Theodor von Heuglin | |
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| Born | Martin Theodor von Heuglin (1824-03-20)20 March 1824 |
| Died | 5 November 1876(1876-11-05) (aged 52) |
Martin Theodor von Heuglin (20 March 1824,Hirschlanden,Württemberg – 5 November 1876), was a Germanexplorer andornithologist.
Heuglin was born in Hirschlanden (now part of Ditzingen) in Württemberg. His father was aProtestantpastor, and he was trained to be aminingengineer. He was ambitious, however, to become a scientific investigator of unknown regions, and with that object studied the natural sciences, especiallyzoology.[1]
In 1850 he went toEgypt where he learntArabic, and visited theRed Sea andSinai. In 1852 he accompanied Dr. Christian Reitz,Austrian consul atKhartoum, on a journey toEthiopia, and after Reitz's death was appointed his successor in the consulate. While he held this post he travelled in Ethiopia andKordofan, making a valuable collection of natural history specimens. In 1857 he journeyed through the coast lands of the African side of the Red Sea, and along theSomali coast.[2]
In 1860 he was chosen as leader of an expedition to search forEduard Vogel, his companions includingWerner Munzinger, Gottlob Kinzelbach, andHermann Steudner. In June 1861 the party landed atMassawa, having instructions to go direct to Khartoum and then toOuaddai, where Vogel was thought to be detained. Heuglin, accompanied by Hermann Steudner, made a wide detour through Abyssinia and theGalla country, and in consequence the leadership of the expedition was taken from him. He and Steudner reached Khartoum in 1862 and there joined the party organized byAlexine Tinne and her mother Henriette Tinne-van Capellen, who then had just returned from aWhite Nile journey toGondokoro. With both women and on their own account they explored a great part of theBahr-el-Ghazal, where Steudner died of fever on 10 April 1863 and Alexine's mother on 20 July.[3]
After having reached Cairo with Alexine Tinne, Heuglin returned to Europe in February 1864. In 1870 and 1871 he made a valuable series of explorations inSpitsbergen andNovaya Zemlya; but 1875 found him again in north-east Africa, in the country of the Beni, Amer and northern Abyssinia. He was preparing for an exploration of the island ofSocotra, when he died inStuttgart. It is principally by his zoological, and more especially his ornithological, labours that Heuglin has taken rank as an independent authority.[3]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Heuglin, Theodor von".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 415–416.