Alexander von Bunge (explorer, 1851)

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Alexander von Bunge

Alexander Bunge ( Russian Александр Александрович Бунге / Alexandr Alexandrovich Bunge ; born October 28, jul. / 9. November  1851 greg. In Tartu †; 19th January 1930 in Tallinn was a Russian) doctor and explorer Baltic German descent. He took part in two Arctic expeditions in the 1880s and collected thousands of fossil bones from various mammals, as well as tusks from woolly mammoths .

Life

Early years

Alexander Bunge came from the family of scholars Bunge and was the son of the explorer Alexander Georg von Bunge , Professor of Botany at the Imperial University of Tartu , and his wife Caroline Elisabeth (1813-1858), born Pistohlkors. His older brother Gustav von Bunge was a physiologist active in the abstinence movement . His uncle Friedrich Georg von Bunge was a legal historian and professor in Dorpat.

Alexander von Bunge attended the Blumberg Elementary School and from 1862 to 1870 the grammar school in Dorpat. Although he was more interested in zoology , he decided to study medicine , which promised him a secure livelihood. He studied from 1870 to 1878 at the University of Dorpat. During his studies he worked as an assistant to the anatomist Emil Rosenberg (1842-1929) and published an article in 1874 in the Jenaische Zeitschrift für Naturwissenschaft . In 1876 he made a trip to Austria, Italy and Germany. After completing his studies, he was administrator of the asylum in Dorpat from 1878 to 1880. In 1880 he received his doctorate from the University of Dorpat.

Expedition to the Lena Delta 1882–1884

In 1881 Alexander von Bunge went to Saint Petersburg , where he had found a position as ordinator at the Marien Magdalenen Hospital. When he learned that the Russian Geographical Society wanted to participate in the upcoming First International Polar Year with a research station in the Lena Delta , he applied for a place on the expedition team. At the intercession of the influential zoologist Leopold von Schrenck , who was a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the preparatory committee for the expedition, Bunge was accepted as a doctor and assistant to the head of the expedition to staff captain Nikolai Juergens (1847-1898). The position of an observer was filled with Adolph Eigner (1854–?), A mathematician from the University of Dorpat. Before starting their journey, the three scientists were prepared for their task at the Central Physical Observatory in St. Petersburg ( Heinrich von Wild ) and at the Pulkowo observatory ( Wilhelm Döllen ). This consisted mainly in the observation of the weather, the geomagnetism and the polar lights according to a mode precisely defined by the International Polar Commission, which was binding for all 14 international stations.

In December 1881 the three men left St. Petersburg and traveled by train and sledge via Irkutsk to Yakutsk . In July they drove into the Lena Delta by barge. In a three day storm, some of her instruments were damaged and Bunge broke two ribs. On August 22nd, construction began on the station building in the south of Sagastyr Island . The temperature measurements could already be started on August 31st. The geomagnetic measurements began on October 31. Nine men now lived in the station: in addition to the three scientists, two Russian sailors, two soldiers from Irkutsk and two Cossacks from Yakutsk. The scientific measurement series was originally intended to be recorded over a period of twelve months. Speculations about an extension meant that the expedition could no longer leave in time in 1883, so work continued until the end of March 1884. This resulted in the longest series of meteorological measurements in the Russian Arctic to date. The work was supplemented by mapping the Lena Delta and hydrological investigations. Bunge put on extensive palaeontological, zoological and botanical collections. In the summer of 1884 he managed to find the carcass of a mammoth.

Expedition to the New Siberian Islands and Janaland 1885–1886

In December 1884, Bunge returned to Irkutsk, where he was waiting for the 26-year-old zoologist and mineralogist Eduard von Toll , who reached the city in January 1885. Both had been commissioned by the Russian Academy of Sciences to carry out an expedition to the area around the River Jana and to the New Siberian Islands , which had never been entered by natural scientists - according to Bunge's request . A major goal of the two-year journey was the discovery of fossils of extinct mammals. In addition, comparative studies of the climate and geology of the areas visited should be carried out.

