Georg von Schleinitz (17 June 1834 - 12 December 1910) was a Prussian explorer, naval officer, colonial administrator, and

hydrographer Hydrography is the branch of applied sciences which deals with the measurement and description of the physical features of oceans, seas, coastal areas, lakes and rivers, as well as with the prediction of their change over time, for the primary p ...

who served as the colonial governor of German New Guinea from 1886 to 1888. He is the namesake of the Schleinitz Range of Papua New Guinea.

Biography

Georg von Schleinitz was born in

Bromberg Bydgoszcz ( , , ; german: Bromberg) is a city in northern Poland, straddling the meeting of the River Vistula with its left-bank tributary, the Brda. With a city population of 339,053 as of December 2021 and an urban agglomeration with more ...

, Posen to Johann Eduard Christoph von Schleinitz (1798-1869) and Jeanette von Hippel (1804-1850). He began his maritime career as a

cabin boy ''Cabin Boy'' is a 1994 American fantasy comedy film, directed by Adam Resnick and co-produced by Tim Burton, which starred comedian Chris Elliott. Elliott co-wrote the film with Resnick. Both Elliott and Resnick worked for '' Late Night with Dav ...

on a trading brig before enlisting into the Prussian Navy in 1849. He served aboard the steamship ''Danzig'', partaking in the Battle of Tres Forcas against the

Barbary pirates The Barbary pirates, or Barbary corsairs or Ottoman corsairs, were Muslim pirates and privateers who operated from North Africa, based primarily in the ports of Salé, Rabat, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, Libya, Tripoli. This area was known i ...

in August of 1856. He then served aboard the ship ''Arcona'' for its 1860-62 voyage to East Asia. In 1874, Schleinitz was made commander of the

frigate A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

''Gazelle'', and embarked on an astronomical voyage to the

Kerguelen Islands The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...

to study the Transit of Venus. He then traveled to the Pacific, naming the Gazelle Peninsula of New Guinea after his ship. In 1880, Schleinitz was appointed head of the Imperial German Navy's Hydrographical Office. He became

Landeshauptmann Landeshauptmann (if male) or Landeshauptfrau (if female) (, "state captain", plural ''Landeshauptleute'') is the chairman of a state government and the supreme official of an Austrian state and the Italian autonomous provinces of South Tyrol an ...

of the German New Guinea colony on 10 June 1886. During his tenure as governor, Schleinitz employed many colonial subjects as laborers to work in the colony's developing cotton and coconut industries. In addition, he established several towns and established a colonial shipping service. He also embarked on several expeditions into New Guinea, including one up the Sepik River in 1887. The flowering plant genus ''

Schleinitzia ''Schleinitzia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It belongs to the mimosoid clade of the subfamily Caesalpinioideae. Species include: *''Schleinitzia fosbergii ''Schleinitzia fosbergii'' is a species of flowering plant ...

'' was named in his honor by German-Jewish botanist

Otto Warburg Otto Warburg may refer to: *Otto Warburg (botanist) (1859–1938), German botanist *Otto Heinrich Warburg Otto Heinrich Warburg (, ; 8 October 1883 – 1 August 1970), son of physicist Emil Warburg, was a German physiologist, medical doctor, and ...

in 1891. Schleinitz's term as governor of New Guinea ended on 1 March 1888, and shortly thereafter retired from naval service on account of poor health. He returned to Germany, continuing to publish papers in scientific journals. He died in Detmold on 12 December 1910.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schleinitz, Georg von 1834 births 1910 deaths Explorers from the Kingdom of Prussia 19th-century German explorers German people in German New Guinea 1880s in German New Guinea Hydrographers