Haenke,T haddaus b. December 5, 1761; Kreibitz (Northern Bohemia),Austria d. November 11, 1816; Cochabamba, Spanish La Plata Province, Bolivia

Austrian naturalist who specialized in South America. Haenke is regarded as one of the most important naturalists of South America in the age of Alexander von Humboldt. He was to have participated on the scientific staff on the Spanish circumnavigation of the globe under the leadership of Alejandro Malaspina (1754-1810) from 1789 to 1794.

However, when he arrived in Cadiz, the expedition had already been gone for two hours. He sailed after the expedition on a cargo ship and was shipwrecked outside of Montevideo. Haenke lost parts of his equipment in the process. He undertook botanical expeditions on foot in Uruguay und Argentina and compiled extensive herbariums before crossing the Andes and arriving in Santiago where he met up with Malaspina in February 1790. For the next two years he accompanied the expeditions along the American West Coast as far as Alaska, in the course of which repeated forays on shore provided the opportunity for exploration and botanical excursions (Ecuador, Panama, California, and Alaska). Afterward he traveled across the South Pacific as far as the Philippines and back to South America. In Callao, Haenke once again left Malaspina to go to Argentina with a mule caravan from Peru. The trip led him to Cuzco and Arequipa, where he climbed the 5,800-meter-high (17,678 feet) Mount Misti and spent time with the Chunchos Indians. Starting from La Paz he did a cartographic survey of Lake Titicaca and explored the province of Mojos as its first scientific visitor. He finally settled down in Cochabamba, where he lived from 1796 until his death. Several more times he undertook trips to Mojos and continued his work on Lake Titicaca. On behalf of the Chilean government he made contributions primarily in resource utilization and applied botany (e.g., the production of medicines, agricultural utilization of plant materials, etc.).

Haenke is considered a true universal genius. His extensive investigations extended into medicine, botany, zoology, geology, and cartography. Only after his death did some of his manuscripts appear in print (Reliquiae Haenkianae, 1825; On the Southern Affluents of the River Amazonas, 1735). In 2002 a museum in honor of Thaddaus Haenke was founded at his birthplace in Kreibitz ( now Chribska in the Czech Republic).

Heinz Peter Brogiato

Haenke,T haddaus b. December 5, 1761; Kreibitz (Northern Bohemia),Austria d. November 11, 1816; Cochabamba, Spanish La Plata Province, Bolivia

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