Henry Hoek

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Henry Hoek (1878–1951) geologist, meteorologist, mountaineer, ski pioneer, author, family grave at the Hörnli cemetery, Riehen, Basel-Stadt
Family grave in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt

Henry William Hoek ( pronunciation : [ huk ], born March 17, 1878 in Davos , † November 20, 1951 in Vaduz ) was a German geologist , meteorologist , mountaineer , skier and writer . In 1901 he became the first German to win the German cross-country skiing championships . He is considered a ski pioneer who was the first to climb several mountains in the Alps on skis. He has also written numerous influential books on skiing and mountaineering.

life and work

As the son of the banker Isaac Hermann Jakob Hoek, who worked at the Dutch royal court, and the Irishwoman Mary Bulkley, Henry Hoek attended the Berthold-Gymnasium in Freiburg im Breisgau from 1891 , became a German citizen and began studying geology there in 1896 . After completing his studies with a dissertation on the Plessur Mountains , he lost all of his fortune in connection with the global economic crisis. He later devoted himself entirely to writing and skiing. He was one of the pioneers of alpine skiing and won after being in the first German championship in cross-country skiing on the Feldberg had occupied third place, in 1901, the second German Ski Championships - the first German in an international board of participants. In the endurance (cross-country) discipline, Hoek needed 3:08 hours for the 23 km route from Belchen to Feldberg. He was the first in winter to ski on the Finsteraarhorn , Mönch , Dammastock , Strahlhorn and Wetterhorn . In addition, he opened various routes in the Arosa Dolomites area . In 1908 he published the world's first ski guide with the title: Skiing in the southern Black Forest . This was followed by tour guides about the Davos- Parsenn area and the Lenzerheide as well as hiking guides about the Davos Valley, Zermatt and the Engadin . One of his friends, Alfred Graber, the well-known writer and mountaineer, honored him with the title Winter Father of Lenzerheide. Repeatedly he undertook research trips to the Bolivian Andes near La Paz . During the First World War he performed weather service as a lieutenant on the Feldberg, among other places . Between the two world wars he was - now in Davos - a correspondent for the Frankfurter Zeitung .

Hoek is one of the most influential alpine writers of his time. He described mountaineering as a romantic hike to an unattainable destination that meant nothing more than converted eroticism. He dedicated his collection of ways and companions (1919) “to those women whom I desired and who did not love me. All striving into the distance, all wandering in the foreign is an unredeemed longing for woman. If I had loved more, I would have hiked less. ”Hoek is considered to be“ the chief erotic among alpinists in German-speaking countries ”. Hoek chose the slogan“ The journey is the goal. ”In his honor is the name of the Hoek Glacier in Antarctica.

Fonts (selection)

  • Geological investigations in the Plessur Mountains around Arosa. In: Reports of the Natural Research Society of Freiburg iB , XIII, 1903.
  • The central Plessur Mountains . In: Reports of the Natural Research Society of Freiburg iB , XVI, 1906.
  • with EC Richardson: The ski and its sporting use . Munich / Vienna 1906. (from the 2nd edition to: Schi)
  • The ski literature . (Until January 1, 1908). Munich 1908.
  • with H. Wallau: Ski trips in the southern Black Forest . Munich / Vienna 1908.
  • How do I learn to ski? . Munich 1909.
  • Over mountains and mountaineering. Three critical essays . Munich 1920.
  • Memo book for skiers in 500 sentences . Munich 1920.
  • You ... A volume of poems . Munich 1925.
  • Modern winter fairy tales . Munich 1926.
  • Snow, sun and skiing. A book about spring in the high mountains . Leipzig 1925.
  • Sport, sport instinct, sport business . Leipzig 1927.
  • Tennis, general, the international rules of the game . Zurich 1927.
  • Shot run and momentum. A breviary of alpine runs . Hamburg 1930.
  • St. Moritz. Bath, champfer. A guide and travel companion . Zurich 1931.
  • with V. Zwicky: Sport in the winter sun . Zurich 1932.
  • Ski tours with H. Frei in the mountains around Davos. A leader . Davos 1932.
  • Ma Bella Engadina. Ski and snow in the Engadine . Hamburg 1933.
  • Davos. A mountain and hiking book . Hamburg 1934.
  • Parsenn, famous in pictures and letters . Hamburg 1932.
  • Zermatt. Between the Matterhorn and Monterosa, between the Weisshorn and the cathedral . Hamburg 1936.
  • Meteorology . Bern 1952.

numerous articles in the following periodicals (journals):

First ski ascents

First ascents and first ascents

  • 1901 Mädrigerfluh West Ridge (plural pen)
  • 1901 Schiesshorn west face (plural pen)
  • 1901 Schiesshorn Northwest Ridge (plural pen)
  • 1901 Parpaner Weisshorn north face (plural pen)
  • 1901 Furkahorn northeast ridge (plural pen)
  • 1901 Amselfluh (plural pen)
  • 1901 Äpliseehorn (plural pen)
  • 1901 Valbellahorn (plural pen)
  • 1901 Thiejerfluh (plural pen)
  • 1901 Parpaner Rothorn (plural pen)
  • 1901 Piz Naira (plural pen)
  • 1901 Aroser Rothorn (plural pen)
  • 1901 Erzhorn (plural pen)
  • 1901 Sandhubel (plural pen)
  • 1903 Cerro Cordoba (Bolivia) 4620  m
  • 1903 Salle Grande (Bolivia) 5050  m
  • 1903 Abra de Gstana (Bolivia) 4100  m
  • 1904 Cerro Champanario (Bolivia) 5400  m
  • 1904 Cerro Tacora (Bolivia) 6060  m

literature

  • Doris Salmhofer: Life and work of the ski pioneer and mountaineer Henry Hoek (1878–1951) . Graduated Sports University Vienna 1995.
  • Tanja Wirz: Summiteers, A Gender History of Alpinism in Switzerland 1840-1940. Baden 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Dagmar Günther: Alpine traverses. Cultural history of bourgeois alpinism (1870-1930) . Frankfurt / M. 1998, pp. 330, 328.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Yearbook of the Swiss Aplen Club 1902, 366f
personal data
SURNAME Hoek, Henry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoek, Heinrich Wilhelm; Hoek, Henry William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geologist, mountaineer, skier and author
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Davos
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1951
Place of death Vaduz