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Name: FISCHER, Gustav Adolf (Dr.)

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Birth Date: 3 Mar 1848 Barmen, Germany

Death Date: 11 Nov 1886 Berlin

Nationality: German

First Date: 1876

Profession: German scientist and naturalist; he first proceeded from Pangani to Kilimanjaro, and then across Masailand to Naivasha, but near there he was stopped by Masai and after some sharp fighting with the warriors, had to return.

Area: He was the first European to discover the Rift Valley

Author: Das Masai-Land (1885); Mehr Licht im Dunkeln Weitteil (1885)

Book Reference: Gillett, Permanent Way, Oswald, Thomson, UJ, Ylvisaker, Chandler, Wikipedia

General Information:

Permanent Way - In 1889, when F.J. Jackson reached Kavirondo ... 'the natives stated that the only white man who had ever passed through their country was Dr. Fischer.'  
Oswald - It was in the Kendu area that Dr Fischer, in 1886, experienced considerable hostility at the hands of the natives after an Arab slave-trading expedition.   
Thomson - 1883 - 'I was, however, more especially interested in hearing about the movements of a German naturalist named Dr. Fischer. This gentleman had spent many years on the coast and had been commissioned by the Hamburg Geographical Society to penetrate into the very regions for which I myself was bound.'
Uganda Journal - Vol 23, p.146 - Captain Smith's Expedition to Lake Victoria - German naturalist and explorer. 1876 physician at Zanzibar; 1882-3 discovered Rift Valley and Lake Naivasha 12 months before Joseph Thomson's journey; 1885-6 led expedition to relieve Dr Junker, reaching south end of Lake Victoria and returning via Lake Baringo
Ylvisaker - In the late 1870s other Germans explored the area of the Tana and Ozi and included Witu in their itineraries. G.A. Fischer and Clemens Denhardt made a journey partly sponsored by the merchant houses of Hansing and O'Swald, who wish to explore trading possibilities in the area. Fischer and Denhardt were well treated at Witu, where Ahmed promised them land should they settle within his domain. From 1876 to 1885 these Germans and others publicized the idea of Witu as a trading centre and station of German influence.
Wikipedia: He was born at Barmen. In 1876 he accompanied Clemens Denhardt's expedition to Zanzibar, where he settled as a physician. In the following year he explored Wituland and the southern Oromo country. In 1878 he continued his journey to Wapokomoland and along the Tana River to Massa. With the support of the Geographical Society of Hamburg he visited the Maasai country in 1882 and penetrated from the mouth of the Pangani River to Lake Naivasha. The Maasai prevented him from advancing further. Equipped with funds by the brother of Wilhelm Junker, an explorer, who with Emin Pasha and Gaetano Casati had been lost in the equatorial provinces, he organized a relief expedition which, however, was compelled to return after reaching Lake Victoria. Shortly after his return to Germany in 1886 he died of a bilious fever contracted during his journey. He is commemorated in the names of a number of animals, including Fischer's lovebirdAgapornis fischeri Fischer's starling (Lamprotornis fischeri) and also a number of plants, including Gutenbergia rueppellii var. fischeri and Ligularia fischeri (Fischers ragwort).

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