Gustav Kreitner
Gustav Ritter von Kreitner (born August 2, 1847 in Odrau , Austrian Silesia , † November 20, 1893 in Yokohama ) was a Silesian-Austrian geographer and diplomat .
Life
As the son of the manorial brewer Philipp Kreitner, Kreitner embarked on a military career from 1866. In 1872 he passed the officer's examination with excellent results and was appointed to serve as a lieutenant in the military-geographical institute, where he remained for five years as a topographer at the land register of the monarchy.
When Bela Graf von Szechenyi set out in Trieste on December 4, 1877 on a research expedition via India to China , Kreitner accompanied him as a geographer . The trip lasted two and a half years and ended in Rangoon . The expedition traversed long stretches of unexplored country under great strain. From Bombay it went across India to the Himalayas , from Shanghai across China to the Gobi Desert . The yield of topographical records and new knowledge in ethnological terms was enormous. Kreitner described the trip in the book "Im fernen Osten" published in Vienna in 1881.
On his return home, the researcher received high awards for his achievements and was elevated to the knightly nobility by Emperor Franz Joseph . Since then he has carried the name Gustav Ritter von Kreitner. In 1886 Kreitner was elected a member of the Leopoldina .
The Austrian state took his thorough knowledge of East Asia as an opportunity to entrust him with the post of consul in Yokohama (1884), especially since he had acquired extensive knowledge of the Asian languages. After eight years of successful activity, during which he particularly expanded trade relations between his fatherland and the Far East, he was appointed Consul General . But just a year later, on November 20, 1893, he died of a stroke. Gustav Ritter von Kreitner was buried on the highest terrace of the cemetery in Yokohama with military honors and with the participation of high dignitaries from almost all European countries and many overseas countries.
Web links
- Literature by and about Gustav Kreitner in the catalog of the German National Library
- Birth register with the correct year of birth 1847
- In the Far East - Part 1: Travel of Count Bela Széchenyi in India, Japan, China, Tibet and Burma , Vienna 1881
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Kreitner, Gustav |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Kreitner, Gustav Ritter von |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | old Austrian geographer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | August 2, 1847 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Odrau , Austrian Silesia |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 20, 1893 |
| Place of death | Yokohama |