Steffen, Hans b.July 20, 1865; Furstenwerder (Brandenburg), Prussia d.April 7, 1936; Clavadel, Switzerland
German geographer, hydrographer, and specialist on Chile and Patagonia. After finishing school in Charlottenburg, he entered the University of Berlin and studied history with Ernst Curtius and Theodor Mommsen and later geography at the University of Halle an der Saale.
He received his doctorate under the supervision of Alfred Kirchhoff in 1886 with a work on Lower Franconia and Aschaffenburg. In 1889, through the intervention of Ferdinand von Richthofen, he was called to the Pedagogical Institute of the University of Santiago de Chile as professor of history and geography. Although he soon submitted his first publications on the history of the voyages of discovery, he did not like the integration of history and geography into one academic field.The purpose of his first expedition was to collect data for the later demarcation of the frontier between Argentina and Chile. In the international treaty the location of the border was considered to be a line that connected the highest Andean elevations with each other and formed the continental divide. The results of his first study trip into the Andean region of Lago Llanquihue and Lago Todos los Santos proved the political benefit of his hydrographical research on the continental divide. As a consequence, he was able to carry out in the course of the next few years, with state support, several expeditions to Patagonia and to investigate the river systems there. He published the result of his journeys in numerous essays in geographical journals. The quality of these works on the orohydrography of the Andes region brought him, between 1899 and 1902, the assignment as scientific specialist on the border commission for the establishment of the border between Argentina and Chile. In this capacity Steffen participated in the mediation talks in London under the chairmanship of King Edward VII, which ended with the king’s ruling in November 1902.
From 1903 until 1914, he dedicated himself to the comprehensive interpretation of his exploratory trips but also to related themes, such as the causes and effects of the Valparaiso earthquake of 1906 or the description of the part German scientists played in the geographic and geological exploration of Chile. He relinquished his responsibility for training students in 1914 on health grounds. He first went to Berlin, but his pulmonary ailments soon caused him to resettle in Clavadel in Switzerland, where he could devote himself completely to the scientific analysis of his findings. It was here that he wrote his great two-volume work on western Patagonia as well as the comprehensive memoir of his expeditions. Despite the great time gap between the political negotiations and the writing of his recollections, one can still detect his inner turmoil over the subordination of scientific and technically reasonable viewpoints to diplomatic considerations. During his literary labors, he followed the continued scientific exploration of Chile and especially Patagonia. Prints, journal articles, and maps concerning Chile and South America were, together with his travel diaries, notes, sketches, lecture manuscripts, and photographs or slides from the years 1892 through 1912, provided by his will as a legacy to the Ibero-Amerikanische Institut (Ibero-American Institute) in Berlin. Steffen was honored during his lifetime with his name being attached to prominent landscape features. The Chilean navy named an estuary after him, even before 1900—Estero Steffen (Steffen Estuary). In the immediate vicinity of the estuary, there are also to be found the promontory, Punta Steffen, and the glacier tongue, Ventisquero Steffen.Wolfgang Crom
See also Argentina; Chile
References and Further Reading
Carrasco, Domingues, German. Hans Steffen—Pedagogo, Geografo, Explorador, Experto en Limites. Santiago de Chile: Ed. University, 2002.
Donoso Rauld, Francisco J. Hans Steffen. El Geografo de la Patagonia. Santiago de Chile: Ed. Platero, 1994.
Quelle, Otto. “Zur Erinnerung an Hans Steffen.” Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut 10 (1936/37): 508-510.