Hans Schomburgk, was a German adventurer, filmmaker and until 1912 a big-game hunter.

Schomburgk participated in a number of expeditions throughout sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to being a big-game hunter, he also procured African animals for European zoos, including such curiosities as the pygmy hippopotamus

Pygmy Hippopotamus

The pygmy hippopotamus is a large mammal native to the forests and swamps of western Africa . The pygmy hippo is reclusive and nocturnal...

. Schomburgk is credited as being the first European to visit the Schikande River and Lake Sengwe of southern Angola. Also, he took part in the manufacture of the first map of western Liberia

Liberia

Liberia , officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Sierra Leone on the west, Guinea on the north and Côte d'Ivoire on the east. Liberia's coastline is composed of mostly mangrove forests while the more sparsely populated inland consists of forests that open...

.

Schomburgk is remembered today for his "ethnodramas" filmed on location in Africa. From 1922 until 1925 he was married to German actress Meg Gehrts (1891-1966), who was featured in his Weisse Göttin der Wangora (The White Goddess of the Wangora), a movie filmed in Togoland

Togoland

Togoland was a German protectorate in West Africa from 1884 to 1914, encompassing what is now the nation of Togo and most of what is now the Volta Region of Ghana. The colony was established during the period generally known as the "Scramble for Africa"...

in 1913.

The following list are some of Schomburgk's better known African films:

• Im deutschen Sudan, (1913/1917)
• Tropengift (Tropical Poison), (1919)
• Im Kampf um Diamantenfelder (Fight for the Diamond Fields), (1921)
• Eine Weisse unter Kannibalen, (1921)
• Frauen, Masken und Dämonen, (1932)
• Das letzte Paradies (The Last Paradise), (1932)
• Die Wildnis stirbt (The Wilderness Dies), (1936)
• Hans Schomburgk - Mein Abschied von Afrika, (1958)