First Edition Books and Rare Art

Hermann Schlagintweit, Sakünlünski (13 May 1826 – 19 January 1882), also known as Hermann Rudolph Alfred von Schlagintweit-Sakünlünski, the great German explorer of Central Asia was the eldest of the five Schlagintweit brothers from Munich.

His earliest work was scientific study in the Alps, 1846-1848, along with his brother Adolph. They established their reputation with the Untersuchungen über die physikalische Geographie der Alpen (1850), and were afterwards joined by brother Robert, jointly publishing Neue Untersuchungen über die physikalische Geographie und Geologie der Alpen in 1854.

Apart from academic work, he was an able artist and produced one of the most captivating panoramic views of Tibetan landscapes – The Salt Lake Tsomognalari, in Pangkong.

Adolf Schlagintweit (9 January 1829 – 26 August 1857) was a German explorer  of Central Asia.

The second of the five Schlagintweit brothers of Munich, his earliest work was scientific study in the Alps, 1846-1848, along with his brother Hermann. They established their reputation with the Untersuchungen über die physikalische Geographie der Alpen (1850), and were afterwards joined by brother Robert; the three 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 Himalayan, Karakoram, and Kunlun mountains.

While Hermann and Robert returned from their travels in early 1857, Adolf remained for further exploration, but with no trial was beheaded in Kashgar by Wali Khan, the amir of Kashgar, in August of that year as a suspected Chinese spy. The circumstances of his death were not known in Europe until 1859, when Chokan Valikhanov visited Kashgar disguised as a merchant and successfully returned to the Russian Empire.

Eduard Schlagintweit (23 March 1831 – 1866) was the third of the five Schlagintweit brothers of Munich.

He wrote an account of the 1859-1860 Spanish- Moroccan War.

He was killed in the Battle of Kissingen in 1866.

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

The fourth of the five Schlagintweit brothers of Munich, at an early age he joined his brothers Hermann and Adalf 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. Starting in Boston with the Lowell Institute with a series of twelve lectures on “Orography and Physical Georgraphy of High Asia,” he gave lectures throughout the United States. He also explored the Pacific coast and wrote several books on American subjects, including Die Pacificeisenbahnen in Nordamerika (1870), Kalifornien (1871), Die Mormonen (1874), and Die Prärien des amerikanischen Westens (1876).

Emil Schlagintweit (7 July 1835 – 29 October 1904) was a German scholar noted for his work on Buddhism in Tibet.

Schlagintweit was the youngest of the five Schlagintweit brothers of Munich. His father was a wealthy eye-surgeon, his mother died when he was quite young, and he was tutored by Franz Joseph Lauth, later a noted Egyptologist. The brothers’ interest in exploration was sparked by Alexander von Humboldt’s Cosmos, the first volume of which appeared in 1845, and which led to their explorations of the Alps and in turn to Asia’s mountains.

After his brother Hermann’s death in 1882, he inherited Schloß Jägersburg, their large estate near Forchheim, and the brothers’ collections and papers. Not an explorer himself, he sold 102 Tibetan manuscripts and block- books collected by his brothers to the Bodleian Library at Oxford University where they remain.

His work was later used by Helena Blavatsky as evidence for her interpretations of  “esoteric” Buddhism.

The three brothers: Hermann, Adolf and Robert, published Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia undertaken between the years MDCCCLIV and MDCCCLVIII in 1861, with lavish plates illustrating Himalayan landscapes.

Tags: 19th century, Central Asia explorers, explorer, Himalaya, Schlagintweit, Tibet

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