Emil Holub

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emil Holub

Emil Holub (born October 7, 1847 in Holitz (then Austrian Empire , now the Czech Republic ), † February 21, 1902 in Vienna ) was a Bohemian explorer of Africa .

Life

Emil Holub was the son of František Holub, a general practitioner, and his wife Anna. He developed a passion for science and archeology at an early age ( David Livingstone was his model ), but at the request of his parents studied medicine at the Charles University in Prague .

Four months after completing his doctorate, Holub went to South Africa (with the financial support of a friend) in 1872 , where he worked as a doctor in the Diamond District of Kimberley , earning the funds for three major expeditions .

In the service of science , Holub had contracted mala fever during his second trip to Africa (1883–1887) and had to rely on the help of loyal friends after the disease broke out . In 1887 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Honorary grave in the Vienna Central Cemetery

At the beginning of the last decade of his life, Holub was offered high offices , all of which he turned down, however, contrary to his health, convinced that he would soon travel to Africa again. Holub kept himself afloat with lectures in all sorts of provincial towns and withheld the seriousness of his financial situation from friends. After Emperor Franz Joseph I awarded him a lifelong honorary salary of 5,000  kroner annually in 1901 , this honorary donation could only be effected once. 

After years of infirmity , which had deteriorated significantly in the last six months of his life, Emil Holub died on the evening of February 21, 1902 in his apartment in the rotunda . 

Emil Holub was buried on February 24, 1902 in a grave of honor   (group 14 A, number 11) in the Vienna Central Cemetery . In 1902 the Holubstraße in Vienna- Leopoldstadt (2nd district) was named after him.

Expeditions

First expedition

In 1873 he crossed the Vaal River , crossed the Lekatlong Kraal in the land of the Barolong ( Bantu ) along the western slope of the Pokone Mountains to the Mitzima Kraal, then to Springbokfontein and Gasfibone, crossed the Pokone Mountains, visited the Wonderfontein caves and the ruins of Monomotapa and returned to Doloitspan with rich collections in early 1873.

Second expedition

On his second journey, which began in November 1873, Holub explored parts of the western and eastern Transvaal as well as the kingdoms of Seschele and Sekomo to the north .

Third expedition

On the third he went north again in 1875 via Moiloa , Buisport and Soschong to Pandama - Tenka and returned via Soschong to Kimberley. Here he came to the Zambezi and Victoria Falls .

Return to Europe

At the end of 1879 he returned to Europe and received applause with lectures on his travels, but no support for his plan to set up an Africa museum. His book Seven Years in Africa , published in 1880, sold successfully and his work was compared with that of Charles Darwin .

Unsuccessful crossing of Africa from south to north

Africa Museum in Holice / Memorial to Emil Holub

In Prague , where he had taken up his residence, he was preparing a new, ambitious expedition, from Cape Town meridional through the entire African continent to Egypt . The trip, accompanied by his 18-year-old wife Rosa (born Hof (f) / 1865-1958), whom he married in 1883, lasted four years and was accompanied by many hardships, illnesses and accidents. It ends in 1886 on the Zambezi , where a large part of the equipment and collections was lost after fighting with the Mashona (Maschukulumbe at the upper Kafue ). Looted and under great strain, he returned to Schoschong in Bechuanaland in February 1887 and soon afterwards to Europe. However, its collection of more than 13,000 objects was saved.

After his return, Holub traveled to numerous cities in his home country, where he was a popular speaker and shared his experiences. Some things in his presentation seem exaggerated, others are played down, but overall, his notes convey a very clear picture of the hardships and dangers that awaited a researcher even at the end of the 19th century.

In 1890 he reported on the expedition in his book Von der Capstadt ins Land der Maschukulumbe , the book was just as successful as his first.

Of both travel works, the Czech editions, which are more extensive in terms of text and images, are to be regarded as the original editions and not the German-language editions published by the author himself, which, however, were taken as the basis for the English translations in ignorance of this fact.

In the spring of 1891 Holub's self-financed “South African Exhibition” was opened in the Vienna Rotunda - which, despite international attention, closed with a deficit. In 1892 the show was shown in Prague. Holub's offer to the Prague National Museum to take over his collection of 13,000 objects free of charge was rejected. As a result, his collection is now scattered around the world in well over 500 museums and educational institutions.

Philately and Numismatics

  • Czechoslovakia: special edition on February 21, 1952 on the 50th anniversary of death. 2 values ​​of 3 and 5 crowns. Michel 707-708.
  • Czech Republic: Special edition on October 3, 2007 for the 160th birthday. 1 value at 11 crowns. Michel 529.
  • 2002 Czech Republic: 200 Korún, silver, commemorative coin for the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Works

