Hans Pfann (mountaineer)

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Hans Pfann (born August 4, 1873 in Nuremberg , † January 5, 1958 in Bad Reichenhall ) was a German alpinist who went on demanding mountain tours into old age.

Life

Hans Pfann (1873–1958), portrait of Oskar Wiedenhofer (1889–1987)

Hans Pfann, the only son of master locksmith Hans Pfann, attended the Technical University in Munich from 1891 to 1895 , from which he graduated as an engineer. In 1892 he started his first mountain hikes and in 1893 he made a guided Glockner ascent to get to know the ice and snow on the mountain. In 1895 he started as an assistant and teacher at the Munich Mechanical Engineering School and in 1897 he was employed in the municipal service in order to be able to stay close to the Alps. He married in 1919.

Between 1898 and 1920 he made a few first ascents, including at the Fleischbank and the Totenkirchl in the Wilder Kaiser . Many tours during this time also led to the Dolomites , Zermatt and the Mont Blanc area .

In 1902/1903 he traveled to the Caucasus under the direction of Gottfried Merzbacher . He was able to climb the two Ushba peaks and be the first to cross them. During this research trip he gained a lot of expedition experience that he was able to use later, because in 1928 the German and Austrian Alpine Association DÖAV gave him the management of the expedition to the Cordillera Real (Bolivia ), where the fifty-five-year-old climbed two six-thousanders: Pfann succeeded with the Viennese mountaineer Alfred Horeschowsky made the first ascent of the 6,368 m high Illampú , and they were the first to reach Pico del Norte (6,070 m).

Even at an older age, Pfann was out and about in the mountains. On his 70th birthday he stood again on the Totenkirchl, on the 75th he climbed through the Musterstein south face ( Wetterstein Mountains ), on the 80th he celebrated on the Fuscherkarkopf ( Glockner group ), after having previously climbed Verpeil- and Watzespitze in the Kauner Grat , and on his 82nd birthday he climbed the Piz Palü ( Bernina group ).

Importance for alpinism

His touring book recorded over 1000 peaks, including 132 four-thousanders and 48 first ascents. According to a fellow mountaineer, Pfann was the best German all-round mountaineer of his time. Over the years he has shown his skills in climbing on ice and rock, in going at full speed, in leading mountain expeditions and in writing mountain books.

With detailed and careful tour planning, Hans Pfann managed to go on all tours without a guide and still keep the risks low. When he was over 80, he still climbed three-thousand-meter peaks , showing that mountaineering doesn't have to be a question of age.

The Pointe Pfann in the Montblanc area and the Pfannkamin at the Totenkirchl remind of him .

Important activities (selection)

  • Meat Bank North Ridge, 1898
  • Second ascent of the Guglia di Brenta and second crossing of the 3 southern Vajolett towers , 1900
  • Totenkirchl north-east wall - Pfannkamin (2nd terrace), 1901
  • Caucasus: Second ascent of both Ushbag peaks and first crossing, 1903
  • Second guided tour of the Peutereygrat , 1905
  • First ascent of the Matterhorn north-west ridge , 1906
  • First ascent of the north ridge of the Zugspitze , 1906
  • Third inspection of the meat bank east wall, 1912

Memberships

literature

  • Hans Pfann: Guideless summit trips in the high Alps, the Caucasus, the Tian Schan and the Andes , Berliner Union , Berlin 1941
  • Hans Pfann: From my mountain life , Berliner Union, Stuttgart 1950

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Peter Grimm: Pfann, Hans. In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 20. 2001, accessed on December 7, 2018 .