Jan Eskymo Welzl

January Welzl, called Eskimo Welzl respectively Arctic Bismarck ( born August 15, 1868 in High ad March, Moravia, † September 19, 1948 in Dawson, Canada) was a Czech adventurer, world traveler, author, inventor, and Eskimo chief.

Biography

Welzl was the eldest son of a grocer and a Hutmachergesellen. The pot Hannes as the young Welzl was called because of the work of his mother as a milk-woman in the house under the arcades, lost an early age his father. After leaving school he began a locksmith apprenticeship in Schmole and went after their completion in 1884 over Vienna and Genoa on tour to Bosnia, Serbia and Romania. After returning to his hometown, he did his military service and traveled to Hamburg and was hired as a machinist and kitchen staff on a ship.

Then he sailed from Genoa in 1888 as a stoker almost the entire world and went to Russia, where he abheuerte in Vladivostok to learn about the Lake Baikal and in 1893 the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway cooperated. Subsequently, Welzl suggested by through Siberia to the Arctic Ocean and on the New Siberian Islands. There he worked as a bear hunter, whalers and fur traders. He also drove in the settlements with his dog sled goods and mail. Welzl, that of the native population Moojok Ojaak ( bear -eater ) and was named by the European-descended settlers Arctic Bird or Arctic Bismarck, in 1903 elected by the Eskimos on the New Siberian Islands to the judge and chief.

From Siberia Welzl traveled with his ship Seven Sisters Alaska and washed in the Yukon River Gold. On a trip to North America in 1924 in Seattle, he suffered shipwreck and was picked up without papers and sent back as a suspect to Europe. About Hamburg and Prague, he returned the end of 1928 after more than 30 years after Zábřeh, where he held well-attended lectures on his world travels and adventures. The Lidové noviny was interested in his life story and Welzl in 1929 went to Brno, where he co-wrote with the editors Eduard Valenta and Bedřich Golombek several books about his life.

Welzls autobiographical narratives came to a great interest. Karel Čapek wrote for the books Eskimo Welzl, Thirty Years in the Golden North and On the Trail of the Polar treasures prefaces and president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk received him. However, he was suspected by scientists of the imposture, as the New Siberian Islands were considered uninhabited and his experiences were presented as fictional.

Welzl longed soon returns to nature in the Arctic back. A trip to the New Siberian Islands, which now belonged to the Soviet Union, was not readily possible. Since he had travel ban still in the U.S., was denied the return to Alaska and he went to Canada. To finance his enterprises, he worked for a railroad and steamship company in Dawson. After his back injury in 1930 he was able to make a living no longer earn themselves and had to rely on support. This he could not realize his plans for a return to the New Siberian Islands.

The last eight years of his life Eskimo Welzl with his dog as a hermit in Dawson and tried mobile at the invention of a perpetual motion machine.

Honors

After his death in an alley in the city center was named after him in his hometown of Zábřeh. 1998 created by Stanislav Lach statue in front of the railway station was inaugurated by Zábřeh. Posthumously, he was awarded honorary citizenship of Zábřeh in 2000.

Welzl gave its name to several events in Zábřeh, such as the Festival Welzlování and Welzls Filmobile.

On 24 September 1998, the asteroid 15425 was given in his honor the name Welzl.

Works

• On the trail of Polar treasures
• Eismärchen
• The affliction of the Eskimo chieftain in Europe
• Thirty Years in the Golden North, 1930
• Eskimo Welzl