Name Hermann Schlagintweit | ||
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Died January 19, 1882, Munich, Germany | ||
Hermann Schlagintweit, Sakünlünski (13 May 1826 – 19 January 1882), also known as Hermann Rudolph Alfred von Schlagintweit-Sakünlünski, was a German explorer of Central Asia.
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Life
The eldest of the five Schlagintweit brothers of Munich, along with his brother Adolph, he published a scientific study of the Alps in 1846–1848. They established their reputation with the Untersuchungen über die physikalische Geographie der Alpen (1850), and were afterwards joined by brother Robert, and jointly published Neue Untersuchungen über die physikalische Geographie und Geologie der Alpen in 1854.
In 1854, acting on the recommendation of Alexander von Humboldt, the East India Company commissioned Hermann, Adolf, and Robert to make scientific investigations in their territory, and particularly to study the Earth's magnetic field. For the next three years, they travelled through the Deccan, then up into the Himalayas, Karakoram, and Kunlun mountains. Hermann and Robert were the first Europeans to cross the Kunlun, for which achievement Hermann received the title "Sakünlünski".
Hermann visited Nepal, then returned to Europe, where with Robert he published Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia (four vols., 1860–1866). He spent the remainder of his life in literary and scientific work, both at Munich and at the Schloß Jägersburg castle near Forchheim.