 |
Heinrich Barth (1821-1865) may not be the best-known Africa explorer of the 19th century here in Germany, but academically he was probably the most important explorer. Throughout the world, geography, ethnology, linguistics and historical research in Africa take his work as a starting point, the object of which he himself once described as "the historical context of humanity with the rich structure of the world's surface". |
|
He was born on 16 February 1821 in Hamburg and studied philology, geography and history in Berlin. He completed his doctorate in 1844 with a study on the trade relations of ancient Corinth.
He was particularly interested in the Mediterranean region as the cradle and starting point for many diverse cultural and historical developments. It was in pursuit of this interest that from 1845 to 1847 he undertook his first journey from Spain ... |
