Fritz Wiessner

Fritz Wiessner, 1986

Fritz Wiessner or Wießner (born February 26, 1900 in Dresden , † July 3, 1988 in Stowe , Vermont ) was a German-American mountaineer .

Life

Entry in the summit book of Fritz Wiessner

Hermann Fritz Wießner was born as the son of the master decorator Ernst Hermann Wießner and his wife Pauline Bertha. Zumpe was born in Gerokstraße 31 / I in Dresden and grew up in a large family. With his cousin Otto of the same age, he undertook the first climbing tours in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains . In the 1920s, Wiessner climbed first ascents and repetitions of the most difficult routes in the Alps and in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. So he got routes up to the upper seventh degree in Saxony , such as the “Wießnerriß” on Frienstein and in the Alps the “Wießner / Rossi” at the meat bank .

In 1929 Wiessner emigrated to the USA , studied chemistry and soon headed a successful chemical company. He began climbing with American companions. In 1932 he was a participant in the German-American Himalaya Expedition to Nanga Parbat , which, however, failed to achieve a summit success.

In 1935 Wiessner discovered the Shawangunks ( Indian name, pronounced: Shongums ), a 12 km long, 40 to 100 m high wall in the Appalachian Mountains . The rock, made of quartz conglomerate , was firm and easy to grip. In the following years opened up Wiessner outdoors, so climbing style (so-called. Tool-less free climbing ) here around 50 routes. In 1936, together with William P. House, he succeeded in the first ascent of the Canadian Mount Waddington (4019 m) - a difficult mountain, because 16 expeditions failed before Wiessner's ascent, followed by twelve further attempts. It was not until 1942 that the second ascent of the mountain took place on the Wiessner route. In the state of Wyoming , Wiessner succeeded, also in 1936, the second (and first free) ascent of the north ridge of the Grand Teton (4196 m). In the following year (1937) he managed the first free and therefore sporty ascent of the Devils Tower . He consistently applied his free-climbing style , which he knew from mountaineering in Saxony , and defended it vehemently in public. His style eventually set the trend for modern climbing.

Expedition to K2 up to the summit

In 1939 Wiessner led an American expedition to the K2 (8611 m). Wiessner's organization and logistics were exemplary. With the main difficulties behind him, he was in excellent shape with Pasang Dawa Lama at almost 8400 m just below the summit. Wiessner would have continued on the relatively easy summit passage at nightfall with the risk of bivouacking, but his rope partner Pasang Dawa Lama stopped him and, presumably for religious concerns, did not want to go up to the summit in the dark. Wiessner did not want to leave his partner alone and agreed to the descent in order to want to come back later.

Due to a chain of unfortunate circumstances through no fault of Wiessner's, probably also due to misjudgments by Americans who remained below that the summit team had died, the expedition subsequently failed under dramatic circumstances: those returning from the summit region found all the high camps abandoned, destroyed and by Sleeping bags cleared; they had to stay under unspeakable circumstances, lack of sleep and the risk of frostbite. These exertions no longer allowed Wiessner to attempt another summit attempt.

The American Alpine Club initiated an investigation, the final report of which degraded Wiessner's enormous mountaineering and organizational performance and confronted him as the responsible expedition leader with arbitrary accusations, which prompted Wiessner to withdraw from the AAC. The final report of the AAC was drawn up in the spirit of the looming war with Nazi Germany and biased (against the native German). In 1978, almost 40 years later, Wiessner was rehabilitated and highly honored by the AAC. Jack Durrance had given David Roberts an interview about his view of the 1939 expedition, but revoked his permission to publish it shortly afterwards: the motivation for the destruction of the high camps was to remain a secret; Durrance had named the Sherpas responsible for clearing the camps in later talks.

Wiessner's expedition has gone down as one of the most important achievements in the history of alpinism . (The first eight-thousander , Annapurna I, was climbed in 1950, Mount Everest in 1953. The K2, one of the most difficult mountains in the world, was finally climbed for the first time in 1954.) During the Second World War , Wiessner served as a technical advisor to the 10th Mountain Division and served on the Cold Climates Equipment Commission of the Office of the Quartermaster General in Washington, DC .

post war period

In 1945 Wiessner married Muriel Schoonmaker. In 1946 their son Andrew and 1947 their daughter Pauline ("Polly") were born. In 1952 the Wiessner family moved to Stowe, Vermont. The daughter and son later accompanied their father on many trips and tours. His wife Muriel was a loyal companion to him on worldwide trips, climbing trips and ski tours until his death.

In 1964, Wiessner returned to his old home for the first time, the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. As a guest of honor of the German Hikers and Mountaineers Association of the GDR , he took part in the celebrations of the anniversary “100 years of mountaineering in Saxony”. Until 1986 he visited his old home every year and was still enthusiastic about climbing the sandstone. Even in old age he climbed up to the V Saxon degree; in the follow-up with Bernd Arnold , Uli Peemüller, Werner Rump and others, he still mastered 7th grade routes.

In 1967 Wiessner, meanwhile an honorary member of the American Alpine Club (AAC), took part in the Yukon Centennial Expedition of the Canadian Alpine Club . Bad weather prevented the ascent of the highest mountains in the still relatively unknown area of ​​the Elias chain in the Yukon Territory . Nevertheless, Wiessner, together with his son Andrew and others, managed to climb two three-thousanders for the first time in a short period of good weather .

In 1973, under Wiessner's chairmanship of the commission for difficulty assessment and route description within the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA), the alpine difficulty scale was reassessed and approved.

Fritz Wiessner's life ended on July 3, 1988 in Stowe (Vermont). Even after several strokes in 1987, which partially paralyzed him and confined him to a wheelchair, he remained mentally connected to mountaineering and climbing until his death: “I still think about climbing a lot - but not during the day. I think about it mostly at night and on special occasions when I'm tired of life in general. Then when I wish I could walk over to the trees and rocks, I enjoy my dreams about climbing. "

literature

• Fritz Wiessner K2 - tragedies and victory on the second highest mountain on earth. Munich, 1955
• Portrait in Mountaineers May 1982

1. ↑ see birth register entry of the StA Dresden I No. 724/1900
2. ^ Report by David Roberts, quoted by Clint Willis (Ed.), "Surviving in Heights", Ullstein, Munich, 2000, ISBN 3-548-35993-0

Web links

• Literature by and about Fritz Wiessner in the catalog of the German National Library