Heinrich Harrer
Encyclopedia
Heinrich Harrer (ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈhaʁɐ; July 6, 1912 – January 7, 2006) was an Austria
n mountaineer, sportsman, geographer
, and author
.
He is best known for his books Seven Years in Tibet
(1952) and The White Spider
(1959).
, Carinthia
. His father was a postal worker. From 1933 to 1938 Harrer studied geography
and sports at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz
. Harrer became a member of the traditional student corporation
ATV Graz.
He was designated to participate in the combined Alpine skiing competition
at the 1936 Winter Olympics
in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
. However, the Austrian Alpine skiing team decided to boycott the event due to a conflict regarding the skiing instructors' status as professionals. As a result, Harrer did not participate.
He won the downhill event at the following year's World Student Games.
Harrer was one of the four climbers who made the first ascent
of the North Face of the Eiger
, Switzerland
, with Anderl Heckmair, Fritz Kasparek
, and Ludwig Vörg
on 24 July 1938. This climb, described by Reinhold Messner
as "a glorious moment in the history of mountaineering and a great sensation, since several climbers had previously perished on the Face", made headlines around the world and is recounted in Harrer's book The White Spider
of 1958.
of March 1938, Harrer on April 1, 1938 joined the SS
where he held the rank of Oberscharführer
(Sergeant), and on May 1, 1938 he became a member of the Nazi Party. After their ascent of the Eiger's North Face the four climbers were received by and photographed with Adolf Hitler
. When in December 1938 Harrer married Lotte Wegener, daughter of the eminent explorer and scholar Alfred Wegener
, he did so in SS uniform. In his application for the marriage license that he as an SS man had to obtain from the SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt, Harrer had declared himself a member of the Sturmabteilung
(SA stormtroopers) since October 1933, i.e. years before the Anschluss
of 1938, when the SA was still illegal in Austria. Harrer later explained this as mere boasting: if already an SA man he wouldn't have had to become a member of the Nazi Party when joining the SS.
After returning to Europe in 1952 Harrer was cleared of any pre-war crimes and this was later supported by Simon Wiesenthal
. In his memoir Beyond Seven Years in Tibet Harrer called his involvement with the Nazi party a mistake made in his youth (i.e. in his mid-20s) when he had not yet learned to think for himself.
to the Diamir Face of the Nanga Parbat with the aim of finding an easier route to the peak. Having concluded that the face was viable, the four mountaineers were in Karachi at the end of August, waiting for a freighter to take them home. The ship being long overdue Harrer, Ludwig Chicken and Hans Lobenhoffer tried to reach Persia with their shaky car, but several hundred kilometers northwest of Karachi
were put under the "protection" of British soldiers and escorted back to Karachi, where Aufschnaiter had stayed. Two days later war was declared and on September 3, 1939 all were put behind barbed wire to be transferred to a detention camp at Ahmednagar near Bombay two weeks later. They considered escaping to Portuguese Goa
but when further transferred to Dehradun
, to be detained there for years with 1,000 other enemy aliens, they found Tibet more promising, the final goal being the Japan
ese front in Burma or China.
Aufschnaiter and Harrer escaped and were re-captured a number of times before finally succeeding. On April 29, 1944 after lunch, Harrer and six others, including Rolf Magener and Heins von Have (disguised as British officers), Aufschnaiter, the Salzburger Bruno Treipel (aka Treipl) and the Berliners Hans Kopp and Sattler (disguised as native Indian workers), walked out of the camp. Magener and von Have took the train to Calcutta and from there found their way to the Japanese army in Burma. The others headed for the closest border. After Sattler gave up on May 10, the remaining four entered Tibet on May 17, 1944, crossing the Tsang Chok-la Pass (5,896 metres or 19,350 feet) and thereafter split into two groups: Harrer and Kopp, Aufschnaiter and Treipel. On June 17 Treipel, exhausted, bought himself a horse and rode back to the lowlands. Several months later, when the remaining three were still without visas for Tibet, Kopp also gave up and left for Nepal (where he was handed over to the British within a few days).
which they reached on January 15, 1946, having crossed Western Tibet (passing holy Mount Kailash
), the South-West with Gyirong County
and the Northern Changthang
Plateau.
Harrer became a friend of the young 14th Dalai Lama
, who had summoned him to the Potala Palace after having seen him repeatedly in the streets below the palace through his telescope. He taught the Dalai Lama (who was eleven years old when they met) much about the outside world and effectively served as his tutor, in subjects ranging from geography to English.
In 1952, Harrer returned to Austria where he documented his experiences in the books Seven Years in Tibet
and Lost Lhasa. Seven Years in Tibet was translated into 53 languages, was a bestseller in the United States in 1954, sold three million copies and was the basis of films by the same title in 1956 and 1997
. He was portrayed by Brad Pitt
in the latter film.
, the Andes
, Ruwenzori (Mountains of the Moon) in Africa. He explored the Amazon
with the former king Leopold III of Belgium
. Harrer made the first ascents of Mount Deborah
and Mount Hunter
(both in Alaska
) in 1954. In 1962 he was the leader of the team of four climbers who made the first ascent of the Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya) in western New Guinea
, the highest peak in Oceania
. This and his pioneering expedition to reach the Neolithic
stone axe quarries at Ya-Li-Me are recorded in his memoir I Come From The Stone Age.
Harrer wrote more than 20 books about his adventures, some including photographs considered to be among the best records of traditional Tibetan culture. In the early 1980s, he visited Tibet again, and wrote a sequel to Seven Years in Tibet titled, Return to Tibet. He made approximately 40 documentary films and founded a museum about Tibet in Austria. In October 2002, the Dalai Lama presented Harrer with the International Campaign for Tibet
's Light of Truth Award for his efforts to bring the situation in Tibet to international attention. Harrer died on January 7, 2006 in Friesach
, Austria at the age of 93.
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n mountaineer, sportsman, geographer
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
, and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
.
He is best known for his books Seven Years in Tibet
Seven Years in Tibet
Seven Years in Tibet is an autobiographical travel book written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer based on his real life experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War and the interim period before the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet in...
(1952) and The White Spider
The White Spider
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer describes mountain climbing attempts of the "Eiger Nordwand" , including the first successful ascent....
(1959).
Athletics
Heinrich Harrer was born in the Austrian city of HüttenbergHüttenberg, Austria
Hüttenberg is a town in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in Carinthia in Austria. Heinrich Harrer was born in the town and a museum is dedicated to him today.-References:...
, Carinthia
Carinthia (state)
Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
. His father was a postal worker. From 1933 to 1938 Harrer studied geography
Geography
Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...
and sports at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz
Graz
The more recent population figures do not give the whole picture as only people with principal residence status are counted and people with secondary residence status are not. Most of the people with secondary residence status in Graz are students...
. Harrer became a member of the traditional student corporation
Corporation (university)
Corporation refers to different kinds of student organizations worldwide.Generally, universities in the various European countries have student organizations called corporations. The name is derived from the Latin corporatio meaning a body or group...
ATV Graz.
He was designated to participate in the combined Alpine skiing competition
Alpine skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics
At the 1936 Winter Olympics at Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, alpine skiing was arranged for the first time in the Olympics, a combined event for men and women....
at the 1936 Winter Olympics
1936 Winter Olympics
The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1936 in the market town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, Germany. Germany also hosted the Summer Olympics the same year in Berlin...
in Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a mountain resort town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the Oberbayern region, and the district is on the border with Austria...
. However, the Austrian Alpine skiing team decided to boycott the event due to a conflict regarding the skiing instructors' status as professionals. As a result, Harrer did not participate.
He won the downhill event at the following year's World Student Games.
Harrer was one of the four climbers who made the first ascent
First ascent
In climbing, a first ascent is the first successful, documented attainment of the top of a mountain, or the first to follow a particular climbing route...
of the North Face of the Eiger
Eiger
The Eiger is a mountain in the Bernese Alps in Switzerland. It is the easternmost peak of a ridge crest that extends across the Mönch to the Jungfrau at 4,158 m...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, with Anderl Heckmair, Fritz Kasparek
Fritz Kasparek
Fritz Kasparek was an Austrian mountain climber.Kasparek gained his first alpine experiences at the Peilstein in the Wienerwald mountains and in the Ennstaler Alps...
, and Ludwig Vörg
Ludwig Vörg
Ludwig 'Wiggerl' Vörg was a notable German mountaineer. With Heinrich Harrer, Fritz Kasparek, and Anderl Heckmair, he successfully climbed the north face of the Eiger in 1938, which was regarded as unclimbable at the time. He also made the first ascent of the West Face of Ushba in the Caucasus...
on 24 July 1938. This climb, described by Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner
Reinhold Messner is an Italian mountaineer and explorer from Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol "whose astonishing feats on Everest and on peaks throughout the world have earned him the status of the greatest climber in history." He is renowned for making the first solo ascent of Mount Everest without...
as "a glorious moment in the history of mountaineering and a great sensation, since several climbers had previously perished on the Face", made headlines around the world and is recounted in Harrer's book The White Spider
The White Spider
The White Spider by Heinrich Harrer describes mountain climbing attempts of the "Eiger Nordwand" , including the first successful ascent....
of 1958.
Nazi involvement
Immediately after the AnschlussAnschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
of March 1938, Harrer on April 1, 1938 joined the SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
where he held the rank of Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer
Oberscharführer was a Nazi Party paramilitary rank that existed between the years of 1932 and 1945. Translated as “Senior Squad Leader”, Oberscharführer was first used as a rank of the Sturmabteilung and was created due to an expansion of the enlisted positions required by growing SA membership...
(Sergeant), and on May 1, 1938 he became a member of the Nazi Party. After their ascent of the Eiger's North Face the four climbers were received by and photographed with Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
. When in December 1938 Harrer married Lotte Wegener, daughter of the eminent explorer and scholar Alfred Wegener
Alfred Wegener
Alfred Lothar Wegener was a German scientist, geophysicist, and meteorologist.He is most notable for his theory of continental drift , proposed in 1912, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth...
, he did so in SS uniform. In his application for the marriage license that he as an SS man had to obtain from the SS-Rasse- und Siedlungshauptamt, Harrer had declared himself a member of the Sturmabteilung
Sturmabteilung
The Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
(SA stormtroopers) since October 1933, i.e. years before the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....
of 1938, when the SA was still illegal in Austria. Harrer later explained this as mere boasting: if already an SA man he wouldn't have had to become a member of the Nazi Party when joining the SS.
After returning to Europe in 1952 Harrer was cleared of any pre-war crimes and this was later supported by Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal
Simon Wiesenthal KBE was an Austrian Holocaust survivor who became famous after World War II for his work as a Nazi hunter....
. In his memoir Beyond Seven Years in Tibet Harrer called his involvement with the Nazi party a mistake made in his youth (i.e. in his mid-20s) when he had not yet learned to think for himself.
Internment in India
In 1939 Harrer joined a four-man expedition, led by Peter AufschnaiterPeter Aufschnaiter
Peter Aufschnaiter was an Austrian mountaineer, agricultural scientist, geographer and cartographer.-Life:...
to the Diamir Face of the Nanga Parbat with the aim of finding an easier route to the peak. Having concluded that the face was viable, the four mountaineers were in Karachi at the end of August, waiting for a freighter to take them home. The ship being long overdue Harrer, Ludwig Chicken and Hans Lobenhoffer tried to reach Persia with their shaky car, but several hundred kilometers northwest of Karachi
Karachi
Karachi is the largest city, main seaport and the main financial centre of Pakistan, as well as the capital of the province of Sindh. The city has an estimated population of 13 to 15 million, while the total metropolitan area has a population of over 18 million...
were put under the "protection" of British soldiers and escorted back to Karachi, where Aufschnaiter had stayed. Two days later war was declared and on September 3, 1939 all were put behind barbed wire to be transferred to a detention camp at Ahmednagar near Bombay two weeks later. They considered escaping to Portuguese Goa
Portuguese India
The Portuguese Viceroyalty of India , later the Portuguese State of India , was the aggregate of Portugal's colonial holdings in India.The government started in 1505, six years after the discovery of a sea route to India by Vasco da Gama, with the nomination of the first Viceroy Francisco de...
but when further transferred to Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
, to be detained there for years with 1,000 other enemy aliens, they found Tibet more promising, the final goal being the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese front in Burma or China.
Aufschnaiter and Harrer escaped and were re-captured a number of times before finally succeeding. On April 29, 1944 after lunch, Harrer and six others, including Rolf Magener and Heins von Have (disguised as British officers), Aufschnaiter, the Salzburger Bruno Treipel (aka Treipl) and the Berliners Hans Kopp and Sattler (disguised as native Indian workers), walked out of the camp. Magener and von Have took the train to Calcutta and from there found their way to the Japanese army in Burma. The others headed for the closest border. After Sattler gave up on May 10, the remaining four entered Tibet on May 17, 1944, crossing the Tsang Chok-la Pass (5,896 metres or 19,350 feet) and thereafter split into two groups: Harrer and Kopp, Aufschnaiter and Treipel. On June 17 Treipel, exhausted, bought himself a horse and rode back to the lowlands. Several months later, when the remaining three were still without visas for Tibet, Kopp also gave up and left for Nepal (where he was handed over to the British within a few days).
Seven years in Tibet
Aufschnaiter and Harrer, helped by the former's knowledge of the Tibetan language, proceeded to the capital of LhasaLhasa
Lhasa is the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region in the People's Republic of China and the second most populous city on the Tibetan Plateau, after Xining. At an altitude of , Lhasa is one of the highest cities in the world...
which they reached on January 15, 1946, having crossed Western Tibet (passing holy Mount Kailash
Mount Kailash
Mount Kailash is a peak in the Gangdisê Mountains, which are part of the Himalayas in Tibet...
), the South-West with Gyirong County
Gyirong County
sKyid-grong is a former district in the south-west of Tibet and is from 1960 onwards a county of the newly established gZhis-ka rtse prefecture of the newly established Tibet Autonomous Region...
and the Northern Changthang
Changthang
The Changtang is a high altitude plateau in western and northern Tibet extending into southeastern Ladakh, with vast highlands and giant lakes. From Eastern Ladakh Changtang stretches approximately 1600 km east into Tibet, as far as the state of Qinghai. All of it is geographically part of...
Plateau.
Harrer became a friend of the young 14th Dalai Lama
14th Dalai Lama
The 14th Dalai Lama is the 14th and current Dalai Lama. Dalai Lamas are the most influential figures in the Gelugpa lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, although the 14th has consolidated control over the other lineages in recent years...
, who had summoned him to the Potala Palace after having seen him repeatedly in the streets below the palace through his telescope. He taught the Dalai Lama (who was eleven years old when they met) much about the outside world and effectively served as his tutor, in subjects ranging from geography to English.
In 1952, Harrer returned to Austria where he documented his experiences in the books Seven Years in Tibet
Seven Years in Tibet
Seven Years in Tibet is an autobiographical travel book written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer based on his real life experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War and the interim period before the Communist Chinese People's Liberation Army invaded Tibet in...
and Lost Lhasa. Seven Years in Tibet was translated into 53 languages, was a bestseller in the United States in 1954, sold three million copies and was the basis of films by the same title in 1956 and 1997
Seven Years in Tibet (1997 film)
Seven Years in Tibet is a 1997 film based on the book of the same name written by Austrian mountaineer Heinrich Harrer on his experiences in Tibet between 1944 and 1951 during the Second World War, the interim period, and the Chinese People's Liberation Army's invasion of Tibet in 1950. The film...
. He was portrayed by Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
in the latter film.
Later years
He also took part in a number of ethnographic as well as mountaineering expeditions: AlaskaAlaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
, Ruwenzori (Mountains of the Moon) in Africa. He explored the Amazon
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
with the former king Leopold III of Belgium
Leopold III of Belgium
Leopold III reigned as King of the Belgians from 1934 until 1951, when he abdicated in favour of the Heir Apparent,...
. Harrer made the first ascents of Mount Deborah
Mount Deborah
Mount Deborah is a mountain in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is one of the major peaks of the eastern Alaska Range. Despite its low absolute elevation , it is a particularly large and steep peak in terms of its quick rise over local terrain. For example, the Northeast Face rises 7000 feet in...
and Mount Hunter
Mount Hunter (Alaska)
Mount Hunter, or Begguya, is a mountain in Denali National Park in Alaska. It is approximately 8 miles south of Mount McKinley, or Denali, the highest peak in North America. "Begguya" means child in the Dena'ina language...
(both in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
) in 1954. In 1962 he was the leader of the team of four climbers who made the first ascent of the Carstensz Pyramid (Puncak Jaya) in western New Guinea
New Guinea
New Guinea is the world's second largest island, after Greenland, covering a land area of 786,000 km2. Located in the southwest Pacific Ocean, it lies geographically to the east of the Malay Archipelago, with which it is sometimes included as part of a greater Indo-Australian Archipelago...
, the highest peak in Oceania
Oceania
Oceania is a region centered on the islands of the tropical Pacific Ocean. Conceptions of what constitutes Oceania range from the coral atolls and volcanic islands of the South Pacific to the entire insular region between Asia and the Americas, including Australasia and the Malay Archipelago...
. This and his pioneering expedition to reach the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
stone axe quarries at Ya-Li-Me are recorded in his memoir I Come From The Stone Age.
Harrer wrote more than 20 books about his adventures, some including photographs considered to be among the best records of traditional Tibetan culture. In the early 1980s, he visited Tibet again, and wrote a sequel to Seven Years in Tibet titled, Return to Tibet. He made approximately 40 documentary films and founded a museum about Tibet in Austria. In October 2002, the Dalai Lama presented Harrer with the International Campaign for Tibet
International Campaign for Tibet
The International Campaign for Tibet is a private non-profit advocacy group working to promote democratic freedoms for Tibetans, ensure their human rights, and protect the Tibetan culture and environment. Founded in 1988, ICT is the world's largest Tibet-related NGO, with a total membership of...
's Light of Truth Award for his efforts to bring the situation in Tibet to international attention. Harrer died on January 7, 2006 in Friesach
Friesach
Friesach is a historic town in the Sankt Veit an der Glan district of Carinthia, Austria. First mentioned in a 860 deed, it is known as the oldest town in Carinthia.-Location:...
, Austria at the age of 93.
External links
- Heinrich Harrer Website
- Obituary in The TimesThe TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, 9 January 2006 - Obituary in The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, 9 January 2006 - Obituary in The New York Times, January 10, 2006
- Obituary CBS, January 7, 2006
- Seven Years in Tibet, Book Review at The Open Critic (1956)
- Harrer Museum Huettenberg