Ferdinand von Richthofen
Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen ( born May 5, 1833 in Carlsruhe, district Opole, Silesia Province; † October 6, 1905 in Berlin ) was a German geographer, cartographer and explorer from the noble Richthofen. He is considered the founder of modern geomorphology and coined in his studies of the Chinese Empire the term of the Silk Road. According to him, the former Richthofen Mountains, was today Qilian Shan named.
Life
His parents were Karl von Richthofen (1801-1874) and Ferdinande of Kulish ( 1807-1885 ).
Richthofen studied geology in Breslau and Berlin. He received his doctorate in 1856 and worked as a geologist. He led from 1856 to 1860 geological investigations in South Tyrol (Alps) and Transylvania (Carpathian ) by. He was involved in led by Franz von Hauer overview image, the (published 1863), a comprehensive geological description of Transylvania with an overview map (1861 published) rendered long and was regarded as a standard work.
Focus of his work as an explorer was a twelve -year journey from 1860 to 1872 that brought him to Asia and North America. As a participant in one led by Friedrich Albrecht zu Eulenburg Prussian trading company he attended from 1860 to 1862, first East Asia, more precisely Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Japan, Formosa ( Taiwan), the Philippines and Java. In Java, where he met the physician and naturalist Franz Wilhelm Jung chicken, he traveled through some hitherto unknown parts of the island. As a first focal point was at this time the study of volcanic rock out. He then undertook a land journey from Bangkok to Moulmein in Burma at the Bengal Gulf. His plan to travel across from Calcutta through Central Asia, he had to retire.
He first left Asia and worked until 1868, mainly geological issues in California and in the Sierra Nevada. In 1868 he returned, funded by the Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco, back to Asia. From Shanghai, he devoted himself to 1872 an intensive investigation of the empire of China. Richthofen traveled through, in part, under adverse conditions, 13 of the then 18 provinces. Through him, a large part of China was open to Western science. The focus of his research shifted to China from geology through to geography. In particular, he devoted himself to the contexts of Gesteinsbau ( stratigraphy ), surface forms ( geomorphology ), climate, flora and fauna, population, economy and culture in the study area. Accurate individual considerations he added together to form a meaningful whole. The Lopingium series of the Permian in the Earth's history was first introduced by him as lithostratigraphic term; later redefined by other authors as a chronostratigraphic unit.
In Beijing, he embarked on his last trip in October, 1871. This journey took him from Taiyuan along the river Fen He to Xi'an, by the Qin Ling and Daba Shan mountains to Chengdu with the aim of Canton. Behind Chengdu the expedition, however, was attacked and robbed. Richthofen decided to abort the trip. About Luzhou and Chongqing in the Red Basin and then along the Yangtze River Richthofen reached over Yichang, Wuhan and Nanjing finally Shanghai.
The main objective of his trip to Asia was the acquisition of Chinese coal deposits. With the exact representation of the local economic and population structure in Europe is still unknown region should be brought under the influence of the German economy.
On his return (1872 ) from China Richthofen was from 1873 to 1878 president of the Berlin Geographical Society. He advocated for an expansion of the German colonial empire to China, among others, addressed to Otto von Bismarck memorandum.
1875 von Richthofen Professor of Geography in Bonn, then from 1883 in Leipzig successor of Otto Delitsch and from 1886 in Berlin. Students have included Sven Hedin, Alfred Philippson, Arthur Berson, Fritz Frech and Wilhelm Sievers. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences appointed him in 1881 as a corresponding member.
His most important works are the studies of the geological structure and the geography of China (for example, his work on the local coal reserves and the Asian loess ).
His tomb on the West Stahnsdorf was restored in 2007. It is located in the block Old reburial, Section C, burial place 127.n.
Works
- China, results of own Travel (5 volumes of Atlas, 1877-1912 )
- Guide for explorers (1886 )
- Geomorphological studies from East Asia (4 issues, 1901-1903 )