Friedrich Bieber

Friedrich Julius Bieber ( born February 24, 1873 in Vienna, † March 3, 1924 ) was an Austrian explorer and ethnologist. Bieber was the eldest of five children of a bank official, who died early. A teacher woke Bieber's interest in exotic countries. However, Bieber did not achieve higher education, but began after the death of his father, a shoemaker and later a bookseller.

1890 Bieber took a hike to Trieste, a year later, he traveled to Constantinople Opel. 1892 came the autodidact who is modeled on those trips Gerhard Rohlfs and Verney Cameron, to Eritrea. In 1893 he was k.k. in Department of Commerce employment as Diurnist statistical service. 1904 Bieber traveled with the merchant Leopold Morgenstern to the Ethiopian imperial court in Addis Ababa. This trip was in preparation for the official kk Mission to Ethiopia, which took place in 1905 under the leadership of Ludwig Höhnels. The successful mission resulted in a trade and friendship treaty between Ethiopia and Austria - Hungary. Then toured with Bieber Alphonsus de Mylius Southwest Ethiopia and collected material about the former Kingdom of Kaffa. In 1909 he traveled together with the industrialist Emil Pick Ethiopia and came to the White Nile.

Bieber was awarded by Emperor Menelik II to the Order of Knights "Star of Ethiopia ". He received rich gifts of honor and was appointed colonel of the Ethiopian army.

After his return from Africa Bieber unfolded a rich scientific publications. His two- volume work on Kaffa is regarded as a standard work. Bieber, the father of two sons, was also politically active as a social democrat in the children of friends. Most of his ethnographic collections can be found today in the Austrian World Museum Vienna, formerly the Museum of Ethnology. Private memorabilia are exhibited in the museum district Hietzing.

Works

Bieber's two -volume work on Kaffa is regarded as one of the essential sources to the Kingdom, Bieber went publications, with the exception of Antonio Cecchis book from 1885, obsolete all previous publications on Kaffa. .