Bunge and Toll left Irkutsk on March 6, 1885 and reached Verkhoyansk on the Jana on April 30. Here they began exploring the lower reaches of the Jana and Indigirka . In August the ten-person expedition came to Kazachye, southwest of Ust-Jansk , where they wintered. The time was used to set up a food depot in Aidshergaidach on the Ebeljachbusen on a toboggan trip. At the end of April Toll traveled to the Big Lyakhov Island , where Bunge followed him in May. Together they crossed over to Kotelny and set up additional food depots. After that, the expedition split into two groups. Toll went to New Siberia , while Bunge wanted to map the east coast of Kotelny, but had to find out that Kotelny and Faddejewski are connected to one another, unlike expected, by a large sandbank - Toll named it Bungeland . On June 1, Bunge returned to the Great Lyakhov Island to examine the fossilized sediments there. After Bunge and Toll met again at the beginning of November, they returned to Kasachye.

As early as February 10, 1887, they presented their research results to the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg. These could be seen. The extensive fossil collection consisted of almost 2,000 mammalian bones, including those whose previous existence in this part of the Arctic was unknown. Among them were saigas , cave lions and woolly rhinos . Valuable knowledge in geological , geographical , climatological , zoological and botanical areas made the expedition extremely successful.

Further life

Alexander von Bunge never lost his wanderlust. After his return from Siberia, he became a ship's doctor in the Imperial Russian Navy . From 1888 to 1891 he took part in a circumnavigation of the world. He spent the winter of 1892/93 at the Naples Zoological Station . In 1893/94 he was involved as a doctor on a ship expedition to the Kara Sea , the aim of which was to deliver building materials for the Trans-Siberian Railway to the Yenisei . He then became a ship's doctor on board the armored cruiser Rurik . In 1895/98 he made his second trip around the world. From 1899 to 1901 he participated in the Swedish-Russian degree measurement on Spitsbergen . He made meteorological and geomagnetic observations, collected plants and animals, but also studied the effects of the arctic climate on the human organism .

In 1901 Bunge became the chief physician on the protected cruiser Diana . In the Russo-Japanese War 1904/05 he took part as the chief doctor of the Russian Pacific Squadron and the naval hospitals in Port Arthur . In 1905 he drove again on the Northeast Passage to the mouth of the Yenisei. In 1906 Bunge became chief physician of the Baltic Fleet . In the Admiralty Commission, which in 1912 examined Georgi Sedov's project for an expedition to the geographic North Pole , he was the only one to support it. After Bunge was retired in 1914 for reasons of age, he managed two private war hospitals in St. Petersburg until 1918.

After the end of the war , Bunge retired to the Mõtliku estate in Estonia, which he had inherited from his father. He sold it in 1924 and then lived in Tallinn, where he died in 1930.

Honors

Alexander von Bunge was awarded the golden Lütke medal of the Russian Geographical Society for his expeditions to Siberia in 1889. He was an honorary member of the Estonian Literary Society and a corresponding member of the natural research society of Dorpat.

In addition to Bungeland, other geographical objects are named after him. In the Russian Arctic, these are the bungee peninsula of Russki Island in the Nordenskiöld archipelago , the bungee glacier on Novaya Zemlya and Cape Mys Doktorski in the Lena delta, and on Svalbard the mountain Bungefjellet, the glacier Bungebreen, the moraine Bungemoren, the Bungeelva brook, the Bungeleira plain and the lake Bungevatnet.

Fonts (selection)

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report of Lieut. GB Harber, USN, concerning the search for the missing persons of the Jeannette Expedition, and the transportation of the remains of Lieutenant-Commander DeLong and companions to the United States. Committee on Naval Affairs, May 28, 1884 (English)
  2. ↑ William Barr: Baron Eduard von Toll's Last Expedition: The Russian Polar Expedition, 1900-1903 (PDF; 5.59 MB). In: Arctic 34, 1980, pp. 201-224 (English).
  3. ↑ TV Kuznetsova, LD Sulerzhitsky, Ch. Siegert: New data on the “Mammoth” fauna of the Laptev Shelf Land (East Siberian Arctic) (PDF; 646 kB). In: The World of Elephants . International Congress, Rome 2001, pp. 289-292 (English).
  4. ↑ Г. П. Аветисов: Бунге Александр Александрович (10/28/1851–19/01/1930) , Арктическая топонимика, accessed August 4, 2016 (Russian)
  5. ↑ Bungefjellet . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
  6. ↑ Bungebreen . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
  7. ↑ Bungemoren . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
  8. ↑ Bungeelva . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
  9. ↑ Bungeleira . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
  10. ↑ Bungevatnet . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
personal data
SURNAME Bunge, Alexander von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Бунге, Александр Александрович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian doctor and explorer
DATE OF BIRTH November 9, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Dorpat
DATE OF DEATH January 19, 1930
Place of death Tallinn