Gottfried Merzbacher
Gottfried Merzbacher (born December 9, 1843 in Baiersdorf , † April 14, 1926 in Munich ) was a German geographer , alpinist and explorer .
Life
Gottfried Merzbacher was born on December 9, 1843 in Baiersdorf near Erlangen in Central Franconia, the son of the Jewish fur trader Marcus Merzbacher. After leaving the Erlangen secondary school, he learned the craft of furrier and got into his father's business. He trained as a businessman in Paris, London and St. Petersburg . In 1868 he opened his own fur store in Munich at Residenzstrasse 14. After he had sold his financially very good business in 1888, he devoted his life entirely to alpinism.
In 1878, with the guides Cesare Tomè and Santo Siorpaes, he made the first ascent of Monte Schiara . On June 16, 1881, he was the first to stand together with Peter Soyer on the Totenkirchl in the Wilder Kaiser , one of the most famous climbing mountains in the Alps . In 1884 he retired from professional life and undertook extensive journeys to Persia, Kashmir, Ceylon, the Caucasus and the mountains of Central Asia. In 1891, as part of a Caucasus expedition with Ludwig Purtscheller, he climbed the Elbrus and other mountains. Merzbacher played a significant role in the development of the Alps, the Caucasus and Asian mountains such as the Tian Shan . He also went on tours in the Western Alps, such as crossing the Piz Bernina , the Meije and the Matterhorn . In 1901 his two-volume work From the High Regions of the Caucasus was published and a map of these mountains that became fundamental in the following years (Merzbacher map). In 1901 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Munich , in 1902 he was elected second chairman of the Munich Geographical Society , in 1905 he received the Bavarian Order of Merit and in 1907 he was appointed Prof. hc.
In 1902/03 Merzbacher traveled to the Tian Shan in Central Asia in search of the legendary mountain Khan Tengri . He discovered today as Merzbacher lake known Ice Lake on Inyltschek Glacier , which is known and feared for his outbursts. A high mountain observatory built on the Inyltschek Glacier in 2009 was named Gottfried Merzbacher Station in his honor .
Gottfried Merzbacher died on April 14, 1926 at the age of 82 after a brief illness in Munich.
Works
- Gottfried Merzbacher: From the high regions of the Caucasus . Hikes, experiences, observations. Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1901 ( second volume [accessed April 22, 2017]).
- Gottfried Merzbacher: The Tian-Schan or the Himmelsgebirge . Sketch of a research trip carried out in 1902 and 1903 to the central Tian-Schan. In: Journal of the German and Austrian Alpine Club . 1906, p. 121 ff . ( online in the Austrian National Library [accessed on March 22, 2013]).
- Gottfried Merzbacher: The Central Tian-Shan Mountains. (PDF; 16.4 MB) An Expedition into the Central Tian-Shan Mountains. Carried out in the years 1902-1903. Royal Geographical Society, 1905, accessed March 22, 2013 .
literature
- Peter Grimm: Merzbacher, Gottfried. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , pp. 205 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Hans Dieter Sauer: The rediscovery of an explorer . In: Bavarian Academy of Sciences (Hrsg.): Akademie Aktuell . No. 1 , 2007, p. 63-66 ( online [PDF]).
- Rollo Steffens: Gottfried Merzbacher and the Tian Shan. in: Berg 2003. Alpine Club Yearbook Volume 127, Munich / Innsbruck / Bozen 2003, pp. 76–85.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Fritz Schmitt: The book of the Wilder Kaiser. Bergverlag Rudolf Rother, Munich 1982, p. 162f.
- ↑ Prof. Dr. Gottfried Merzbacher, Munich
- ^ Hans Dieter Sauer: The rediscovery of an explorer. P. 63.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Merzbacher, Gottfried |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German geographer, alpinist and explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 9, 1843 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Baiersdorf |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 14, 1926 |
| Place of death | Munich |