German Himalaya Foundation

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The German Himalaya Foundation (DHS) was an association founded in 1936 with headquarters in Munich . The objectives were to raise funds, to build up knowledge and to collect alpine knowledge and skills for exploring the Himalayas , especially the first ascent of the “Germans' mountain of fate”, Nanga Parbat .

history

Political commitment

The first director of the foundation was Fritz Bechtold , but in the background its founder Paul Bauer was in charge of the agenda. Politically supported by the NSDAP , the organization was supposed to gain a monopoly over the German expeditionary system - Paul Bauer was appointed head of the “Specialist Office for Mountaineering and Hiking in the German Reich Association for Physical Exercise ” in 1934. The German Himalaya Foundation was thus a propaganda tool that was not only responsible for making spectacular headlines about expeditions, but also for popularizing athletic training for the upcoming war. Another ideological aspect of the National Socialist rulers was the alleged "Germanic roots" of the Hunzukuc mountain people in the Himalayas.

Despite his National Socialist sentiments, Bauer had a consistent stance in the selection of his expedition teams. Decisive were first and foremost steadfast and long-term friendships and partnerships. Alpine eccentrics were rejected by him, as were children of protection from important personalities of National Socialism . Karl Wien , who was highly valued by him, was neither a member of the NSDAP nor one of its sub-organizations.

Rivalries among mountaineers

In the expedition literature of the 1930s and 1940s, the flag of “unshakable and heroic mountain comradeship”, which was often spread over discord and resentment, turned out to be a fragmentary scrap in reality, as can be seen in the example of Nanga Parbat. Egoism, rivalries, vanities and intrigues turned the German Himalaya Foundation into a hermetic circle that recruited members of the Munich Academic Alpine Club . Outsiders, such as the “sports cannon” Willo Welzenbach or later the “Bergvagabund” Hans Ertl , were viewed in a highly reserved and distant manner.

This rivalry was particularly evident in the aftermath of the German Nanga Parbat Expedition in 1934 . An alpine court of honor was convened against the only two survivors of this drama, Peter Aschenbrenner and Erwin Schneider . The aim of this procedure was to clarify the question of whether the two mountaineers had been guilty of breaching their duty of assistance by leaving the other expedition participants to their fate. This process was the result of animosity between a group close to the Alpine Club and the Himalaya Foundation.

Due to Bauer's political importance, the foundation soon gained the upper hand and then determined which expeditions would get access to the Himalayas.

Expeditions

In 1937 the German Nanga Parbat expedition began in 1937 under the direction of Karl Wien. The team also included Günter Hepp , Adolf Göttner , Martin Pfeffer , Hans Hartmann , Pert Fankhauser , Uli Luft and Peter Müllritter , who had already participated in the German Nanga Parbat expedition in 1934. On the night of June 15, seven mountaineers and nine high girders were buried by an ice avalanche in camp IV on the Rakhiot flank and died in the process. The only survivor of this mountain drama was Uli Luft, who was not in the camp at the time. The German propaganda and the rivalries among mountaineers increased the pressure to succeed and led to excessive heroism and daring. Bauer immediately organized a rescue expedition that arrived at Nanga Parbat after just three weeks. Fears that no one survived this drama were confirmed. As a result, several full-page obituaries were published in the German press, written by Peter Aufschnaiter , the managing director of the German Himalaya Foundation.

The second attempt in a row was made in 1938. With the help of a Junkers 52 , the state-of-the-art expedition, which even had radio communication , was supposed to manage the transport of the loads to the high camps. The route again led through the Rakhiot flank. The mountaineers managed to climb to the Mohrenkopf, where they found the bodies of Willy Merkl and the Sherpa Gyali, who had died in an accident on the expedition in 1934. However, a further advance was impossible due to the adverse weather conditions and only allowed an altitude of 7300 m to be reached.

At the beginning of 1939 an expedition team was put together to climb the Rupal flank of the Nanga Parbat. The team was made up of Heinrich Harrer , Peter Aufschnaiter , Hans Lobenhoffer and Lutz Chicken . When the team wanted to return to Karachi , World War II broke out. All participants were then captured by British authorities on September 3, 1939 and transferred to the Indian internment camp in Dehradun . Aufschnaiter and Harrer managed to escape, which led them to the court of the Dalai Lama in Lhasa . Harrer later wrote his experiences down in his book " Seven Years in Tibet ".

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. https://gaebler.info/india/flucht.htm
  2. ^ Matthias Köpf: Nanga Parbat: The diary from the glacier. Retrieved January 10, 2020 .
  3. a b Cf. “50 Years of Nanga Parbat” (PDF) ( Memento from September 20, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) Austrian Alpine newspaper of the Austrian Alpine Club (July / August 2003 edition)
  4. See ascent history of Nanga Parbat on Markus Kronthaler's website
  5. See history of ascent of the Rakhiot flank ( memento of the original from January 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the American Foundation For International Mountaineering, Exploration & Research (AFFIMER ) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.affimer.org
  6. See “National Socialist Expedition Policy” (PDF; 308 kB) ( Memento of the original from October 20, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Reading sample @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.utzverlag.de
  7. See history of Nanga Parbat on Himalaya-Info.org