Ferdinand von Richthofen

Infobox Scientist
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caption = Ferdinand von Richthofen (1833-1905)
birth_date = May 5, 1833
birth_place = Carlsruhe, Prussian Silesia
death_date = October 6, 1905
death_place = Berlin
residence =
citizenship =
nationality = German
ethnicity =
field = geography
work_institutions = University of Bonn
University of Leipzig
University of Berlin
alma_mater = University of Breslau
University of Berlin
doctoral_advisor =
doctoral_students = Sven Hedin
Alfred Philippson
Arthur Berson
Wilhelm Sievers
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Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen (May 5, 1833 – October 6, 1905) was a German traveller, geographer and scientist.

Biography

He was born in Carlsruhe, Prussian Silesia, and was educated in Breslau and Berlin. He traveled or studied in the Alps of Tyrol (the portion of what is now Bolzano-Bozen, Italy) and the Carpathians in Transylvania. In 1860 he joined the Eulenburg Expedition, a Prussian expedition which visited Ceylon, Japan, Taiwan, the Celebes, Java, the Philippines, Siam, Burma between 1860 and 1862. From 1862 to 1868 he worked as a geologist in the United States discovering Goldfields in California. This was followed by several more trips of China, Japan, Burma and Java. He published his geographical, geological, economic, and ethnological findings in three volumes with an atlas. In China he located the dried-up lake bed of Lopnur.

He was also Professor of Geology at the University of Bonn beginning in 1875, Professor of Geography at the University of Leipzig in 1883, and Professor of Geography at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin in 1886. Among his most famous students was Sven Hedin, the Swedish explorer. He served as President of the German Geographical Society for many years, and founded the Berlin Hydrographical Institute.

He is noted for coining the terms "Seidenstraße" and "Seidenstraßen" = "Silk Road(s)" or "Silk Route(s)" in 1877. ["Approaches Old and New to the Silk Roads" Vadime Eliseeff in: "The Silk Roads: Highways of Culture and Commerce". Paris (1998) UNESCO, Reprint: Berghahn Books (2000), pp. 1-2. ISBN 92-3-103652-1; ISBN 1-57181-221-0; ISBN 1-57181-222-9 (pbk)] [Waugh, Daniel. (2007). "Richtofen's "Silk Roads": Toward the Archaeology of a Concept." "The Silk Road". Volume 5, Number 1, Summer 2007, p. 4.] He also standardized the practices of chorography and chorology.

He died in 1905 in Berlin.

When William Gill consulted him about a planned trip to China, he remarked:

Ferdinand von Richthofen was an uncle of the World War I flying ace Manfred von Richthofen, best known as the "Red Baron".

The mountain range on the southern edge of the Gansu corridor in western China was named Richthofen Range after him, although the modern name is now Qilian Mountains.

Publications

* "Comstock Lode: Its Character, and the Probable Mode of Its Continuance in Depth" (1866)
* "China: The results of My Travels and the Studies Based Thereon" (1877-1912, 5 vols. and atlas)

References

Notes