A Farewell to Arms. Writer and traveler Heinrich Harrer: biography, activities, best books and interesting facts Internment camp and escape attempts

Heinrich Harrer

Harrer Heinrich - a wonderful Austrian mountaineer, explorer, traveler, writer.

WITH 1933 By 1938 I studied geography and played sports for a year at the university in Graz.

Harrer was an excellent skier. He was a candidate for the 1936 Olympics. However, the Austrian team boycotted these Games. However, he won the downhill competition during the World University Games.

Perhaps Harrer's most outstanding mountaineering achievement was the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger in 1938 year.

IN 1938 year Harrer became a member of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, and also joined the ranks of the SS. In 1997, after the release of the film “Seven Years in Tibet,” based on Harrer’s book of the same name, many questions arose about his Nazi past. Harrer admitted that his membership of the party was a "stupid mistake".

IN 1939 year, Harrer traveled to Pakistan as a member of a German mountaineering expedition whose goal was Nanga Parbat. The climbers failed to reach the top, however, they paved the way along the Diamra wall of this mountain. At the end of the expedition, all its members were captured by the British colonial authorities, in connection with the outbreak of the Second World War, and sent to a prisoner of war camp in India.

April 29, 1944 Harrer and three other prisoners managed to escape. Having made a long journey through the Himalayas, Harrer and his friend Peter Aufschnaiter in February 1946 years came to Lhasa. Harrer was destined to stay in Tibet for seven years. He became a close friend and advisor to the young Dalai Lama. After the capture of Tibet by Chinese troops in 1950 year, Harrer returned to Austria. Here he wrote his famous book “Seven Years in Tibet”, which was translated into 53 languages.

In subsequent years, he took part in a number of ethnographic and mountaineering expeditions, and made several first ascents in Alaska, Africa and Oceania.

IN 1958 Heinrich Harrer took up golf and became the Austrian amateur champion.

Heinrich Harrer and Dalai Lama

At the age of eighty, he continued to actively engage in alpine skiing.

For his more than 600 expeditions, Harrer was repeatedly awarded various awards. 23 books came from his pen.

Heinrich Harrer and the current Dalai Lama remained close friends throughout their lives. In 2002, Harrer was recognized by the Dalai Lama for his efforts to bring the situation in Tibet to the attention of the world community.

“No matter where I live, I will always miss Tibet. It often seems to me that even now I hear the cries of wild geese and cranes and the sound of their wings as they fly over Lhasa in the clear and cold moonlight. I sincerely wish that my story would bring a little understanding to people whose desire to live in peace and free has received so little sympathy in an indifferent world."- Heinrich Harrer, “Seven Years in Tibet.”

Heinrich was born in Hüttenberg, Austria in 1912, in the family of a postal worker and a housewife. From early childhood, the boy showed outstanding success in sports disciplines, so after graduating from school he entered the Karl-Franzens University in Graz, where he studied sports and geography.

In 1933, as a student, he voluntarily joined the Storm Troops of the National Socialist German Workers' Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei), which he later bitterly regretted more than once, claiming that he was simply a student who succumbed to the influence of political propaganda. Heinrich's true love was always the mountains: firstly, he was an excellent alpine skier, the main hope of the Austrian team at the 1936 Winter Olympics (Winter Olympics 1936),

the very ones that Austria boycotted at the last moment. Secondly, Heinrich was an excellent climber and mountaineer: possessing incredible endurance, he could overcome enormous distances along vertical cliffs, and this, coupled with good health, made him one of the best climbers of that time.

Together with his friend Fritz Kasparek, he climbed to the top of the four-kilometer (3,970 meters) North Face of the Eiger in 1938, becoming the first person on the planet to do so. At the last line before the summit, an almost vertical wall, they caught up with a group of climbers from Germany and continued the climb as one team. In 1959, Harrer published a book called “White Spider,” which details the conquest of this peak.

Immediately after return

Afterwards, Heinrich joined the SS with the rank of sergeant and became a member of the National Socialist German Workers' Party. A wedding soon followed to Charlotte Wegener, with whom he had a son, Ralph. However, already in 1939, Gernich went to British India as part of a team of four to climb Nanga Parbat, the ninth largest eight-thousander in the world, also one of the three most dangerous mountains to climb. However, even at the foot of the mountain they were captured by British soldiers, as war began in Europe.

