Aimé Félix Tschiffely

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Aimé Félix Tschiffely (born May 7, 1895 in Zofingen , † January 5, 1954 in London ) was a Swiss teacher, writer and adventurer. With his ride from Buenos Aires to Washington, DC , he first attracted public interest in Argentina and the USA, later he achieved world fame with his book Tschiffely's Ride (1933) . In 1925 he began his journey with two horses of the Criollo breed - Mancha (German: the spotted) and Gato (German: the cat) - in Buenos Aires and in 1928 reached Washington, some 16,000 kilometers away.

Life

Tschiffely left his hometown Zofingen as a young man, first moved to Bern and finally emigrated to Argentina via a stopover in England. There he worked as an English teacher at St. George's College, Quilmes not far from the capital Buenos Aires, and later at the Buenos Aires English High School . During the holidays he explored the surrounding pampas , the agricultural heartland of Argentina and made the acquaintance of ranchers and gauchos .

In Buenos Aires he met the veterinary professor Emilio Solanet , who was a horse connoisseur and founder of the Criollo stud book. He introduced Tschiffely to this archetypal Argentine horse breed, whose roots go back to the Spanish horses of the city's founder, Pedro de Mendoza, and whose pure breeding seemed to have less and less added value in the age of motorization. Tschiffely decided at the age of 30 - driven by his thirst for adventure and fascinated by Solanet's tales of the hardness and endurance of these horses - to set a monument for the breed and to undertake a continental ride from Argentina to the United States of America. He left Buenos Aires on April 23, 1925 and arrived in Washington, DC three years later in September. On September 20, 1928, he rode Fifth Avenue in Manhattan , New York , where he completed his triumph of the century.

After his ride, Tschiffely was received by, among others, the President of the United States, Calvin Coolidge , and National Geographic magazine dedicated an issue to him. In Argentina he has since been celebrated as a national hero. He wrote two books about his trip and wrote other travelogues and the biography of his friend Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham .

He died in London in 1954 as a result of routine surgery; he was buried in La Recoleta Cemetery in Buenos Aires. Since 1998 his bones rest on the Estancia El Cardal - the former lands of Emilio Solanet - near Ayacucho in the province of Buenos Aires.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Aimé Felix Tschiffely ( Memento from May 10, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Gato y Mancha ( Memento of February 9, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) (Spanish), accessed April 5, 2013
  3. ↑ Aimé Tschiffely - Long Rider (English), accessed on April 5, 2013
personal data
SURNAME Tschiffely, Aimé Félix
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss teacher, writer and adventurer
DATE OF BIRTH May 7, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Zofingen
DATE OF DEATH 5th January 1954
Place of death London