Philipp Jakob Oberländer (30 November 1875 – 3 March 1911) was a Czech big game hunter, traveller and trophy hunter. Born in a family of industrialists in

Úpice Úpice () is a town in Trutnov District in the Hradec Králové Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 5,400 inhabitants. Administrative division Úpice consists of two municipal parts (in brackets population according to the 2021 census): *� ...

, he made several expeditions around the world before he was killed by a cape buffalo in a hunting accident in the Sudan.

Life and work

Oberländer was born in

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Central Europe#Before World War I, Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. A military ...

to the German speaking Jewish industrialist family of Moritz Jakob (1831–1905) and Marie née Morawetz. The family owned a number of spinning mills. He took an interest in travel and adventure, becoming a pioneer of aviation in Bohemia. He supported the aviation pioneer

Jan Kašpar Jan Kašpar (20 May 1883 – 2 March 1927) was a Czechs, Czech aviator, aircraft constructor, designer and engineer. He is considered an aviation pioneer in the Bohemia, Czech lands. Biography Kašpar was born at Pardubice. From his early years, ...

and supported collecting expeditions including that of

Rudolf Grauer Rudolf Grauer (20 August 1870, Hellbrunn, Salzburg – 17 December 1927, Vienna) was an Austrian explorer and zoologist. He conducted zoological investigations in British East Africa (present-day Uganda) in 1905, German East Africa in 1907, a ...

(1870–1927). In 1903 he made a hunting expedition to India and Sri Lanka. In 1905 he went to the Americas. In 1906 he visited southeast Africa. In 1909 he visited Greenland along with Rudolf Kmunke (1866–1918) and Ludwig von Lorenz-Liburnau (1856–1943). In 1911, he was heading an expedition into South Sudan along with Richard Štorch (1877–1927) and Bedřich Machulka (1875–1954). On 3 March, he was hunting buffalo and he wounded one and followed the animal. He however forgot to load his gun and it attacked and trampled hum to death. He was buried at the military garrison of Mongalla. The remains were moved to Úpice in June 1912. Oberländer's trophies and specimens were distributed to a number of museums including the Natural History Museum in Vienna. He wrote about his hunting expeditions in a book ''Jagdfahrten in Nordamerika'' (1910). Oberländer's ground thrush described from a specimen obtained by Rudolf Grauer was named after him in 1910.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberlander, Philipp 1875 births 1911 deaths People from Trutnov District Czech people of German-Jewish descent