Several weeks in a prisoner of war camp with constant escape attempts, a letter from Charlotte, which included a certificate of divorce - this seemed to be the end of the wonderful life that Harrer led at home in Austria. However, on April 29, 1944

and he and several other prisoners, including his friend Peter Aufschnaiter, managed to escape. Together they made a long journey through the Himalayas and a few months later reached the gates of the sacred Tibetan city of Lhasa, where Henry spent the next seven years.

He soon became a translator for the Tibetan government, and some time later met with the 14th Dalai Lama himself, at whose request he began construction of the first cinema in Lhasa. Soon Henry began teaching the Dalai Lama English, geography and some other subjects in order to acquaint the future ruler with the values ​​of the Western world. For the rest of their lives, Henry and the Dalai Lama remained close friends.

After returning to his homeland in Austria, Henry escaped punishment, since he was absent from the country during the war.

He did not hold any leadership positions in the government. For the rest of his life he was engaged in skiing and mountaineering; a museum was created in his hometown, where ethnographic materials from his 600 expeditions are stored.

In Austria, he wrote 23 books, two of which - "Seven Years in Tibet" and "The White Spider" - were translated into more than 50 languages. However, all his life Henry recalled those years when he lived in Tibet: “Wherever I live, I will always miss Tibet. It often seems to me that even now I hear the cries of wild geese and cranes and the sound of their wings when they fly over Lhasa in the clear and cold moonlight. I sincerely want my story to bring a little understanding to people whose desire to live in peace and be free has received so little sympathy in an indifferent world."

In memory of two Germans in Tibet July 25th, 2013

Ngari Rinpoche. Photo by Heinrich Harrer

Khampa hunters. Photo by Heinrich Harrer

Game of sho. Photo by Heinrich Harrer

Photo by Ernst Schaefer, leader of the German expedition to Tibet

Lhasa in 1938.

Heinrich Harrer in Tibet

Harrer Heinrich is a wonderful Austrian mountaineer, explorer, traveler, and writer. Born on July 6, 1912 in Guttenberg in the family of a postal worker. From 1933 to 1938 he studied geography and played sports at the university in Graz.

Harrer was an excellent skier. He was a candidate for the 1936 Olympics. However, the Austrian team boycotted these Games. However, he won the downhill competition during the World University Games.

Perhaps Harrer's most outstanding mountaineering achievement was the first ascent of the Eiger North Face in 1938.

In 1938, Harrer became a member of the National Socialist Workers' Party of Germany and also joined the ranks of the SS. In 1997, after the release of the film “Seven Years in Tibet,” based on Harrer’s book of the same name, many questions arose about his Nazi past. Harrer admitted that his membership of the party was a "stupid mistake".

In 1939, Harrer traveled to Pakistan as a member of a German mountaineering expedition to Nanga Parbat. The climbers failed to reach the top, however, they paved the way along the Diamra wall of this mountain. At the end of the expedition, all its members were captured by the British colonial authorities, in connection with the outbreak of the Second World War, and sent to a prisoner of war camp in India.

On April 29, 1944, Harrer and three other prisoners managed to escape. Having made a long journey through the Himalayas, Harrer and his friend Peter Aufschnaiter arrived in Lhasa in February 1946. Harrer was destined to stay in Tibet for seven years. He became a close friend and advisor to the young Dalai Lama. After the capture of Tibet by Chinese troops in 1950, Harrer returned to Austria. Here he wrote his famous book “Seven Years in Tibet”, which was translated into 53 languages.

In subsequent years, he took part in a number of ethnographic and mountaineering expeditions, and made several first ascents in Alaska, Africa and Oceania.

In 1958, Heinrich Harrer took up golf and became the Austrian amateur champion.

At the age of eighty, he continued to actively engage in alpine skiing.

For his more than 600 expeditions, Harrer was repeatedly awarded various awards. 23 books came from his pen.

Heinrich Harrer and the current Dalai Lama remained close friends throughout their lives. In 2002, Harrer was recognized by the Dalai Lama for his efforts to bring the situation in Tibet to the attention of the world community.

“No matter where I live, I will always miss Tibet. It often seems to me that even now I hear the cries of wild geese and cranes and the sound of their wings as they fly over Lhasa in the clear and cold moonlight. I sincerely wish that my story will bring some understanding to the people whose desire to live in peace and free has received so little sympathy in an indifferent world." — Heinrich Harrer, “Seven Years in Tibet.”

In his homeland in Guttenberg, Harrer founded a museum that contains a rich collection of ethnographic materials from various countries in Asia and Africa, as well as photographs and equipment of Harrer himself.

