Heinrich Harrer
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Heinrich Harrer (July 6, 1912 – January 7, 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author.[1]
The dramatic rediscovery of his pre-war Nazi links made headlines in 1997, but he is best known for his books The White Spider and Seven Years in Tibet.
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[edit] Athletics
Heinrich Harrer was born in Hüttenberg, Carinthia, to 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.[1]
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 instructor's 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 July 24, 1938. This climb is recounted in the book The White Spider.
[edit] Nazi involvement
- Harrer's Nazi past was unknown until a 1997 article in the German magazine Stern, after which he said that his membership had been a "stupid mistake"[1]
Harrer became a member of the Sturmabteilung (SA, or "Brownshirts") in October 1933, when the Nazi Party (NSDAP) was illegal in Austria. He held the rank of Oberscharführer (Sergeant). In March 1938, Austria was annexed by the German regime, as a part of Grossdeutschland ("Greater Germany"). Harrer joined the Schutzstaffel (SS, or "Blackshirts") that same year and was photographed with Adolf Hitler.
[edit] Internment in India
From mid-1939, he took part in a German mountaineering expedition to the Himalayas, intending to climb Nanga Parbat, the ninth-highest mountain in the world. The peak was at that time within the borders of British India, and in late 1939, with the start of World War II, Harrer was detained by British colonial authorities as an enemy alien, and interned at Dehradun, along with 1,000 other enemy aliens.
[edit] Seven years in Tibet
He escaped and was re-captured a number of times before successfully escaping for good on May 10, 1944, with Peter Aufschnaiter and two Germans, Hans Kopp and Bruno Treipel. They considered heading for Goa, at that time a Portuguese colony and therefore a neutral country, but decided that it was too far away. They transited Mussoorie and Landour, forded the Aglar river at Thatyur, crossed the Nag Tibba range via Deolsari, descended to Uttarkashi and eventually passed Harsil, Bhaironghati and Nelang. On May 17, 1944, they crossed the Tsang Chok-la Pass (5,896 metres or 19,350 feet) and entered Tibet. (see editable map )
[edit] Post-war years
After traversing southwestern Tibet and stopping for extended periods in various towns, Harrer and Aufschnaiter entered Lhasa in February 1946. Kopp and Treipel had gone their separate ways, but Harrer and Aufschnaiter would remain in Tibet for a total of almost seven years. Harrer became a friend of the young Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, who had summoned him to the Potala Palace after having seen him repeatedly in the streets below the palace through his telescope. Harrer taught the Dalai Lama (who was eleven years old when they met) much about the outside world and effectively served as his tutor. The Dalai Lama has often credited Harrer's later writings about Tibet as having helped focus international attention on the plight of the Tibetan people after Communist Chinese control.
After the Communist army took over control in Tibet in 1950, 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, a best seller in the United States in 1954,[2] sold three million copies and was the basis of the 1997 film of the same title.[3]
He also took part in a number of ethnographic as well as mountaineering expeditions: Alaska, Andes, Ruwenzori (Mountains of the Moon) in Africa. Harrer recorded first ascents of Mount Deborah and Mount Hunter, 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 Jayadikesuma) in western New Guinea, the highest peak in Oceania. Mr. Harrer, who became a champion golfer in his later years, wrote more than 20 books about his adventures, some including photographs considered to be among the best evidence of traditional Tibetan culture. He made about 40 documentary films and founded a museum about Tibet in Austria. Harrer died on January 7, 2006 in Friesach, Austria at the age of 93.[2]
[edit] Bibliography
- Seven Years in Tibet (1953)
- Lost Lhasa
- The White Spider: The Classic Account of the Ascent of the Eiger
- Ladakh Gods and Mortals Behind the Himalayas
- Return to Tibet
- Tibet is My Country, the life story of the Dalai Lama's brother, Thubten Jigme Norbu
- I Come from the Stone Age (1965), the story of his ascent to Carstensz Pyramid in Netherlands New Guinea in 1962
- Denk ich an Bhutan (2005), "When I Think of Bhutan"
- Beyond Seven Years in Tibet: My Life Before, During, and After (2007), his full autobiography published in English
[edit] External links
- Obituary in The Times, January 9, 2006
- Obituary in The Guardian, January 9, 2006
- Heinrich Harrer at the Internet Movie Database
- Seven Years in Tibet, Book Review at The Open Critic (1956)
- Harrer Museum Huettenberg
[edit] References
- ^ a b William J. Kole. Mountaineer became tutor of young Dalai Lama, Brantford Expositor (ON). News, Tuesday, January 10, 2006, p. B9. accessed on October 6, 2006
- ^ a b Heinrich Harrer, 93, Explorer of Tibet, Dies By DOUGLAS MARTIN, The New York Times, 2006-01-10
- ^ Seven Years in Tibet at the Internet Movie Database
- Lehner, Gerald Zwischen Hitler und Himalaya. Die Gedächtnislücken des Heinrich Harrer. Czernin Verlag, Wien 2006. ISBN 3-7076-0216-8
