German-Dutch New Guinea border expedition

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The German-Dutch New Guinea Border Expedition was a German expedition to determine the location of the border meridian 141 degrees east longitude , between German New Guinea and Dutch New Guinea , which was carried out from February 1910 to February 1911.

history

In the spring of 1909 the Reichskolonialamt negotiated with the Dutch government about the definition of the common border in the west of the Kaiser-Wilhelmsland along the 141st degree of longitude from the coast to the 5th degree of southern latitude . The Regional Studies Commission of the Reich Colonial Office had been planning a large research expedition to New Guinea for a long time ; "But it had to be postponed because the large funds required for this could only be made available through multi-year reserves from the Africa Fund". It was therefore decided to send out a scientific research expedition which, in addition to researching the border area in terms of geography, should also survey the border.

The zoologist and anthropologist Leonhard Schultze became the expedition leader and border inspector . Other participants in the expedition were: the astronomer Oberleutnant Findeis, the geologist Artur Stollé , the doctor and natural scientist Karl Kopp, the hospital assistant Wocke and the police master Völz as well as from the Dutch side Captain Luymes, Captain Sachse, the botanist Knud Gjellerup, Dalhuisen, van Gelder and Lifting right.

In February / March 1910 the expedition was at the mouth of the Tami River. It was landed there by the Reichspoststampfer Manila and was later supplied by Manila again. When attempting to penetrate south by land from the Tami River estuary in the very sparsely populated, densely forested and extremely rainy area in the area of ​​the 141st longitude, the participants of the expedition did not get far. It was therefore decided to use the Kaiserin Augusta River (Sepik) and explore its upper course with the steamship Pioneer and a steam sloop, as well as several barges with locals, especially since it was assumed that it had to originate in Dutch colonial territory. The Dutch gunboat Edi stopped at the mouth of the Sepik. The expedition members drove up the river for six days. On July 8, 1910, the river split into several arms with low water levels, and the steamer ran aground. On July 16, 1910, the border meridian was crossed as the sloop continued to sail. On July 19, 1910, the expedition was forced to turn back because the low tide prevented them from continuing their journey.

In the autumn, the border expedition made another attempt to advance upstream the Sepik. The explorers had access to the Edi gunboat , the Pelikan and Java steamers, and the Pioneer and Grenzjäger steamboats . The journey began on September 10, 1910. As early as September 13th, the steamships could no longer continue their voyage due to low water near the village of Chessbandai. The government steamer Pelikan stayed there, Edi and Java returned to the estuary. On September 19, 1910, the pioneers had to turn back because of the insufficient water level. The boats were rowed or towed by the small and agile steamboat Grenzjäger . After a camp was set up on the bank on October 3, 1910, the mountains were reached on October 20. The expedition overcame a narrow rock gate, in which the water flowed over a one and a half meter high step. The journey could continue with the flat boats of the locals. On October 30, the rapids in the narrow river bed became so dense and rapid that the way back had to be started. The German group climbed a mountain called Peripatus at an altitude of 1492 m, where they stayed from November 2nd to 13th "to gain an overview of the mountains in the area of ​​the Sepik upper reaches traveled through". Via Tschessbandai, the expedition returned to the river mouth on November 26, 1910.

In February 1911, the work had to be stopped: "The location of the border meridian could only be determined in the coastal region on the Tami River and on the Kaiserin Augusta River due to the terrain and food difficulties". The Sepik was explored over a length of 960 km. The research and survey results and the maps created from them were not published until three years later. According to Max Moisel , the main results of the expedition in the cartographic area were - "the establishment of a 1,600 m high mountain range that forms the watershed of the Sepik river system to the coast", and - "the exploration of the upper Sepik course".

literature

  • Leonhard Schultze Jena: Research inside the island of New Guinea. The Führer’s report on the scientific expedition of the German border expedition to the western Kaiser-Wilhelmsland in 1910. Messages from the German protected areas. Supplement No. 11. Ernst Siegfrid Mittler and Son, Berlin 1914.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d 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
  2. ↑ Hans Meyer: The Regional Studies Commission of the Reich Colonial Office . KR, Heft 12, p. 729 In: Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas , 1913
  3. ↑ Hans Minssen: Machine attention! Linen go! - Ten years leader of the imperial mail steamer "Manila" , Scherl, Berlin 1944, pages 105-106
  4. ↑ a b c Golf Dornseif German expeditions to the Kaiserin Augusta River  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 3.3 MB) Article in Pacific Island Areas@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.golf-dornseif.de  
  5. ↑ According to Walter Behrmann , the place disappeared as early as 1912.
  6. ^ German Colonial Lexicon, 1920; I. Volume, p. 756
  7. ^ Leonhard Schultze: Research in the interior of the island of New Guinea. In: Messages from explorers and scholars from the German protected areas , 1914 Erg.-H. No. 11
  8. ↑ Max Moisel: Accompanying words to the preliminary map of the Kaiserin Augusta River (Sepik) . P. 126