  • Few words on the native question . (English). Independent, Kimberley 1877, ÖNB .
  • A cultural sketch of the Marutse Mambunda Empire in south-central Africa . Gerold, Vienna 1879, OBV .
  • Catalog of the objects exhibited in the Pavillon des Amateurs . Part 1. Jasper, Vienna 1880–, ÖNB .
  • Seven years in South Africa. Experiences, experiences, research and hunts on my travels from the diamond fields to the Zambesi (1872–1879) . Two volumes. Hölder, Vienna 1880/81, OBV . - Volume 1: archive.org , Volume 2: archive.org .
  • The French in Tunis. From the standpoint of the exploration and civilization of Africa . Hölder, Vienna 1881, LOC .
  • The colonization of Africa . Four notebooks. Hölder, Vienna 1881–, ÖNB .
  • with August von Pelzeln : Contributions to the ornithology of South Africa - with special consideration of Dr. Holub collected species on his South African travels and exhibited in the Pavillon des Amateurs in Vienna . Hölder, Vienna 1882, OBV . - archive.org .
  • The English in South Africa . Hölder, Vienna 1882, LOC .
  • About the research and experiences in South Africa (lecture). Publishing house of the Beamten-Verein, Vienna 1887, OBV .
  • From Capstadt to the land of the Maschukulumbe. Travels in southern Africa in the years 1883–1887 . 2 volumes. Hölder, Vienna 1890, OBV . - Volume 1: archive.org , Volume 2: archive.org
  • On cart roads and negro trails through South Africa. According to the original reports, told and edited by Hans Stadler. German publishing house for youth and people, Vienna 1924, ÖNB .
  • Eleven years among the blacks of South Africa (= travel and adventure . Volume 30). Brockhaus, Leipzig 1926, ÖNB .
  • To the land of the Maschukulumbe - the great researcher's last trip to Africa . Arranged by Franz Titze-Ehr. Breitschopf, Vienna 1947, OBV .

Honors, awards

Stand sculpture by Emil Holub in Holice / CZ
  • Franz Joseph Order (after 1879; class not known) 
  • After his death Emil Holub was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery in an honorary grave of the City of Vienna; later his wife was also buried there.
  • In 1964, the Dr. Emil Holub Memorial / African Museum ( Památník Dr. Emila Holuba - Africké muzeum ) opened, where important memorabilia found their place and which became a well-known excursion destination.
  • In September 2005, a bust of Emil Holub was unveiled in front of the building of the Zambian National Ethnographic Museum in Livingstone near the Victoria Falls, who, among others, mapped these waterfalls 130 years earlier. Despite this merit, he is hardly known in Zambia.

Literature about Emil Holub

  • Mixed News: Donations from Dr. Holub ... In: Journal of museology and antiquity and related sciences. 4th year 1881, p. 45 SLUB
  • Otto Kienitz: Emil Holub . Wallishausser, Vienna 1882, ÖNB .
  • Victor Helling: In the thunder of Victoria Falls. The journeys of the German doctor and researcher Emil Holub from Cape Town to the Zambezi. Factual report based on authentic sources . Colonial library, volume 58. Steiniger, Berlin 1941, DNB .
  • Holub, Emil. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 2, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1959, p. 406.
  • Günther Hamann:  Holub, Emil. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 563 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Gabriele Riz: Life and work of the Africa explorer Emil Holub. 1847-1902 . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 1985, OBV .
  • Elisabeth Lehr: The Holub Collection in the Munich Museum of Ethnology - historical classification and scientific relevance . Buch am Erlbach, Leidorf 1994, ISBN 3-924734-89-5 DNB .
  • Georg Friedrich Hamann: Emil Holub - between the spirit of research and a colonial purpose . Thesis. University of Vienna, Vienna 2000, OBV .
  • Dietmar Henze: HOLUB, Emil. In: Encyclopedia of the explorers and explorers of the earth. Volume 2, pp. 615-617. WBG: Darmstadt 2011 (new edition of the Graz 1983 edition), ISBN 978-3-534-23889-7 .
  • Christa Riedl-Dorn: Emil Holub. In: Wilfried Seipel (ed.): The discovery of the world - the world of discoveries. Austrian researchers, collectors, adventurers. An exhibition by the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien with the Museum of Folklore and the Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture in cooperation with the Natural History Museum and the Army History Museum. Skira, Milan 2001, pp. 308-317.

Web links

Commons : Emil Holub  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Emil Holub  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Emil Holub †. In:  Der Naturfreund , year 1902, issue 3/1902 (VI. Year), p. 21. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / dna.
  2. ↑ a b c d Dr. Emil Holub †. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 13469/1892, February 22, 1902, p. 6 middle. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  3. ↑ Little Chronicle. (...) Dr. Emil Holub. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 13468/1892, February 21, 1902, p. 1, bottom center. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  4. ↑ Little Chronicle. (...) Emil Holub. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Abendblatt, No. 13471/1902, February 24, 1902, p. 7, top center. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  5. ↑ Hedwig Abraham: Dr. Emil Holub , In: viennatouristguide.at , accessed on July 24, 2013.
  6. ↑ The funeral of Dr. Holub's. In:  Neue Freie Presse , Morgenblatt, No. 13472/1902, February 25, 1902, p. 7, center right. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / nfp.
  7. ↑ I. Korotin / N. Stupnicki (ed.): Biographies of important Austrian scientists Vienna-Cologne-Weimar 2018, pp. 386 - 392: Holub, Rosa
  8. ↑ ZENA-IN: Víte, kdo byla Rosa Hoff? (Do you know who Rosa Hoff was?)
  9. ↑ iStock / Getty images: Image: Rosa + Emil Holub
  10. ^ Pavla Horáková: Statue of explorer Emil Holub unveiled in Livingstone, Zambia (Pavla Horáková, Czech Radio) . (English). In: mzv.cz , October 24, 2005.
personal data
SURNAME Holub, Emil
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian-Austrian Africa explorer
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1847
PLACE OF BIRTH Holitz
DATE OF DEATH February 21, 1902
Place of death Vienna