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 Ferdinand von Richthofen
(1833-1905)
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| Born | 5
May 1833 Carlsruhe, Prussian Silesia |
| Died | 6
October 1905 (aged 72) Berlin |
| Nationality | German |
| Fields | geography |
| Institutions | University of
Bonn University of Leipzig University of Berlin |
| Alma mater | University of Breslau University of Berlin |
| Doctoral students | Sven Hedin Alfred Philippson Arthur Berson Wilhelm Sievers |
Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen (5 May 1833 – 6 October 1905) was a German traveller, geographer, and scientist.
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He was born in Carlsruhe, Prussian Silesia, and was educated in Breslau and Berlin. He traveled or studied in the Alps of Tyrol and the Carpathians in Transylvania. In 1860, he joined the Eulenburg Expedition, a Prussian expedition which visited Ceylon, Japan, Taiwan, Celebes, Java, the Philippines, Siam, Burma between 1860 and 1862. From 1862 to 1868 he worked as a geologist in the United States discovering Goldfields in California. This was followed by several more trips of China, Japan, Burma, and Java. He published his geographical, geological, economic, and ethnological findings in three volumes with an atlas. In China he located the dried-up lake bed of Lopnur.
He was also Professor of Geology at the University of Bonn beginning in 1875, Professor of Geography at the University of Leipzig in 1883, and Professor of Geography at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin in 1886. Among his most famous students was Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer. He served as President of the German Geographical Society for many years, and founded the Berlin Hydrographical Institute.
He is noted for coining the terms "Seidenstraße" and "Seidenstraßen" = "Silk Road(s)" or "Silk Route(s)" in 1877.[1][2] He also standardized the practices of chorography and chorology.
He died in 1905 in Berlin.
When William Gill consulted him about a planned trip to China, he remarked:
| “ | Hour after hour he gave up his valuable time to me, and opened volumes from his rich store of information. … Baron von Richtofen possesses in a remarkable manner the faculty of gathering up the details presented to his view; putting them together and generalising on them with rare judgement; forming out of what would be to a lesser genius, but scattered and unintelligible fragments, a uniform and comprehensive whole … not one hint was given me that did not subsequently prove its value; his kind thoughts for my comfort and amusement were never ceasing, and his refined and cultivated intellect and genial manner rendered the recollections of my stay in the German capital some of the most pleasant of my life. | ” |
Ferdinand von Richthofen was an uncle of the World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, best known as the "Red Baron".
The mountain range on the southern edge of the Gansu corridor in western China was named Richthofen Range after him, although the modern name is now Qilian Mountains. The 12940 ft. Mount Richthofen in Rocky Mountain National Park is also named after him.[3]
Regarding personal names: Freiherr is a title, translated as Baron, not a first or middle name. The female forms are Freifrau and Freiin.
FERDINAND RICHTHOFEN, BARON VON (1833-1905), German geographer and traveller, was born near Karlsruhe, Silesia, on the 5th of May 1833. He was educated at Breslau and Berlin, and in 1856 carried out geological investigations in the Tirol, subsequently extending them to Transylvania. In 1859 he accompanied as geologist the Prussian diplomatic mission to the Far East under Count von Eulenburg, and visited Ceylon, Japan, Formosa, the Philippines and Java, subsequently making an overland journey from Bangkok to Moulmein and reaching Calcutta in 1862. No important work resulted from these travels, for much of Richthofen's records and collections was lost. China was at the time inaccessible owing to the Taiping rebellion, but Richthofen was impressed with the desirability of exploring it, and after a visit to California, where he remained till 1868, he returned to the East. In a remarkable series of seven journeys he penetrated into almost every part of the Chinese Empire. He returned home in 1872, and a work comprising three large volumes and an atlas, which, however, did not cover the entire field or complete the author's plan, appeared at Berlin in 1877-85 under the title of China; Ergebnisse eigner Reisen and darauf gegriindeter Studien. In this standard work the author deals not only with geology but with every subject necessary to a general geographical treatise. Notably he paid close attention to the economic resources of the country he traversed; he wrote a valuable series of letters to the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, and first drew attention to the importance of the coalfields of Shantung, and of Kiaochow as a port. In 1875 Richthofen was elected professor of geology at Bonn, but being fully occupied with his work in China he did not take up professorial duties till 1879; in 188 3 he became professor of geography at Leipzig, and in 1886 was chosen to the same office at Berlin, and held it till his death. His lectures attracted numerous students who subsequently became eminent in geographical work, and in order to keep in touch with them he established his weekly geographical "colloquium." Of his written works, besides that on China, there may be mentioned "Die Kalkalpen von Voralberg and Nordtirol" in Jahrbuch der geologischen Reichsanstalt (1859-1861); "Die Metallproduktion Kaliforniens" in Petermanns Mitteilungen (1865); Natural System of Volcanic Rocks (San Francisco, 1867); Aufgaben and Methoden der heutigen Geographie (an address delivered at Leipzig, 1883); Fiihrer fiir Forschungsreisende (Berlin, 1886); Triebkrdite and Richtungen 'der Erdkunde in neunzehnten Jahrhundert (address on his election as rector, Berlin, 1903). He was for many years president of the German Geographical Society, and he founded the Berlin Hydrographical Institute. He died on the 16th of October 1905.
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