Oskar Iden-Zeller

Oskar Iden-Zeller

Oskar Iden-Zeller (* 1879 in Zossen ; † November 21, 1925 in Berlin ) was one of the first German ethnologists of the 20th century to develop a special interest in Siberia . He was married to Anita Iden-Zeller, who from 1913 accompanied him on his last eleven-year trip through Siberia and published with him about the travels, and later also alone.

to travel

Iden-Zeller's travels led from Saint Petersburg to Lake Baikal , to Jakutsk and Verkhoyansk , as well as to the Kolyma region and the Bering Strait . Although he had good contacts in university and academic circles in Germany and also with Roald Amundsen , Iden-Zeller was considered an autodidact in ethnology.

First expedition (1902–1906?)

His first expedition went from Saint Petersburg via Chelyabinsk , Yakutsk and Nizhnekolymsk to the Bering Strait , from where he crossed to Alaska . According to him, he made this four-year journey on foot. He accompanied a group of Chukchi nomads for four months . The end of the trip was the trading post of the “North Eastern Siberian Co.” on the Bering Strait, which he reached with the last of his strength and after a 70-day walk. He processed his trip in the book "12,000 kilometers through Siberia".

Expedition (planned 1913–1916) and forced stay in Siberia until 1924

Iden-Zeller was commissioned and financially supported by the Museum für Völkerkunde Hamburg and the Museum für Völkerkunde in Leipzig , the Geographical Institute Gießen and the Reclam Verlag to organize and carry out a trip to Siberia. Initially, a three-year stay in Siberia was planned, during which various ethnological artefacts were collected (and sent back to Germany) and indigenous peoples were to be studied. This expedition was called the "German Taimyrland Expedition". He was accompanied by his wife Anita, who also published a large part of the travel report ("The Path of Tears"). The trip took the couple to Mansurka near Lake Baikal , Yakutsk and Bulun on the lower Lena, among others .

With the outbreak of World War I , the situation of foreigners in Russia deteriorated dramatically. Like other Reich Germans, Oskar Iden-Zeller was suspected of espionage and interned first in Irkutsk and then also in Yakutsk . With the end of the war his situation improved (he was able to move freely in the country again from spring 1919), so that he traveled to the Lena estuary on a new assignment. Until mid-1922 he was involved in some cases in the repatriation of (German) prisoners of war.

In the winter of 1922/23 he traveled for the last time from Vladivostok to the Gischiga area (today Magadan Oblast ) to try his luck there as a sales representative, among other things for furs. He had previously had to separate from his wife in Yakutsk, as both had been arrested as Germans by the authorities after the outbreak of World War I and they were not allowed to travel to Germany. On his trade expedition he finally got caught between the fronts of the Red and White Guards and was taken from the Cheka to the prison in Vladivostok in the winter of 1923/24 .

In December 1924 he managed to return to Germany, where he died on November 21, 1925 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf .

Works

• Oskar Iden-Zeller: 12,000 kilometers through Siberia. Reclam, Leipzig 1914.
• Oskar Iden-Zeller: cultural images from the East Siberian gold mining district (with nine images) . In: Reclam's universe. Vol. 31,2 (1915), pp. 954-959.
• Oskar and Anita Iden-Zeller: The path of tears. Reclam, Leipzig 1926.

literature

• Aline Ehrenfried: The future lay in the east. Oskar and Anita Iden-Zellers reports from a Siberia of upheaval. In: Stefan Bauer et al. (Ed.): Fault lines in the ice: ethnology of the circumpolar north. Lit, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-8258-8270-5 , pp. 263-282.

Web links

• Newspaper article about Oskar Iden-Zeller in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .