Krause,Arthur and Aurel Aurel, b. December 30, 1848; Polnisch Konopath (West Prussia), Prussia d. March 11, 1908; Berlin-Lichterfelde, Prussia Arthur, b. January 25, 1851; Polnisch Konopath (West Prussia), Prussia d. September 29, 1920; Berlin- Lichterfelde, Prussia
German explorers and ethnologists who explored the Bering Strait and Alaska. The brothers were born in Polnisch Konopath to the family of a West Prussian Junker. Aurel and Arthur attended the Gymnasium (university preparatory school) in Bromberg before they entered the University of Berlin to study natural sciences.
Aurel received his doctoral degree in 1877 and Arthur in 1879. Both brothers worked as teachers in Berlin. In 1881 they accepted an invitation by the Geographical Society of Bremen to explore the coastal regions around the Bering Strait. The goal of this endeavor was to learn more about the geography of the East Siberian Chukchi Peninsula and the southeastern part of Alaska. Via San Francisco, Arthur and Aurel reached St. Lorenz Bay on August 6, 1881, from whence both continued their trip around the coastline of Alaska by boat. They used their collected information to correct existing maps of Alaska. After they arrived at their main base in Chilkoot at the northern end of the Lynn Canal, they studied the life of the Tlingit. While Aurel returned to Germany in April 1882, Arthur remained behind for several more months. Arthur used this additional time to cross the Yukon and to make maps of the Chilkoot-Chilkat system before he, too, returned to Germany in the summer of the same year. Aurel and Arthur published their travel diaries and letters in several articles in the Deutsche Geographische Blatter (German Geographical News) and the Zeitschrift der Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde zu Berlin (Journal of the Society for Geography in Berlin). In addition, Aurel wrote a monograph about their ethnographic research among the native people of Alaska that was published in 1885 under the title Die Tlinklit-Indianer (The Tlingit Indians). Aurel Krause’s treatment of the Tlin- git Indians was considered a standard work for a long time and has not been superseded by any modern ethnography. It was translated into English and published in 1956 under the title The Tlingit Indians: Results of a Trip to the Northwest Coast of America and the Bering Straits. Their travel reports, originally published as articles in different journals, were reprinted in 1984 in a volume Zur Tschuktschen-Halbinsel und zu den Tlinklit-Indianern 1881/1882 (To the Chukchi Peninsula and to the Tlingit Indians 1881/1882, 1993).Heinz Peter Brogiato
References and Further Reading
Burger, Klaus. “Krause, Aurel.” Altpreuβische Biographie, vol. 5, section 1. Marburg: Elwert, 2000, pp. 1625—1626.
Henze, Dietmar. “Krause, Arthur und Aurel.” Enzyklopadie der Entdecker und Erforscher der Erde, vol. III. Graz, Austria: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 1986, pp. 76-77.