Wied-Neuwied, Maximilian Alexander Philipp Prinz zu b. September 23, 1782; Neuwied, Rhineland d. February 3, 1867; Neuwied, (Rhineland), Prussia
German naturalist and explorer in Brazil and North America. Maximilian zu Wied was the scion of a Rhenish noble family. After fighting in the Wars of Liberation and making intensive preparations for his journey, the prince of Wied began a voyage to Brazil in 1815, accompanied by a gardener and a hunter from the court at Neuwied, with the intention of combining his interests as a passionate hunter with the exploration of unknown lands in South America.
After a stay in Rio de Janeiro as the guest of Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, he set out for the coastal region north of Rio in August 1815, together with the ornithologist Georg Wilhelm Freyreiss (1789-1825) and the botanist Friedrich Sellow (1789-1831). Although only a few miles from the coast, this jungle area had scarcely been explored. The Indian peoples of the Coropo, Coroado, Puri, Pataxo, and Camacan lived here largely untouched by European civilization. Prince Maximilian spent several months among the Botokude before reaching Bahia (Salvador) in April 1817. His detailed ethnological observations, which he published in his travel account Reise nach Brasilien in den Jahren 1815 bis 1817 (Journey to Brazil in the Years 1815 to 1817, 2 vols., 1820— 1821), provided the first comprehensive description of this area. He devoted separate works of many volumes to the flora and fauna, describing numerous genuses for the first time (Beitrage zur Naturgeschichte Brasiliens [Contributions to the Natural History of Brazil], 1825—1833; Abbildun- gen zur Naturgeschichte Brasiliens [Illustrations on the Natural History of Brazil], 1822—1831). In 2005, more than fifty animals and plants bear his name. The expedition to Brazil made Maximilian famous, and his home at Neuwied became a meeting place for numerous learned visitors. Although Prince Maximilian’s expedition to Brazil was one of the most important achievements in exploration in the first half of the nineteenth century, it was almost forgotten for a long time. Intensive study of the prince of Wied has begun only recently; his works have been reissued with commentaries, his library studied, and his life and achievements commemorated in conferences and exhibitions. He was never entirely forgotten because of his second great journey—to the United States in 1832 when he was already fifty years old, and because of his companion, the Swiss artist Karl Bodmer (1809—1893) and his drawings of Indians.The destination of this expedition was the upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. As Duke Paul Wilhelm of Wurttemberg (1797-1860) had done nine years earlier, Maximilian started from St. Louis, and like Paul Wilhelm, made the acquaintance of William Clark (1770-1838) who had resided in St. Louis as the government representative for Indian affairs since the famous Lewis and Clark expedition. When Maximilian came into the Mississippi area he saw that conditions had changed dramatically there. The Indians had been expelled from their original settlement area and now lived in cramped conditions to the west of the river. This had led to increased tensions and fighting for a share of scarce resources among the Indians. Under the protection of the American Fur Company, Wied and Bodmer first reached Fort Union (founded 1829), and then in August 1833 they arrived at Fort McKenzie in what is now Montana, built only a year before. In his account of this journey (Reise in das Innere Nord-America in den Jahren 1832 bis 1834, 2 vols. 1839; English translations appeared in 1843 and 1906 as Travels in the Interior of North America), Wied described in considerable detail the trade between Indians and European settlers, the Indians’ appearance and clothing, and their culture and customs. The high point of the journey was their stay in Fort Clark in what is now North Dakota, near where the Mandan lived. They spent the winter of 1833 and 1834 among the Mandan and Hidatsa, studying their everyday life, social structures, and ceremonies.
Wied wrote detailed descriptions of all his impressions, while Bodmer sketched the world of the Mandan. His realistic paintings in particular were to become an important source for ethnographic studies up to the present day, their value all the greater because three years after their visit almost the entire tribe of the Mandan fell victim to an epidemic of smallpox. Thus, Wied’s report and Bodmer’s pictures became testimony to a culture that was irrecoverably lost.Heinz Peter Brogiato
See also Bodmer, Karl; Brazil; Indians in German Literature; Langsdorff, Georg Heinrich von; Paul Wilhelm Duke of Wurttemberg
References and Further Reading
Gesellschaft fur Naturschutz und Ornithologie Rheinland-Pfalz, ed. Maximilian Prinz zu Wied. Jager, Reisender, Naturforschender. Fauna und Flora in Rheinland-Pfalz: Beiheft; 17. Landau: Ges., 1995.
Lober, Ulrich, ed. Prarie- und Plainsindianer. Die Reise in das innere Nord-America von Maximilian Prinz zu Wied und Karl Bodmer. Ausstellungskatalog. Mainz: Hermann Schmidt, 1993.
Loschner, Renate, and Wolfgang Ulland. Die Reisen des Prinzen Maximilian zu Wied 1815-1817 in Brasilien.
Ausstellungskatalog. Berlin: Ibero- Amerikanisches Institut, 1982.
Roder, Josef, and Hermann Trimborn, eds. Maximilian Prinz zu Wied.
Unveroffentlichte Bilder und Handschrften zur Volkerkunde Brasiliens. Bonn:
Dummler, 1954.
Schach, Paul. “Maximilian, Prince of Wied (1782—1867), Reconsidered.” Great Plains Quarterly 14, no. 1 (1984): 5—20.
Thomas, Davis, and Karin Ronnefeldt, eds. People of the First Man: Life among the Plains Indians in Their Final Days of Glory. The Firsthand Account of Prince Maximilians Expedition up to the Missouri River, 1833-34. Watercolors by Karl Bodmer. New York: Dutton, 1976.