Wilhelm Junker

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Wilhelm Junker

Wilhelm Junker ( Russian Василий Васильевич Юнкер ; born March 25 . Jul / 6. April  1840 greg. In Moscow ; † February 1 jul. / 13. February  1892 greg. In Saint Petersburg ) was a German-Russian explorer .

origin

Junker was born in Moscow to German parents. His grandparents Bernhard Heinrich Junker and Anna Margaretha Schmincke came to Russia from Göttingen. His father Johann Wilhelm Junker (1797–1847) was a banker there. His mother was his wife Johanna Margarethe Beauty widowed Werle (1812-1887) and came from Egelsdorf in Thuringia. His brother Christian Ludwig Junker (1820–1887) was a wholesale merchant in Moscow.

Life

The family moved to St. Petersburg in 1840 and to Göttingen in 1844 . In 1847 the father died. During that time he was taught by private tutors. In 1851 he came to Wiesbaden and then to Lausanne in an educational institution. Already there he made trips to the Alps and through Central Germany. Wilhelm Junker returned to St. Petersburg in 1855 with his mother and siblings. He enrolled in Dorpat and Göttingen in 1860 , where he failed the first exam. He then went to Prague , where he decided to become an explorer. He went back to St. Petersburg, where he trained in linguistic and natural history in order to be able to carry out an expedition. In 1869 he started to Iceland via Scandinavia and Copenhagen . He traveled from Reykjavík to Akureyri , where he did ornithological studies. But his homesickness and the unforeseen hardships of the journey forced him to turn back after a few weeks. Which he reached after visiting the Faroe Islands and Scotland. He decided to resume his medical studies in Göttingen and successfully completed his doctorate there. In order to be able to practice in Russia, he took another state medical examination in Dorpat, but failed there and decided never to be examined again. Instead, he decided to train as an explorer.

Between 1873 and 1874 Junker first traveled to Italy to get used to the climate and then to North Africa , where he toured Tunis and Tunisia . Since the French officials thought he was a German spy, he had to return in 1874, but now he knew the Arabic language as well as the customs and traditions. In August 1875 he met the Africa explorers Nachtigal , Rohlfs and Schweinfurth at the international geographic congress in Paris . After obtaining his equipment, he went to Alexandria via Trieste in October 1875 to investigate the Libyan desert in November and December. He examined the Qattara Depression and the Siwa Oasis . He visited the monasteries in the Natrontal , where he wanted to acquire old manuscripts, but did not succeed. Instead, he explored the eleven small soda lakes. He then marched to Fayyum , from where he could take the train to Cairo. Here he met Theodor von Heuglin and Georg Schweinfurth.

In February 1876 he went with the Wuerttemberg forestry assistant Kopp by ship from Suez to Suakin to Kassala (March 29) and Khartoum (May 6). The governor of Khartoum Ismail Pasha refused the planned onward journey to Kordofan and Darfur, so he joined the Italian Romolo Gessi . With it he drove up the Blue Nile to Sennaar and the lower Sobat to Nasser . He returned to Khartoum, which he left on October 22nd to return across the White Nile. On the way he met the new governor General Gordon , who now provided him with the necessary papers. He then went to Lado , where he arrived with a fever on November 17th. There he met Emin Pascha . Junker stayed there for two months, where he learned the local language, explored the area and started a scientific collection. On January 22, 1877, he went west to Makaraka , where he stayed from February 1877 to March 1878 in Kabajendi. He explored the area across the river Tondj to Wau and returned to Lado on March 29, 1878, he went on to Khartoum and traveled back to Europe on July 29 , where he reached Saint Petersburg at the end of September.

Junkers travel route early summer 1882, based on his diary entries

In 1879 he made another trip to Africa and explored the area of ​​the Niam-Niam (sands) and the Monbuttu . His companion Friedrich Bohndorff had to return home in 1882 due to illness. He managed to get off on the last steamer before the Mahdi’s troops moved in to begin their revolt against the Khedive in Egypt . Junker pursued his research work alone.

He explored the Uelle River as far as the island of Mutenu (February 1883) and then orientated again to the east. On January 21, 1884 he reached Lado on the White Nile and went to Emin Pascha , where later the captain Casati also met . From this time on, all traffic down the Nile to Europe was cut off because of the Mahdi uprising . So he found out that his collections, which he had already sent in advance, were lost. He therefore drove up the Bahr el Gebel in January 1885, but had to return after ten months.

Gustav Adolf Fischer's attempt to bring help to the explorers with an expedition from Zanzibar and to open the way to the east coast for them failed completely. In the meantime, Emin Pasha had withdrawn to Wadelai . Junker made his second attempt on January 2, 1886, and reached the coast at Bagamoyo on November 29, 1886 and Zanzibar on December 4, from where he returned to Europe and in April 1887 St. Petersburg. Apart from his diary he hadn't been able to save anything; all his collections were lost. Many respected geographic societies wanted to honor him and so he made a tour of Europe, which took him from Saint Petersburg to Berlin, Vienna, Paris, London, Edinburgh, Brussels, Stockholm and other capitals. He turned down an offer from the Belgian King Leopold to assume a leading position in the Belgian Congo .

He then went to Gotha to publish his travelogues in Justus Perthes' Geographischer (publishing) institute Gotha . After printing was finished in October 1891, he traveled to his relatives in Russia. There he fell ill in his sister's house and died on February 13, 1892 in Saint Petersburg.

Awards and prizes (selection)

Dedication names

Hermann Julius Kolbe named the Cicindela species from the area of ​​the Niam-Niam Cicindela junkeri in 1892 , which he dedicated to the deceased.

Works

  • Dr. Wilhelm Junkers Travels in Africa, 1875–1886. Edited and edited by the traveler from his diaries . Three volumes. Hölzel, Vienna 1889–1891.
    • -, Richard Buchta (collabor.): 1875–1878 . (Part 1). Hölzel, Vienna 1889. - Full text online .
    • -, AH Keane (transl.): Travels in Africa during the Years 1879–1883 . (Volume 2, English). Chapman & Hall, London 1891. - Full text online .
    • -, AH Keane (transl.): Travels in Africa during the Years 1882–1886 . (Volume 3, English). Chapman & Hall, London 1892. - Full text online .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Misc. (...) Missing Africa researchers .. In:  Wiener Zeitung , No. 160/1885, July 16, 1885, p. 3 middle. (Online at ANNO ). Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrz.
  2. ^ Hermann Julius Kolbe, p. 143.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Junker, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Junker, Wassili Wassiljewitsch; Юнкер, Василий Васильевич (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Russian Africa explorer
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH Moscow
DATE OF DEATH February 13, 1892
Place of death St. Petersburg