Robert Schlagintweit

Robert Schlagintweit (24 October 1833 - 6 June 1885) was a German explorer of Central Asia who also wrote about travels in America.

The fourth of the five Schlagintweit brothers of Munich, at an early age he joined his brothers Hermann and Adolf in their Alpine researches, 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.

Subsequently Robert returned to Europe, and became a professor of geography at the university of Giessen in 1863. He made several trips to America between 1867 and 1870, where he gave lectures, and journeyed along the Pacific coast. He wrote several books on American subjects, including "Die Pacificeisenbahnen in Nordamerika" (1870), "Kalifornien" (1871), "Die Mormonen" (1874), and "Die Prairien des amerikanischen Westens" (1876).

References

* "Schlagintweit", 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica