Alfred Kaiser (Africa explorer)

Alfred Kaiser (born August 12, 1862 in Arbon , TG ; † April 4, 1930 ; also Alfred Kaiser-Saurer , Alain el Mahdi , ibid) was a Swiss researcher on Sinai and Africa.

Life

"Alain el Mahdi from the country of Helvetia"

During his lifetime, Alfred Kaiser-Saurer from Arbon was celebrated as a universal genius as well as an important Africa and Sinai researcher. Despite this, his name was forgotten even in his homeland until the Arbon Museum Society honored him with a memorial exhibition in 1981. It was inspired and helped to shape it by Irène Lewitt, who lives in Israel. Israeli naturalists who had worked in Sinai had come across his name.

Alfred Kaiser was born as the son of the designer Christian Kaiser von Böblingen (D) and Elisabeth Ebnetter von Arbon on August 12, 1862 in Arbon. His father died early. - At the age of 18 Alfred traveled to Egypt and explored desert regions as a casual worker. In 1882 he returned to Switzerland and was formed in St.Gallen for taxidermist from. Two years later he got a job in Cairo as a "naturalist" in the Viceroyalty Museum in Cairo. Here he came into contact with prominent African researchers and natural scientists.

Magically attracted to Sinai Island

In 1886 Alfred Kaiser undertook his first trip to Sinai, where he immersed himself in biological, geological and ethnographic studies. During this first trip, which he had to break off due to illness, he must have become familiar with many Bedouin tribes . After a second trip to the Sinai, he returned to Switzerland and continued his education in Zurich and Munich . In 1890 he married Karolina Guyer from Zurich. She accompanied him on the third trip to Sinai.

In El-Tor on the Red Sea he founded a scientific station, of which he later said: “However, this desert hotel business was not a lucrative business for me. I had to do everything from my own resources, without subsidies, and I would not have been able to carry out the plan if the sale of collection items hadn't brought me some income. ”After a three-year stay in El-Tor, his wife and his son, who was born here, died of cholera . According to Irne Lewitt, there is only one document of this severe stroke of fate: a series of crosses between meteorological entries. She suspects that Kaiser converted to Islam for practical reasons . He immortalized himself on a cave wall as "Alain El Mahdi, son of the emperor, from the land of Helvetia, who lives in Kurum."

Kaiser, the shop steward

In the 1990s he traveled to Erythrea , Equatorial East Africa and Uganda . During the expedition with Dr. Max Schoeller to Equatorial East Africa - the caravan consisted of 300 porters, 40 soldiers and around 60 servants - he was attacked by a rhinoceros: “When I fell I came to lie in front of the animal, and I clearly remember the fear of the to be trampled and crushed with thick feet when I turned nothing, nothing for you in the air ... "

In 1899 he married Mathilde Huber, née Saurer. She was Adolph Saurer's niece . The couple moved to Berlin-Charlottenburg . Kaiser became a scientific adviser to the Northwest Cameroon Society. In the meantime his reputation was so great that he, the Muslim, was commissioned by the World Zionist Organization to investigate in British East Africa whether a Jewish colony could be established there, but this turned out to be impossible. In 1904 he undertook a trip to Sinai with the botanist Johann Andreas Kneucker.

Kaiser traveled through North Africa to examine trading opportunities for Swiss companies. Apparently he made an exhibition in Switzerland, about which the “Berner Tagblatt” reported in 1908: “Colorful things were spreading before our surprised eyes. The Sudanese hand embroidery, such as brightly woven semi-silks and the Abyssinian shawls, are particularly attractive. The leatherwork and pottery bear witness to an ancient technology. "

In 1909 the Federal Council appointed Alfred Kaiser as trading agent for Egypt.

Total devotion to Sinai

Notice board for Alfred Kaiser, embedded in the wall of the property at Berglistrasse 11 in Arbon

After resigning from this office in 1919, he, who had previously been interested in anything and everything, began to focus on the Sinai Peninsula. He processed, supplemented and viewed his already extensive scientific collections, notes, drawings, sketches and photographs. (The central library in Zurich mentions “miscellaneous, works, images, memoirs, notebooks, sketchbooks, diaries” and adds: “7.8 m”.)

In Arbon, Kaiser and his wife lived in the villa built for Hippolyt Saurer on Berglistrase 11. At the end of April 1926, he and his wife traveled for the last time to the well-known valleys of the South Sinais up to the Katharinen Monastery and returned to Arbon in October 1927 . In the same year Kaiser became an honorary member of the Natural Research Society of the Canton of Thurgau.

He wanted to conclude his life's work with a monograph on Sinai. A stroke ended his life on April 4, 1930. A friend recalled: "He couldn't get past the vast amount of collected material." This is all the more regrettable because behind his life's work there was a humanitarian intention, namely to help make the life of the Bedouin tribes easier. Alfred Kaiser was not only an incredibly versatile scientist and commercial agent, but also one of the first development workers.

Publications

• Travels through the Sinai Peninsula and northern Arabia (with a map sketch); Lecture given on June 2, 1888. In: Annual report [ie report] of the St. Gallic Natural Science Society 1887/88. St. Gallen 1889
• Directory of Egyptian animals observed from July 1, 1885 to July 1, 1887. In: Annual report of the St. Gallic Natural Science Society 1887/88 St. Gallen 1889
• Report on a trip in equatorial East Africa. In: Announcements of the Eastern Switzerland Geographical-Commercial Society in St. Gallen 1898
• The Schöller expedition in equatorial East Africa: geological, botanical and zoological observations, collected in the years 1896 and 1897 (with a map sketch). St. Gallen 1898.
• African game. o. O. (St. Gallen) o. J. (1899)
• The influence of the Uganda Railway on the natives. o. O. (St. Gallen): [Honegger'sche Buchdr.] o. J. (1905)
• Racial considerations on the Masai people. Berlin: Verlag der Archiv-Gesellschaft, 1906
• Inquiries, impressions and speculative considerations about Egyptian economic conditions: Preliminary report on a two-month stay in Lower Egypt. Bern: Buchdr. Rösch & Schatzmann 1907
• Economic exploration trips in North Africa: Lecture given at the Bern Association for Trade & Industry, on January 20, 1908 in Bern. Bern: Neukomm & Zimmermann 1908
• The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in its economic importance. Bern: Buchdr. W. Wälchli 1908
• The production, trade and traffic conditions of Tripolitania. St. Gallen: Buchdr. V. Schmid 1908
• An 80-year-old traveler to Africa, Prof. Dr. G. Schweinfurth. o. O. 1916
• The Sinai Desert. Arbon: self-published in 1922
• The current status of the manna question: With a list of Arabic expressions. o. O .: Self-published 1924
• Human and becoming human on Sinai: Lecture given at the Arbon Museum Society. Arbon: Arboner Tagblatt 1928
• Hikes and changes in the Sinai desert (1886/1927): [Lecture given on Sept. 29, 1928]. o. O. (Weinfelden: Thurgauer Tageblatt) 1928
• New scientific research on the Sinai Peninsula (especially on the manna question). o. O. (Leipzig): [JC Hinrichs] 1930

literature

• Alfred Inhelder: Alfred Kaiser, a Swiss explorer. Zurich: [sn] 1931 (supplement to the quarterly publication of the Natural Research Society in Zurich; Vol. 76, No. 18) [With an addendum by Ludwig Köhler: Ueber die Mannafrage]
• Max Siegrist: Alfred Kaiser - Sinai researcher . In: Thurgauer Jahrbuch , Vol. 55, 1980, pp. 95-103. ( e-periodica.ch )
• Max Schoeller: Messages about my trip to Equatorial East Africa and Uganda, 1896-1897. 3 vols. Berlin: D. Reimer 1901–1904
• Vivi Täckholm: Alfred Kaiser's Sinai Herbarium. Cairo: Cairo Univ. Herbarium 1969 (engl.)