German-English New Guinea border expedition
The German-English New Guinea Border Expedition was a German expedition to survey the border between German New Guinea and the territory of Papua , a British colonial possession in the southeast of the island of New Guinea , which was under the formal administration of Australia . The research trip was carried out from November 1908 to October 1909. In addition to surveying, one of the tasks of the expedition participants was to research the border area.
The border expedition began in November 1908 to measure and determine the 8th degree south latitude from the coast to the 147th degree east longitude . It was under the direction of the German border commissioner, Captain Oskar Foerster . Other participants in the expedition were: Surveyor Gustav Sabine, Mountain Assessor Artur Stollé , Landmesser Wilhelm Wernicke and Station Manager Hans Kling.
The measurement of the 8th parallel had to be interrupted due to a serious illness Foerster. After the departure of the German border commissioner, who died soon afterwards, the work was completed by the English commissioners under the leadership of the surveyor General Gustav Sabine on October 27, 1909.
Oskar Foerster's original diaries were evaluated by Leopold Ambronn . He judged: "Captain Foerster made a not insignificant number of good observations despite the serious illness". From the photos of the border strip "unfortunately two sheets have been lost, which is all the more regrettable as the sheet that has been preserved shows that the officer who was particularly qualified for this work must have done very well despite his suffering condition." Results with the British maps resulted in the map: “The southeast corner of Kaiser-Wilhelmsland , 1,300,000; according to the astronomical location determinations and measurements of the commissioners of the German-English border expedition (1908–1909), Gustav Sabine, Captain Foerster, mountain assessor Artur Stollé, the surveys of the surveyor Wernicke and station manager Kling and the German Admiralty Card No. 515; edited by M. Moisel, drawn by Ketzer ”.
Alexander von Danckelman summarized the result as follows: “Because of Foerster's illness, one-sided demarcation of borders by the English commission; provisionally recognized in May 1911 ”.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Rudolf Hafeneder: German Colonial Cartography 1884-1919 , (PDF; 1.4 MB) ( Memento from January 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Dissertation to obtain the academic degree of a Doctor of Engineering, University of the Federal Armed Forces Munich, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Surveying, 2008
- ↑ Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen 1911, p. 88
- ^ Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas in 1912. P. 73
- ^ Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas in 1912. Map 5
- ^ German Colonial Lexicon, 1920; I. Volume, p. 756