Hans Steffen

Friedrich Emil Hans Steffen, also Juan Steffen Hoffmann ( born July 20, 1865 in Fürstenwerder, † April 7, 1936 in Davos, Switzerland ) was a German geographer, who carried out extensive hydrographic studies in southern Chile. With the determination of the Continental Divide in western Patagonia and as a technical advisor to the Chilean government, he made ​​a significant contribution to the peaceful setting of the then disputed border with Argentina.

Biography

Family and studies

Hans Steffen was born on July 20, 1865 in Fürstenwerder in Uckermark. He was the son of the physician Karl Emil Steffen and his wife Anna Luise Hoffmann. His birthplace was opposite the church and was destroyed during the last days of the war in 1945. After attending regional schools and a humanistic education at the Berlin Kaiserin-Augusta High School he began in 1883 at the age of 18 years, the study of history at the Royal Friedrich- Wilhelm University in Berlin (now Humboldt University ). His academic teachers were Ernst Curtius and Theodor Mommsen. From 1884 he studied geography at Alfred Kirchhoff at the University of Halle. In 1886 Hans Steffen graduated with a geographical study of Lower Franconia. In the following years he completed his military service.

Teachers and researchers in Chile

In 1889, Hans Steffen was appointed as a lecturer in history and geography at the newly established Educational Institute of the University of Chile in Santiago. Together with six other German ( Friedrich Hanssen, Reinhold von Lilienthal, Rudolf Lenz, Georg Schneider, Friedrich and Alfred Johow Beutell ) he was there for the first faculty for the training of high school teachers. A former student, the Chilean historian Luis Galdames, described him as follows:

" El doctor Steffen it alto, delgado, flexible, de una tez enjuta y curtida, color rojizo, inclinado a moreno. Sus cabellos, de castaño ink, but abundantes, pero los lleva cortos; la frente it despejada subraya y la expresión haciendo arrugas; los lentes de oro la nariz estrechan y la mirada velan inquisidora que sale de unos ojos oscuros y pequeños. [ ... ] Habla ligero, correcto en español, pero de acentuada pronunciación germanica; y su it gesto de una seriedad inalterable. Jamás se insinúa ni sonríe; y sólo expone Ordena. Entra siempre a la sala con el mismo el sombrero y ademán de colgar sentarse para decir su relato, con la ayuda del cuadernillo impreso. Más tarde que se supimos trataba de unos textos alemanes, Escritos por Meyer y muy usados ​​en los colegios de Prusia. [ ... ] La clase de Historia se alternaba con la de Geografía Física; y aquí sí que las cosas cambiaban. El profesor abandonaba el texto; y de pie junto a la pizarra, hacía su demostración con tiza de colores, explicando detalladamente cada rasgo orográfico, ley cada climatológica, cada materia oceanográfica, etc. Y todo animadamente, con la y el placer de unción enseñar. Incuestionablemente, estábamos delante de un geógrafo. Valley era, por cierto, la Especialidad del doctor Steffen, su vocación manifiesta. Nunca le agradeceremos lo bastante sus lecciones geográficas, como le tampoco agradecerá lo bastante el país sus Exploraciones Patagónicas. "

"Doctor Steffen is tall, slender, articulated and has a gaunt, toughened face with reddish, the copper brown gambling complexion. His auburn hair is full, but he wears it short; the forehead is broad and emphasizes through its folds the expressive facial expressions; gold spectacles narrowed nose and veiled the searching gaze of the small, dark eyes. [ ... ] He is fluent, flawless Spanish, but with a strong German accent, and his gesture is resistant Ernst. He never is chumming, still he smiles; he only tells and orders. He enters the room always with the habit of hanging his hat always in the same manner and to sit down, and then to give his lecture with the help of a small printed booklet. Later we found out that it was German textbook texts, written by Meyer and much used in the Prussian schools. [ ... ] Followed the geography lesson on the history lesson, and here it went quite differently: Now the teacher let the book down; standing at the blackboard he held his presentation with colored chalk, explained in detail each orographic feature, each climatological law, each oceanographic teaching material, etc. And all with vibrancy and palpable pleasure in teaching. Without question, we had a geographer before us. This was obviously the specialty of Dr. Steffen, its obvious appeal. We can never thank him enough for his geography hours, as well as the country is in him his research on Patagonian never thank enough. "

The Patagonia Expeditions

When Hans Steffen 1889 came to South America, for seven years had passed since Chile and Argentina had agreed in a border treaty on is how to delineate their common border. The should be " [ ... ] along the highest peaks of this cordillera who share the water, ..." lost in the Andes. However, this simple rule could not be easily implemented in Patagonia, because there the continental divide of the Andes in the middle of nowhere is often east. While Argentina would like the border drawn over the highest peaks of the Andes, Chile relied on the fact that the watershed is the defining element of the agreed boundaries. This led to serious tensions between the neighbors over territorial circumstances in this region, whose topography was largely unexplored. There was thus a political and scientific challenge is to explore Patagonia. A challenge that was taken up by geographers Steffen.

Soon he began with the exploration of Patagonia and studied in Santiago historical and contemporary sources. These included, for example, the reports on missionary journeys of the Jesuits in the 18th century. In February 1892 he organized on your own first expedition to the Osorno Volcano in Puerto Montt, he just climbed to just below the summit, and the Cordillera on Lago Todos Los Santos east of the volcanic cone. His team also included the surveyor William Doell and the geologist Carl Ochsenius.

After that, he was able to convince the head of the Chilean Diego Barros Arana Boundary Commission of his ideas to the study of Patagonia. In the following years until 1899, he received the support of government contracts for seven expeditions, where several other German experts participated. Through his research trips and numerous publications Steffen was an outstanding and respected experts in Western Patagonia.

Delegation Advisory Board for Chile

Chile and Argentina had submitted in 1886 a British court of arbitration to resolve their border dispute peacefully. So the expert Steffen in October 1899 was appointed to the Scientific Advisory Board of the Chilean delegation in London. He traveled to the UK and was significantly involved in the development of exposure that should constitute the arbitral tribunal, the Chilean position and allow a sense of the geographical nature of Patagonia. Then Steffen accompanied as representative of Chile and Francisco Pascasio Moreno as the representative of Argentina to the British ambassador of the arbitral tribunal Sir Thomas Holdich on an inspection tour of western Patagonia. Finally it came to a second expert lecture in London. The award of the English king was then in November 1902.

In the following years, Dr. Hans Steffen dedicated to continue the dominant themes of his life as a researcher and published numerous publications on Patagonia and the boundary finding process, in which he was involved. Due to a lung disease he was forced to leave Chile in 1913. He went to live near Davos, Switzerland, where he died on 7 April 1937.

Posthumous commemoration

The Italian mountaineer and documentarian Silvia Metzeltin and Gino Buscaini made ​​a few years ago the forgotten grave Steffens in Davos identify and campaigned for a dignified commemoration. Finally, the urn Steffens was at the instigation of Chilean authorities transferred in April 2001 to Chile and was buried in November 2006 in a purpose built monument in Aysen.