Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg

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Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg (born February 21, 1851 in or around Vienna ; † May 17, 1918 in Tribschen near Lucerne ) was the consul of Venezuela for Switzerland from 1888 to 1918. Hesse-Wartegg was best known as a travel writer .

Signatures from Ernst v. H.-W. and Minnie Hauk-W.

Life

Despite the distribution and importance of his numerous books and his fame among contemporaries, little is known about his life. He appeared as a baron. His first two writings appeared under the name Ernst A. von Hesse.

In 1878 Hesse-Wartegg married the American opera singer Minnie Hauk, who was of German origin . He died in 1918.

However, its origin is partly unclear. He had an illegitimate daughter who tried unsuccessfully in the 1930s to clarify her family circumstances. In October 2012, several journalists, historians and genealogists tried to reconstruct Hesse-Wartegg's biography (see web links). Subsequent extensive research by independent researchers showed that Hesse-Wartegg was a born Austrian who later - encouraged by his wife - took on American citizenship.

In the 1920s, his book estate, including valuable travel books by Archduke Ludwig Salvator , came to the Duchess Anna Amalia Library in Weimar (Weimar Classic Foundation).

Research trips

Hesse-Wartegg traveled to southern Europe as early as 1872 and went to the USA in 1876.

In 1880 Hesse-Wartegg went to North Africa , where he did research in Tunis . A trip to Egypt and the Upper Nile ( Sudan ) followed in 1881 . In 1883 he traveled to Canada and then went south to Mexico and the southern states . Short trips to the USA and Canada followed in the next few years. In 1887 an important trip took him to Venezuela and the Caribbean states.

In 1892 it went from the USA via Gibraltar to Morocco and southern Spain . In 1894 a longer stay in East Asia followed : India, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Korea. In 1898 he stayed in China again. When Hesse-Wartegg was in Thailand at the Chulalongkorn court and told the king about Switzerland , he decided to travel to Switzerland on his trip to Europe in 1897 and meet with officials.

The German colonies of the South Pacific traveled Hesse-Wartegg in 1900, India and Ceylon in 1901, Brazil and the countries of the Southern Cone in 1910 and the 1913th

Mark Twain and Karl May, among others, took numerous details from his vividly written books for their own works.

Works (selection)

  • The machine tools for metal and woodworking . Leipzig 1874
  • The submarine tunnel between England and France . Leipzig 1875
  • Atlantic seaside resorts . Vienna 1878
  • Prairie rides . Leipzig 1878
  • North America, its cities and natural wonders, its country and its people , Leipzig 1880
  • Mississippi trips . Leipzig 1881
  • Tunis, country and people . Vienna 1882
  • Tunis: The Land and the People . London / Edinburgh, New York 1882
  • Canada and Newfoundland . Freiburg im Breisgau 1888
  • India and its royal courts . Stuttgart, Berlin, Leipzig 1890
  • Mexico, country and people . Vienna 1890
  • A thousand and one days in the Occident . 3 vols. Dresden 1896
  • The unit time according to hour zones . Dresden 1892
  • Chicago, a big city in the American west . Stuttgart 1893
  • Curiosa from the New World . Leipzig 1893
  • Andalusia . Leipzig 1894
  • Korea . Dresden 1895
  • Japan and the Japanese
  • China and Japan . Leipzig 1897 ( digitized in the Berlin State Library )
  • Schan-tung and German-China . Leipzig 1897
  • Siam, the kingdom of the white elephant . Leipzig 1899
  • Samoa, Bismarck Archipelago and New Guinea . Leipzig 1902
  • The wonders of the world . Stuttgart, Berlin, Leipzig 1912/1913
  • Between the Andes and the Amazon . Stuttgart 1915
  • The Balkans and their peoples . Regensburg 1917

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Andreas Dutz and Elisabeth Dutz: Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg. Travel writer, scientist, bon vivant. Böhlau-Verlag, Vienna 2017.
  2. ↑ 1897, visit by Chulalongkorn in Switzerland.
personal data
SURNAME Hesse-Wartegg, Ernst von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Traveler and writer
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH May 17, 1918
Place of death Tribschen near Lucerne