Harrer with friends and on various expeditions:

Harrer in Tibet:

Early years. Activities in the Third Reich

Born into a carpenter's family. Attended a real gymnasium in Kufstein. While still a high school student in 1917, he was drafted into the army. Served on the Italian front of the First World War. After graduating from high school, he moved to Munich, where he studied agriculture.

He started mountaineering from his youth. In 1929 and 1931 participated in German expeditions led by Paul Bauer to Kanchenjunga in Sikkim. During these expeditions, Aufschnaiter began to study the Tibetan language.

In 1933 he joined the NSDAP. In 1936-1939 Aufschnaiter was the manager of the German Himalayan Foundation (Deutsche Himalaya-Stiftung), which organized and financed Himalayan expeditions. The foundation itself was headed by Paul Bauer. In 1939, he led the Third Reich expedition to the top of Nanga Parbat (British India, now Pakistan).

Life in Asia

On September 3, 1939, after Britain declared war with Germany, he, along with other members of the expedition, was interned in the Dehradun camp. On April 29, 1944, Aufschnaiter, Heinrich Harrer and several other prisoners managed to escape. The fugitives divided into groups and went in different directions. Aufschnaiter and Harrer spent more than a year and a half in various regions of Tibet until they arrived in Lhasa on January 15, 1946. There they began to work as employees in the Tibetan administration. Aufschnaiter developed plans for the construction of a hydroelectric power station and sewerage system in Lhasa, carried out forest planting and regulation of river levels, and together with Harerr carried out a topographic survey of the Tibetan capital. In addition, he carried out archaeological excavations.

Due to the invasion of Tibet by Chinese troops, Aufschnaiter and Harrer were forced to leave Lhasa on December 20, 1950, along with the Dalai Lama's caravan. Harrer went straight to India, and Aufschnaiter stayed for almost a year in the southern Tibetan city of Gyantse. In 1952-1956. He worked in New Delhi as a cartographer for the Indian Army, and since 1956 as an agricultural expert at FAO. Lived in Kathmandu, received Nepalese citizenship. Visited areas of Nepal closed to foreigners. During one of his trips, he discovered valuable frescoes from the times of early Buddhism. In 1971 he secretly visited Tibet. Subsequently returned to Austria.

Bonus track)):

Many evaluate his life and books from the position of belonging to the Nazi party, drawing conclusions about the driving force of his sporting and scientific achievements.

Heinrich Harrer always regarded his stay in the ideological and military organizations of the fascists as forced and not fully conscious, although he tried not to advertise it. If you do not attach much importance to Harrer’s political views, you can only admire the tenacity and courage of this famous climber and traveler.

early years

He was born in 1912, in the small Austrian town of Obergossen, in the family of postal worker Joseph Harrer and his wife Johanna. In 1927 they moved to Graz, where Heinrich Harrer graduated from high school and entered Karl-Franz University. From 1933 to 1938, he studied geography and physical education, while being actively involved in mountaineering and alpine skiing.

He was a candidate for the 1936 Winter Olympics in Germany. But Austria boycotted it because ski instructors were classified as professionals, which denied them access to the Olympic slopes. In 1937, Heinrich Harrer won the downhill competition that was part of the World University Games, but mountaineering became his true passion.

North Face of the Eiger

By the time he finished his university course, Harrer had several mountain climbs of the highest difficulty category. Together with his friend and fellow countryman Fritz Kasparek, Heinrich Harrer goes to conquer the legendary “Wall of Death” - the northern edge of a huge granite pyramid 3970 meters high, called Mount Eiger in the Swiss Alps.

This wall remained unclimbed for a long time, although numerous attempts were made, which claimed dozens of lives. The routes along the northern slope of the Eiger were complicated by the geological structure of the peak and the climatic conditions in the area. The surface, smoothed by numerous avalanches, is almost completely covered with ice and has an average steepness of 75 degrees, and in some areas a negative slope.

The high frequency of rockfalls and avalanches and rapid weather changes made climbing the north face of the Eiger deadly dangerous. As a result, the authorities officially closed this slope to climbers, and mountain rescuers refused to rescue those who would go out on their own on this route.

July 24, 1938

Already on the wall, the Austrians Harrer and Kasparek teamed up with two German climbers - Anderl Heckmaier and Ludwig Wörg, who had more reliable equipment for walking on the ice surface. The joint attempt to climb was a success, despite several failures, when only insurance saved us, and getting into avalanches, from which only the reliability of the equipment, patience and perseverance saved us. Heinrich Harrer, whose books usually describe his various expeditions, later spoke about this event in the documentary story “The White Spider” (1959).

