Wolfgang Knabe (cultural scientist)

Wolfgang Knabe on the Labrador expedition

Wolfgang Knabe (* 1950 in Düsseldorf ) is a cultural scientist and expedition leader, living in Königsbrunn , Bavaria.

Life

Wolfgang Knabe studied sociology , political science , geography , ethnology , pedagogy and psychology at the University of Cologne . He received his PhD in 1977. Dr. phil. with 'valde laudabile' about the mountain people of the Marias in the Deccan highlands in India, which he scientifically discovered and researched on three expeditions . Further research stays took him through the Kawir and Lut deserts in Iran, through central and northern Afghanistan and Pakistani Balochistan.

In 1979 he became an academic advisor in sociology at the University of Augsburg . Three years later he took over Section II Culture / Public Relations for the President of the Bavarian State Parliament and four years later he switched to the Bavarian Academy of Sciences as a cultural scientist . Here he founded the Augsburg Research Group with Hermann Kellenbenz , which is now called the Mercator Research Group. In 1990, Knabe received the Dr. sc. at the Academy of Sciences, Berlin. In the previous three years, Knabe built the research ship Mercator (home port Hamburg) on his own . It became his working platform for his maritime-based field research in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. After his expedition in the footsteps of the first German merchant fleet along the Indian west coast in 1505/1506, Knabe was seconded to the University of Greifswald in 1993 at the request of the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Ministry of Science because of his research focus on historical migration . The Pennsylvania State University , USA, and then the University of Duisburg followed .

Here Knabe carried out his Mercator expeditions along the coasts of Nova Scotia and Labrador (Canada) in 1995 and 1996 . From 1999 he prepared the Mercator Pacific Expedition, which took him six to seven months from 2003 to 2005 through the Pacific islands of the Tuamotus and the Society Islands. Because of his maritime achievements, he was made an honorary member of the “Flotte de Polynésie Francaise” (IYFR) in Papeete in 2006 . In the meantime, for the 500th anniversary of German-Indian trade relations, Knabe realized the world's largest 'Historical Globe' on behalf of the Bavarian State Chancellery, which in 2005 showed the exhibition '500 Years of Trade Bavaria - India' in Munich. Two years later, Knabe set up the Historical Globe at the gates of Augsburg: in the city of Königsbrunn, where it has since been known as the ' Mercateum ' - the long-distance trade museum. Inside, an exhibition shows long-distance trade via the 'Road to Italy' and Augsburg trade with India. Knabe is currently preparing the publication of the Pacific Expedition.

Mercator expeditions

• 1987–1990 Construction of a small ocean-going ship for use as a research platform in remote coastal regions, named Mercator on March 22, 1990 by the Mayor of Augsburg . Foreign Office, entry as a research ship in the Hamburg shipping register.
• 1992 Mercator India Expedition 1992: "The trading network of Swabian and Franconian merchants on the west coast of India in the 16th century" - 2,000 nautical miles
• 1995 Mercator-Nova Scotia expedition: "On the trail of German-speaking settlers of the 18th and 19th centuries." - 3,500 nautical miles
• 1996 Mercator Labrador Expedition: “In the footsteps of German explorers, settlers and missionaries from the 15th to 18th centuries. Century. ”- 6,100 nautical miles
• 2003–2005 Mercator Pacific Expedition: “Augsburg merchants and the first trade voyage to the Pacific in 1525” - 7,652 nautical miles

Publications

• Knabe, Wolfgang, Investigations into the basics of the Mária religion - cultural analysis of a tribe at the economic level of the early clearing farmers in the Dekkan highlands / India , Düsseldorf 1978.
• ders., Aufbruch in die Ferne, German emigration between 1803 and 1914 using the example of Bavarian Swabia , Augsburg 1990, 462 pages, 1st edition, ISBN 3-928851-00-4 , out of print; 2nd edition, Bonn, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-922131-85-9 .
• ders., The new home welcomes you. German immigration to America, Africa, Asia and Australia between 1800 and 1914 , Augsburg 1991, 418 p .; 1st edition, ISBN 3-928851-01-2 , 2nd edition Bonn, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-922131-86-7 .
• ders., In the footsteps of the first German merchants in India - research expedition with the Mercator along the west coast and to the amines , Anhausen 1993, 477 pages, ISBN 3-929720-01-9
• ders., Between Ice and Eternity - With the Mercator on the trail of the first German-speaking emigrants in Labrador, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland , Reutlingen 1997, 240 pages, ISBN 3-88627-197-8
• id. The old road and the river - 4000 years distance trade across the road to Italy , Horb am Neckar 2007, 348 pp, ISBN 978-3-86595-181-6
• ders .: 500 years of trade Bavaria - India. Munich 2005

Expeditions on ARD and ZDF

• "The first Germans who are looking for India", 2 × 60 minutes BR production, first broadcast ARTE 1993, BR 1994, 3Sat 1995, BR 1997
• "Labrador - Coast of the Lost", 45-minute ZDF production, first broadcast in 1997, (6.8 million viewers), 3Sat 1998, Phoenix 1998, 3Sat 2000.
• "Last Hope - Heading West", 45 minutes ZDF production, first broadcast in 1998, (6.3 million viewers), 3Sat 1998, Phoenix 1998, 3Sat 2000.
• Contribution in: "Auf Secretfahrt nach Amerika", 45-minute ZDF production, first broadcast Arte 2001, ZDF 2001 (5.5 million viewers), 3Sat 2002, Phönix 2002
• The TV documentary about the results of the Pacific Expedition 2003-2005 is in progress

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Knabe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Knabe in the catalog of the German National Library
• www.mercator-forschungsgruppe.de
• www.mercateum.de