Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth

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Günter Oskar Dyhrenfurth (born November 12, 1886 in Breslau , † April 14, 1975 in Ringgenberg BE ) was a German-Swiss geologist and mountaineer.

Life

Dyhrenfurth was the son of the doctor and privy councilor Oskar Robert Dyhrenfurth (1850–1932) from Breslau and his wife Käthe geb. Bayer. His maternal grandfather was the Silesian painter Hermann Bayer .

1904-09 he studied geology and palaeontology at the Universities of Freiburg i.Br., Vienna and Breslau. In 1909 the doctorate followed, in 1913 the habilitation. From 1907 to 1914 he worked on the creation of the geological map of Switzerland in Graubünden.

In 1911 he married Hettie Heymann, who had Jewish ancestors. They had three children: Harald, Hiltraut and Norman, who were taken on mountain tours by their father at an early age. He achieved numerous first ascents in European mountains.

Since 1919 he taught as a professor at the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelms University . As a "non-Aryan" he resigned his professorship after the National Socialists came to power. In the 1930s, the researcher couple Günter and Hettie Dyhrenfurth moved to the Himalayas twice. The children experience the expedition via correspondence from Switzerland. In 1925 the family settled there. 1939–1954 he was a teacher of geography and natural sciences at the Institute on the Rosenberg in St. Gallen.

In 1930 he led the expedition to the Kangchenjunga Group in the Eastern Himalayas (world record Jongsong summit 7459 m). The fact that moving images were also possible for the first time at an altitude of more than 6000 meters during the first expedition in 1930 caused a sensation. The documentary "Himatschal, Throne of the Gods", filmed by Charles Duvanel , was a great success.

In 1934 they undertook the great “International Himalaya Expedition” under the direction of GO Dyhrenfurth to the upper Baltoro Glacier . On the south-south-east spur they finally reached a height of about 6,200 m, but had to realize that it was not possible to lead the Balti porters over this steep snow ridge. They then moved their route to the two peaks adjacent to the south, Sia Kangri (which was then still called Queen-Mary-Peak) and Baltoro Kangri (then still called Golden Throne) with the Conway saddle in between.

The expedition achieved the first and only summit conquests of large mountains, the "seven-thousanders", in the Karakoram : together with Albert Höcht , Hans Ertl , as well as Dyhrenfurth with his wife Hettie, achieved the first ascent of Sia Kangri I (Queen Mary Peak , 7422 m). With this, Hettie Dyhrenfurth exceeded the almost 30-year-old height record for women, achieved by Fanny Bullock Workman in 1906 (Pinnacle Peak, 6932 m, Nun Kun Group). This record was not broken until 1955. The east summit of the Baltoro Kangri (Golden Throne, 7260 m) was climbed for the first time by James Belaieff, Piero Ghiglione and André Roch . Part of the expedition team visited the Lamayuru monastery in western Ladakh on the way back . The photographs - for the most part by GO Dyhrenfurth and Vittorio Sella - are of excellent quality. With it all four peaks of Sia Kangri (highest point 7422 m) were climbed.

The expeditions brought the first scientifically sound knowledge about the tectonics of the Himalayan region.

The film The Demon of the Himalaya was shot as part of the “IHE 1934” (camera Richard Angst and Hans Ertl, among others ).

In addition to the travel report with interesting facts about the country and its people, the work offers a rich scientific output (geology, glacier science, etc.).

For his two expeditions in the Himalayas , he and his wife Hettie Dyhrenfurth were awarded the Prix ​​olympique d'alpinisme at the 1936 Summer Olympics .

His son Norman Dyhrenfurth also led successful expeditions in the Himalayas and worked as a cameraman in numerous mountain films. His father was the cousin of the lawyer Waldemar Dyhrenfurth .

Memberships

Awards

  • Leica camera with the number 125,000.

Works

  • Himalayas. Our expedition in 1930. Scherl, Berlin 1931.
  • with Hermann Hoerlin, Erwin Schneider and Ulrich Wieland: Our Himalaya Expedition 1930. Journal of the German and Austrian Alpine Association 1931, pp. 47–87.
  • Demon Himalaya. Report of the International Karakoram Expedition 1934. Schwabe, Basel 1935.
  • Baltoro. A Himalayan book. Schwabe, Basel 1939.
  • Himalaya trip. Our expedition in 1930. Orell Füssli, Zurich 1942.
  • To the third pole. The eight-thousanders on earth. Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1952.
  • The book of Nanga Parbat. The history of its ascent from 1895–1953. Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1954.
  • The book of Kantsch. The story of his ascent . Nymphenburger Verlagshandlung, Munich 1955.
    • from his son Norman among others:
  • The third pole. The eight-thousanders and their satellites. Frankfurt am Main 1961.

Movies

  • Himatschal, the throne of the gods. Germany 1930/1931, documentary film
  • The demon of the Himalayas. Switzerland / Germany 1934/1935, feature film

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Who is who? Berlin 12th edition, 1955, p. 218.
  2. ↑ Richard Fear: The Demon of the Himalaya. Schweizer Film - Film Suisse: official organ of Switzerland., Accessed on June 7, 2020 .
  3. ^ Palaeontological Journal 1, Issue 1, March 1914
  4. ↑ List of holders of the Federal Order of Merit (Federal President's Office)
  5. ↑ - there “Prof. Gunther O. Dyhrenfurth " ( Memento from August 4, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Dyhrenfurth, Günter Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dyhrenfurth, Günter; Dyrenfurth, Günther-Oskar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Swiss mountaineer and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 12, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 1975
Place of death Ringgenberg BE