Adolph von Wrede

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Adolph Gustav von Wrede (born October 14, 1807 in Münster , Westphalia , † March 15, 1863 in Constantinople , today: Istanbul ) was a well-known German researcher on Arabia. He was the first European to the interior of today with the Republic of Yemen belonging Hadramaut explored.

biography

Wrede ran away from home at the age of 16 because his father wanted to place him in the military . After three years of Christian seafaring, Wrede left the ship on the quay of Smyrna (today: İzmir in Turkey ) completely penniless . A kind merchant helped him to Baghdad and Wrede became an instructor in the Ottoman army and took part in the Russo-Turkish war . After years he returned to Westphalia , but the Orient never let him go. After Wrede failed to find a German publisher for his travelogue, he tried to have it published in English in Great Britain. However, the translator suddenly committed suicide and the maps and other drawings by Wrede could no longer be found in his estate, which is why the English edition was no longer produced. Bitter and deprived of all means of subsistence, Wrede emigrated. Between 1826 and 1850 he traveled in the Orient in Turkish and Egyptian services and wrote his travel notes in 1843.

meaning

His contemporaries did not think much of his travel descriptions. Far away in the hot Hadramaut should there be seven-story residential buildings ? Alexander von Humboldt , who introduced Wrede to the Prussian royal court of Friedrich Wilhelm IV , spoke of bragging rights. Reports were even less believed that a measuring line sank into the desert sand like a well. Heinrich von Maltzan already suspected a petroleum source behind it . Petroleum was found in Yemen in the 1880s, so the measuring line likely slipped into the cavity of a naphtha well . The French orientalist Fulgence Fresnel therefore called his travelogues the main discovery of 19th century geography .

He named the Jebel (also Djebel , Arabic for 'mountain') Hemeier on the Sinai Peninsula after a friend.

Works

  • Reise in Hadhramaut , Ed .: Heinrich Freiherr von Maltzan , Braunschweig 1870 - Current reprint: Uwe Pfullmann (Ed.): Adolph von Wredes Reise in Hadramaut . Trafo Verlag, Berlin 2006.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Wrede, Adolph von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wrede, Adolph Gustav von (full name); Wrede, Adolf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German explorer
DATE OF BIRTH October 14, 1807
PLACE OF BIRTH Munster , Westphalia
DATE OF DEATH March 15, 1863
Place of death Constantinople