Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad Eduard Bornhardt (20 April 1864

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

- 2 December 1946

Goslar Goslar (; Eastphalian: ''Goslär'') is a historic town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the administrative centre of the district of Goslar and located on the northwestern slopes of the Harz mountain range. The Old Town of Goslar and the Mines ...

) was a German geologist, engineer and explorer, and was Director of the

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

College of Mines (Bergakademie) from 1907 to 1916. He explored and set out the groundwork of the geology of

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; german: Deutsch-Ostafrika) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, the Tanzania mainland, and the Kionga Triangle, a small region later incorporated into Mozam ...

. His published work consisted of two parts – an account of his travels and his geological findings. In 1896 he set out from

Lindi Lindi is a historic southern Tanzanian coastal small city and regional capital of the Lindi Region located at the far end of Lindi Bay, on the Indian Ocean in southeastern Tanzania. The town is south of Dar es Salaam and north of Mtwara, ...

Lake Malawi Lake Malawi, also known as Lake Nyasa in Tanzania and Lago Niassa in Mozambique, is an African Great Lake and the southernmost lake in the East African Rift system, located between Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. It is the fifth largest fre ...

where he stayed for ten months undertaking eight exploratory trips of the region. Afterwards he returned to the coast to write up his geology journals. In 1897 he explored the protectorate of

Dar es Salaam Dar es Salaam (; from ar, دَار السَّلَام, Dâr es-Selâm, lit=Abode of Peace) or commonly known as Dar, is the largest city and financial hub of Tanzania. It is also the capital of Dar es Salaam Region. With a population of over s ...

as far as the

Ruvuma Region Ruvuma Region (''Mkoa wa Ruvuma'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The regional capital is the municipality of Songea. According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 1,376,891, which was lower th ...

, the

Zanzibar Archipelago The Zanzibar Archipelago ( ar, أرخبيل زنجبار, sw, Funguvisiwa la Zanzibar) consists of several islands lying off the coast of East Africa south of the Somali sea. The archipelago is also known as the Spice Islands. There are four ...

and the

Usambara Mountains The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges of approximately long and about half that wide, are situated in the Lushoto District of the Tang ...

, carrying out some thirteen journeys. In all he covered about and prepared maps of the geology and vegetation of the regions he traversed. Bornhardt documented the existence of coal reserves in present-day

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

in 1896 when he explored the Songwe

Kiwira Kiwira is an administrative ward in the Rungwe district of the Mbeya Region of Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the Africa ...

area, described the

Karoo The Karoo ( ; from the Afrikaans borrowing of the South Khoekhoe !Orakobab or Khoemana word ''ǃ’Aukarob'' "Hardveld") is a semi-desert natural region of South Africa. No exact definition of what constitutes the Karoo is available, so its ext ...

stratigraphy and surveyed several coal fields. The rose-red mineral ''bornhardtite'' from

Lautenthal The formerly free mining town ('' Bergstadt'') of Lautenthal in Germany is a state-recognised, climatic spa with around 1,570 inhabitants and has been part of the borough of Langelsheim since 1972. Geography Lautenthal lies in the Innerst ...

in the

Harz Mountains The Harz () is a highland area in northern Germany. It has the highest elevations for that region, and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Thuringia. The name ''Harz'' derives from the Middle High German ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony (german: Niedersachsen ; nds, Neddersassen; stq, Läichsaksen) is a German state (') in northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ...

, is named in his honour. He first coined the term "

inselberg An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

" to describe an isolated massif, while the term "

bornhardt A bornhardt () is a dome-shaped, steep-sided, bald rock outcropping at least in height and several hundred metres in width. They are named after Wilhelm Bornhardt (1864–1946), a German geologist and explorer of German East Africa, who first ...

", describing a particular type of mountain, is used in his honour. Wilhelm Bornhardt00

Bornhardt invented a number of applications for the mining industry. One such was a hand-powered electrical generator, much used in France, for detonating explosives in rock-blasting.

Publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bornhardt, Friedrich Wilhelm Conrad Eduard 1864 births 1946 deaths Scientists from Braunschweig People from the Duchy of Brunswick 20th-century German geologists German explorers Members of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities