Katia and Maurice Krafft

Katia Krafft ( born April 17, 1942 in Soultz -Haut-Rhin Mulhouse or as Catherine Josephine Conrad; † June 3, 1991 at ounces) and Maurice Krafft ( born March 25, 1946 in Mulhouse or Guebwiller, † June 3, 1991 at ounces ) was a French couple. Both were volcanologists, geologists and nature photographer and videographer.

• 3.1 filmography
• 3.2 Publications (selection )

Career

Youth and Education

Maurice Krafft came as the son of physicians couple Raymond Krafft and Krafft Elisabeth, born Dopff, in Mulhouse and grew up with his older brother Bertrand in sheltered conditions in the near Pfastatt on. His nature-loving father in 1941 had founded the radiology department of the local hospital, and his paternal grandfather was an architect and senior urban planner in Strasbourg. From a young age Maurice was very interested in volcanoes and saw the first of them in 1953 on a vacation trip with his father to Stromboli. At the age of 14 he became a member of the Société géologique de France and had already observed a year later four major eruptions. He first attended a boys' school, later the Lyceum Jean -Henri Lambert, and then entered the University of Strasbourg, a study of geology.

Katia Conrad was also interested in early for volcanoes, but first they knew only from books and film documentaries. Later, she traveled with her parents to Sicily and Mount Vesuvius and experienced there first volcanic activity in reality. Her desire to be volcanologist, strengthened by this experience and she started at the University of Strasbourg, a study of geochemistry.

Study and volcano research

There, at the University of Strasbourg, Maurice and Katia Krafft Conrad got to know in 1966. As recently as the 1960s, the two traveled with fellow students to Vulcano and the French Massif Central and in 1968 to Iceland. In the same year Maurice cried stationed in Cernay "Equipe Vulcain " a group of young, just trained volcanologists and amateurs to life, in the sense of a rapid deployment force could quickly travel to eruptions. Katia took over doing the logistical tasks and developed in the course of the first portable gas analysis apparatus. In August 1970 the couple married and Katia took Maurice's last name.

The couple went on a low budget to Stromboli in Italy and photographed its constant small eruptions. When selling pictures she soon noticed that a huge demand for such documentation volcano was. In the same year 1970, she took several months tour to the volcanoes of Indonesia, research trips to Africa, Japan, Central and South America, Réunion, Hawaii and followed in Alaska. Within 20 years, the couple experienced more than 150 volcanic eruptions - a time record to this day. Her most famous expeditions led the Krafft in 1973 after the outbreak of Heimaey Eldfell where they were the only filmmakers on site after the evacuation of the island in 1983, Colo, 1986 Mount St. Augustine and two years later became Ol Doinyo Lengai. After the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 Maurice began to specialize in composite volcanoes. As a result, both pursued amplifies the target to film a devastating pyroclastic flow during his Abbgangs - a documentary for which only very rarely arise occasions.

The Krafft were her life unbound, had no children and had no academic obligations such as teaching at universities - although Katia began a dissertation, but did not complete them. Their goal was to live " according to the rhythm of the earth" and at any time can break anywhere. Their rural origin also determined their future lives to the effect that, as their home always remained faithful to the southern Alsace and cities avoided if possible. This they saw only as a necessary intermediate stations or places of professional contacts. 1977 had the two volcanologists acquired a residence in watts Willer, a quiet village not far from Soultz-Haut- Rhin. They stayed from time to time, only for a short time in this town and gathered in her house a plethora of movies, pictures and documents of all kinds.

Educational work

Katia and Maurice Krafft pursued both scientific and dokumentatorische goals and wanted to inspire the people for their work and the beauty of volcanoes with popular science presentations, giving them their personal charisma and obvious fun at work also was partly through numerous television appearances. To finance his enterprises, the couple gave countless lectures, published numerous books and produced five films with their own filming. At the same time both committed but also for the protection of the people who live in the shadow of volcanoes, and turned on behalf of UNESCO and the IAVCEI enlightening films which were informed about the dangers posed by volcanoes and in an emergency to be taken security measures.

As an ambitious project which Krafft pursued, inter alia, the establishment of the Maison du Volcan, a local information center at Piton de la Fournaise on Réunion, which was opened in 1991. In addition, left them in 1986 for the founding of Vulcania, the "European Park of Volcanism " in Saint -Ours, from. This idea, however, was not realized until several years after her death.

Death

End of May 1991 were the Krafft's just at the Montagne Pelée on the French Caribbean island of Martinique when they received from their colleagues Harry Glicken the news that the ounces to Kyushu show increased activity with numerous pyroclastic flows. Then they traveled immediately via Paris for just this volcano and arrived there on 29 May. In the evacuated zone, they came to a large group of photographers and news reporters, who also hoped to recordings of the currents. However, the weather was bad. Depth clouds and fog restricted visibility one on the mountain. When, after a few days came still no improvement, Maurice became impatient. He also undertook usually on the first visit of a volcano for a scenic flight over the mountain in order to gain an overview of a can - but now the Japanese media representatives had rented all available helicopters. The atmosphere in the abandoned suburb of Shimabara was tense. On the morning of June 3, the skies cleared and the local authorities gave the reporters permission to go into the higher-lying valley of Mizunashi River. The Krafft, Glicken, other scientists as well as some police officers and taxi drivers joined them. The three volcanologists traversed an evacuated village and took up positions a few hundred meters from the river bank, only about 30 meters above the valley floor. Where - apart from the numerous journalists - they built on their instruments. At this time collapsed 3.2 km further up on the crater rim a Lavanadel and the resulting pyroclastic flow - larger than any previous - overran the valley within a few seconds at a speed of approximately 100 kilometers per hour and temperatures around 450 degrees Celsius. His main arm rolled down the river, but foothills and spread to neighboring valleys over. All 43 people died - most immediately, some could still be transported to the hospital in Shimabara, before they too succumbed to their burns. The power had destroyed 179 houses.

Three days later, the Japanese police Katia and Maurice Krafft bodies found next to each other under a thin layer of pyroclastic ash lying. They were first laid out in Anyoji Temple of Shimabara and then transferred to France.

Discount

The scientific legacy of the pair consists of a nearly unique and collated with great meticulousness worldwide collection of documents, documents, paintings, prints and drawings of the different volcanoes. He is now deposited in the Muséum national d' histoire naturelle in Paris. The extensive footage ( over 300 hours on hundreds of rolls of film ), and well over 450,000 archived photographs are managed by the Association Images & Volcans. The traveling exhibition "Elements" of the Vulcania with 68 selected photographs of Krafft was first shown in Germany on 6 March to 27 May 2008 at the Geological Survey of North Rhine-Westphalia in Krefeld. In Vulcania also the distinctive red caps of the couple as well as Maurice's watch, the clock stopped at 15:18 are exhibited.

Awards

At the suggestion of Katia Krafft's mother since 1982 and the Académie de Strasbourg affiliated College was named in Pfastatt 1995, after her daughter and son in law. In addition, in the Alsatian community Ottmarsheim also carries a primary school its name.

Work

Filmography

• Volcans d'Europe
• Volcans d' Asie
• Volcans d' Afrique
• Les plus beaux volcans du monde
• L' Homme aux face Volcans

Publications (selection )

• Maurice Krafft: Guide des volcans d'Europe. Delachaux et Niestlé, Neuchâtel 1974.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: À l' assaut of volcans, Islande, Indonésie. Presses de la Cité, Paris, 1975, ISBN 2-261-00190-8.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Les Volcans. Draeger Vilo, Paris 1975.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: La Fournaise, volcan actif de l' île de la Réunion. Éditions Roland Benard, Saint- Denis in 1977.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Volcanos, le réveil de la Terre. Hachette - Réalités, Paris 1979, ISBN 2-01-005430- X.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Dans l' antre du Diable - volcans d' Afrique, Canaries et Réunion. Presses de la Cité, Paris 1981, ISBN 2-258-00904-9.
• Maurice Krafft: Le Monde merveilleux of volcans. Paris, Hachette Jeunesse 1981.
• Maurice Krafft: Questions à un vulcanologue - Maurice Krafft répond. Hachette - Jeunesse, Paris 1981.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Volcans et tremblements de terre. Les Deux Coq d'Or, Paris 1982, ISBN 2-7192-0204-5.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Volcans et dérives des continents. Hachette - Réalités, Paris 1984.
• Maurice Krafft: Les Volcans et leurs secrets. Nathan, Paris 1984.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Les plus beaux volcans, Alaska d' en Antarctique et Hawaï. Solar, Paris 1985.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Volcans et eruptions. Hachette - Jeunesse, Paris 1985.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Les Volcans du monde. Mondo, Vevey, 1986 ( German edition: The Volcanoes of the World Mondo, translated by Robert Schnieper, without an ISBN. ).
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Objectif volcans. Image Nathan, Paris, 1986, ISBN 2-7382-0555-0.
• Maurice Krafft, Roland Benard: Au cœur de la Fournaise. Éditions Nourault - Bénard, Orléans 1986.
• Pierre Kohler, Katia Krafft ( photos): Volcanoes - force from the earth. Discover in the series know, Gonrom, Bindlach, 1987, ISBN 3-8112-0947-7 ( Original title: Volcanos, translated by Traudl Lessing, German edition in Breitschopf, Vienna / Stuttgart 1987, ISBN 3- 7004-0431 -X).
• Katia and Maurice Krafft: Guide to the Virunga volcanoes. Enke, Stuttgart 1990.
• Katia and Maurice Krafft, François -Dominique de Larouzière: Guide des volcans d'Europe et des Canaries. Delachaux et Niestlé, Neuchâtel, 1991, ISBN 978-2-603-01155-3.
• Maurice Krafft: A guide to the volcanoes of Europe, 3 vols, Enke Verlag, 1984 ( Volume 1: General, Iceland, Volume 2: Germany, France, Volume 3: Italy, Greece)
• Maurice Krafft: Les Feux de la Terre, Histoire de volcans. Découvertes Gallimard, Paris 2003, ISBN 978-2-07-042900-4.