip to the White Nile and Environs, 1862–1864) (Leipzig, 1869)
- Reisen nach dem Nordpolarmeer, 1870-1871 (Trip to the Arctic Ocean, 1870–1871) (Brunswick, 1872–1874)
- Ornithologie von Nordost-Afrika (Ornithology of Northeast Africa) (Cassel, 1869–1875)
- Reise in Nordost-Afrika (A trip in Northeast Africa) (Brunswick, 1877, 2 vols).