Reiss, Johann Wilhelm b.June 13, 1838; Mannheim, Baden d. September 29, 1908; Castle Konitz in Thuringia
German geologist and volcanologist who spent many years researching in South America with Alphons Stubel. Reiss undertook his first journeys in his youth in southern Germany and in 1856 traveled to Italy, where he hoped to find a cure for a chronic eye complaint.
He became interested in geology and mineralogy, especially volcanism. He followed this interest from 1858 to 1860 on a longer journey to Madeira, the Azores, and the Canary Islands. Reiss finished his studies after many interruptions and sojourns at various German universities, completing his doctorate in Heidelberg in 1864. Shortly thereafter he became qualified to assume a professorship (Habilitation) and became an associate professor. However, his restless nature soon led him to embark on new travels. Together with the geologists Karl von Fritsch and Alphons Stubel (he had met the latter on the Canary Islands) he traveled to the Greek island of Thera (Santorini) in 1865 to carry out a scientific study of the recent volcanic eruption there.Stubel and Reiss planned a great trip around the world, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) being their ultimate planned destination. After intensive preparations, the two geologists began their journey early in 1868. Although they had only intended to make a brief stopover in South America, they were so fascinated by the volcanic high mountain regions of the Andes that they spent eight years in South America. Following in the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt, whose descriptions they strongly criticized as being inaccurate, they first spent two years in Colombia where they examined a total of 22 volcanoes and collected 18,000 geological samples. The following four and a half years they spent in Ecuador, and this was the most productive period of their journey. However, they usually went separate ways, as had already been the case in Colombia.
This was partly because they wanted to collect as much material as possible and partly because of their different aims and scientific philosophies. Reiss made his headquarters in the capital Quito and undertook expeditions into the mountains from there. His geodetic and trigonometric observations were so exact that they served as the basis for topographical maps for almost a century. Among the volcanoes he examined were Pichincha, Atacatzo, Pasochoa, Corazon, Ruminagui, and Antisana, and on November 7, 1872, Reiss made the first ascent of Cotopaxi, the highest volcano on earth. Reiss and Stubel were supported in their research by the Ecuadorian president Gar- cιa Moreno, who was favorably disposed to the Germans, and the German geologist Theodor Wolf, who taught at the University of Quito. The two men met up again at the Pacific coast in the autumn of 1874 and sailed to Callao in Peru, planning to cross the Andes from there and travel on to the Amazon Basin and the east coast. But this plan was thwarted by the revolution in Lima. Thus forced to stay put for a longer period, they began archaeological excavations near the seaside resort of Ancon, where they found the burial grounds of a pre-Inca culture, probably their most important scientific discovery. They then separated again and Reiss undertook a daring crossing of the Cordilleras alone and traveled by raft along the Huallaga and the Amazon to Para (Belem). Physically and mentally exhausted, Reiss returned to Germany in 1876.Stubel, who returned from America a year later, and Reiss began the scientific analysis of the large amounts of materials they had collected. Their most important publication appeared from 1880 to 1887, an impressive three-volume work Das Todtenfeld von Ancon in Peru (The burial
grounds of Ancon in Peru), the product of their archaeological excavations. In 1881 Reiss moved to Berlin, where he occupied various positions on the committees of the Gesellschaft fur Erdkunde (Society of Geography) and the Gesellschaft fur Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte (Society of Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory).
In 1892 he retreated to the Castle Konitz in Thuringia, which he had bought some time before, and devoted himself to the analysis of the materials and observations from his expedition. But his willpower was no longer equal to the task. He finally capitulated before the immense masses of material he had brought back with him. Reiss produced nothing more of significance, apart from a few publications mainly on the petrography of Ecuador. Some of the materials were analyzed and reported on by other scientists to whom Reiss and Stubel had donated them. Reiss had become personally and scientifically so estranged from Stubel that communication between the two men broke down completely. His death was also tragic: he was found dead beside the gun with which he had intended to shoot jackdaws.Heinz Peter Brogiato
See also Humboldt, Alexander von; Stubel,
Moritz Alphons
References and Further Reading
Brockmann, Andreas, and Michaela Stuttgen, eds. Spurensuche. Zwei Erdwissenschaftler im Sudamerika des 19. Jahrhunderts. Ausstellungskatalog. Unna: Kreisverwaltung, 1994.
Henze, Dietmar. Enzyklopadie der Entdecker und Erforscher der Erde. Vol IV. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 2000, pp. 575-576.
Waller, Franz. Bilder aus Sudamerika 1868-1876. Wilhelm Reiss (1838-1908) zum 150. Geburtstag. Mannheim: Stadtisches Reiβ-Museum, 1989.