The success of the Austrian-German group of climbers, which occurred just three months after Austria joined Nazi Germany, was made by Nazi propaganda a symbol of the correctness of the aggressive policy of fascism. Harrer, along with other conquerors of the Eiger, received numerous titles and awards, as well as an audience with Hitler and other Nazi leaders.

Expedition to the Himalayas

Mountaineering was one of the sports that received special attention in Nazi Germany. In conquering new heights and traversing unknown routes, Hitler’s propaganda saw the symbolic meaning of the coming world domination of the Aryan nation. Connected with this was Hitler’s fascination with mystical teachings about Shambhala - the legendary country where superhumans live, possessing knowledge that makes them invincible and omnipotent.

According to legend, this monastery was located among the Himalayan peaks, perhaps in Tibet - a mysterious country where only a few foreigners managed to get and about which Europeans had no accurate information. Therefore, we know about several expeditions of German mountain climbers organized to study this area. It is not known whether the Himalayan expedition of 1939, which included Harrer, was aimed at searching for the mythical Shambhala, but this is what researchers often talk about, excited by the fact that the famous traveler hid his Nazi past for a long time.

Reconnaissance of the route to Nanga Parbat

The long journey, the result of which was the most famous book that Heinrich Harrer wrote - “Seven Years in Tibet”, was aimed at preparing for the conquest of one of the Himalayan peaks - the Nanga Parbat massif, located in the north-west of the Himalayas, on the territory of the then English colonies - India.

After a new path was found to the peak, which ranks third in the number of victims among those who tried to conquer it, German climbers were in Karachi by the beginning of the autumn of 1939, waiting for a ship to return to Europe. The ship was delayed. And soon after September 1 - the date of the start of the world war and after Great Britain entered it - September 3 - they found themselves in enemy territory and were arrested.

A successful escape

The energetic Austrian made attempts to escape - alone and as part of a group - from the very beginning of his arrest. After their team ended up in an internment camp located in the foothills of the Himalayas, the escape route became clear to Harrer - through the mountain passes to Tibet. Moving in the highest mountain region of the world, even for a trained athlete, is not an easy task and requires serious preparation, so this was not Harrer’s first attempt.

The regime in the camp, where the civilized British commanded, was obviously very different from the conditions that the Germans arranged for prisoners of war on the Eastern Front. Therefore, Harrer and his friends had a good opportunity to carefully prepare their escape. But even then, not everyone made it to the border of India and Tibet - many preferred to return to the camp. In Lhasa - the capital of Tibet - only Peter Aufschnaiter ended up with Harrer, who is often mentioned in which Heinrich Harrer wrote.

"7 years in Tibet"

The book that made Austrian contains a lot of information about the country, where access to foreigners was prohibited by law. There was a prediction by one of the sages, according to which Tibet would lose its independence after foreigners appeared in it. Therefore, at first, Harrer and his friend felt a hostile attitude from all Tibetans - both ordinary shepherds and noble officials.

It has changed largely due to changes in the main characters themselves - it is unlikely that the ordeals on the high mountain paths, encounters with the unusual way of life of the Tibetans, familiarity with their religion, which denies violence against any living creature, did not leave a trace in the soul of a person who, at first, even shared the arrogant Nazi ideas.

Dalai Lama Fourteenth

Tenjin Gyamtsho - the living incarnation of Buddha, the spiritual leader of Tibet, an inquisitive boy who wants to learn more about the world located thousands of kilometers from his homeland - is another hero of the book. Heinrich Harrer and the Dalai Lama, having met in 1940, maintained their acquaintance until Harrer's death in 2006, exerting a strong mutual influence on each other. It was from an Austrian, 26 years older, that the Dalai Lama learned a lot about the traditions of Europeans and the scientific and technical achievements of our time.

This led to accusations of Tibetan Buddhists by the Chinese authorities, who are sensitive to the issue of Tibetan independence, of having connections with the Nazis. On the other hand, the enormous authority of the Dalai Lama in world politics, who, despite his adherence to the most ancient religious doctrine, is a man inseparable from modern civilization, also originates in this communication between two young people who (especially judging by the 1994 film) became real friends.

Based on these events, Heinrich Harrer created his bestseller. “Seven Years in Tibet” - a book and a film based on it starring Brad Pitt - made his name famous throughout the world. Although, after returning to his homeland in 1950, he made many mountaineering and simply geographical expeditions, was engaged in diverse social activities, and published more than 20 books. Harrer often said that these were the brightest pages of his life, that since then Tibet has settled in his heart forever.