Anton connector

Anton plug (1879)

Anton Stecker (born January 17, 1855 in Josephsthal near Jungbunzlau , Bohemia ; † April 15, 1888 there ) was an Austrian traveler to Africa.

Life

Anton Stecker was the son of a manager of a textile factory and studied natural sciences in Heidelberg with a focus on zoology and anatomy and received his doctorate in 1877. In Heidelberg he met the travelers and researchers Gustav Nachtigal , Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen and Gerhard Rohlfs , on whose advice he continued in Berlin Knowledge acquired.

The German Society for Research into Equatorial Africa sent Stecker in 1878 as a scientific advisor with the Rohlfs expedition to Africa. This should find the Kufra oases and explore the Congo Basin. In August 1879 they were the first Europeans to reach the Kufra oases. After an attack, the researchers had to flee back to Benghazi .

In 1880 he went to Tripoli on behalf of the African Society and from there to Abyssinia with Rohlfs .

While Rohlfs was returning to Europe, Steck mapped Lake Tana , came to Godjam in 1881 and from there penetrated into the land of the Oromo , where he was captured by King Menelik of Shoah . At the use of the Italian Marchese Orazio Antinori, he was released and then mapped some lakes in Abyssinia. For this he was awarded the Order of the Seal of Solomon , the Order of Merit of Abyssinia, by the Emperor Yohannes IV .

He returned to Europe in 1883 and died there of pneumonia at the age of 33 . Due to his short life and serious illness, no major travel reports have been written by him.

literature

• Dr. Anton connector. Biography in: Adventure East Africa. The share of Austria-Hungary in the exploration of East Africa. Catalog of the Burgenland State Exhibition in Halbturn Castle from May 11th to October 28th, 1988. Office of the Burgenland State Government, Cultural Affairs, Eisenstadt 1988, p. 281 ( online ).
• W. Kainrath:  Anton connector. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 13, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 2007–2010, ISBN 978-3-7001-6963-5 , p. 127 f. (Direct links on p. 127 , p. 128 ).