Gustav Frederik Holm

Gustav Frederik Holm ( born August 6 1849 in Copenhagen, † March 13, 1940 ) was a Danish naval officer and explorer. He made important contributions to Greenland's geography and ethnography. In 1884 he achieved the first European to the East Greenlandic Inuit settlement Tasiilaq (Danish Ammassalik ). Its important ethnographic collection is now in the Greenland National Museum ( Kalaallit Nunaata Katersugaasivia ) in Nuuk.

The woman boat expedition

Holm became important for its discoveries in East Greenland. Together with Thomas William Garde (1859-1926), the botanist Peter Eberlin (1862-1900), the geologist Hans Knutsen (1857 -? ) And some Greenlanders he explored in the years 1883 to 1885, traveling from Nuuk on Qaqortoq, the East Coast Greenland to the Arctic Circle, where, according to him, the Cape Gustav Holm is named. He claimed the land for the Kingdom of Denmark in possession and named it after the then Danish King Christian IX. " Kong Christian IX's Land". But the most important achievement of this expedition was to contact the hitherto living in absolute isolation Inuit in the territory of the present municipality Ammassalik. Overall, lived there at that time about 400 people in eleven scattered settlements until 1894, the settlement Tasiilaq ( Ammassalik ) was founded. The effect of the " discovery" of the East Greenlanders by Holm is controversial: on the one hand, brought the Europeans diseases, alcoholism and social transformations which on the other hand is believed that the small settlements of the east coast was saved from extinction by the following modernization, as the population due to greatly from natural disasters and famine at that time decreased. Gustav Holm brought from his scouting trip with about 500 valuable artifacts that today the Greenland National Museum ( Kalaallit Nunaata Katersugaasivia ) can be seen in Nuuk. Another important finding was the evidence that it was the Grænlendingar at Ammassalik not the hitherto suspected, sometimes, there Eystribyggð ( Ostsiedlung ). The term "women's boat expedition " for this expedition is derived from the essential role of the Greenland umiaks in exploring the fjords of the east coast.

Naval career

After his voyages of discovery Gustav Holm held several high offices in the Danish Navy. In 1899 he was promoted to Commander, after which he was to 1909 as Director of the Hydrographic Society.

Familial

Gustav Holm was the son of a naval officer Peter Christian Holm (1807-1864) and his wife Margaret Louise Holm, born Hetsch ( 1824-1876 ). He married on November 16, 1886 Anne Mathea Heiberg ( 1845-1934 ). His daughter Naja Marie Heiberg Holm (1887-1918) was the polar explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen (1880-1971) married.

Honors

  • Prix ​​de la Roquette Société de géographie (1890)
  • Gold Medal of the Royal Danish Geographical Society (1895 )
  • Dannebrogorden (1909 )
  • Honorary Member of the Greenlandic society (1923 )
  • Honorary Doctor of the University of Copenhagen (1929 )

Works

  • G. Holm: Meddelelser om Greenland, ii, vi, ix, x, xvi. Copenhagen in 1879.
  • G. Holm, V. Garde: The danske Konebaads expedition til Grønlands Østkyst 1883-1885. Copenhagen 1887.
  • G. Holm: Om de geografiske Farhold i dansk Østgrønland. Copenhagen 1889.
Christian IX of Denmark Dansk biografisk leksikon
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