Richard Kandt (17 December 1867, in Posen – 29 April 1918, in

Nuremberg Nuremberg (, ; ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the Franconia#Towns and cities, largest city in Franconia, the List of cities in Bavaria by population, second-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Bav ...

; original name Kantorowicz) was a German physician and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

of Africa.

Life

Richard Kandt started as a

psychiatrist A psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in psychiatry. Psychiatrists are physicians who evaluate patients to determine whether their symptoms are the result of a physical illness, a combination of physical and mental ailments or strictly ...

Bayreuth Bayreuth ( or ; High Franconian German, Upper Franconian: Bareid, ) is a Town#Germany, town in northern Bavaria, Germany, on the Red Main river in a valley between the Franconian Jura and the Fichtel Mountains. The town's roots date back to 11 ...

and

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

. Between 1897 and 1904 he explored the North-West of

German East Africa German East Africa (GEA; ) was a German colonial empire, 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 Portugu ...

and in 1907 was appointed as Resident of Rwanda, where he established

Kigali Kigali () is the Capital (political), capital and largest city of Rwanda. It is near the nation's geographic centre in a region of rolling hills, with a series of valleys and ridges joined by steep slopes. As a primate city, Kigali is a relativ ...

as an administrative capital of

Rwanda Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of East Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by ...

. His former house in Kigali is now a natural history museum. In July 1897 he started from Bagamoyo and in July 1898 Richard Kandt discovered one of the

Nile The Nile (also known as the Nile River or River Nile) is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa. It has historically been considered the List of river sy ...

-sources in the Nyungwe Forest of Rwanda, the essential Nile-source in his opinion. Kandt tells about this in his book ''Caput Nili'', a deliberately more fancy than erudite work. In 1898, he discovered the source of the

Kagera River The Kagera River, also known as Akagera River, or Alexandra Nile, is an East African river, forming part of the upper headwaters of the Nile and carrying water from its most distant source.Stanley, H.M., 1899, Through the Dark Continent, London: ...

. Between 1899 and 1901 he explored the

Lake Kivu Lake Kivu is one of the African Great Lakes. It lies on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, and is in the Albertine Rift, the western branch of the East African Rift. Lake Kivu empties into the Ruzizi River, which ...

. Since about 1900 he was a close friend with the writer Richard Voss. On 2 July 1917 Kandt suffered a gas poisoning in World War I on the eastern front. Shortly after, he caught a

miliary tuberculosis Miliary tuberculosis is a form of tuberculosis that is characterized by a wide dissemination into the human body and by the tiny size of the lesions (1–5 mm). Its name comes from a distinctive pattern seen on a chest radiograph of many tiny ...

in Poland. He died 29 April 1918 in a military hospital in Nuremberg.Deutsches Kolonialblatt, Nr. 9/10, Berlin, 15. Mai 1918

Works

* ''Caput Nili – eine empfindsame Reise zu den Quellen des Nils''. Dietrich Reimer Verlag Berlin, 1904, 6.ergänzte Auflage 1921 * ''Seele klingt''. Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1918. Poems, edited posthumously by Franz Stuhlmann.

External links

* Kandt, Richard
''Caput Nili; eine empfindsame Reise zu den Quellen des Nils. Berlin, 1904''
* Kandt, Richard
''Caput Nili; eine empfindsame Reise zu den Quellen des Nils. Band I. Berlin, 1914''
* Kandt, Richard
''Caput Nili; eine empfindsame Reise zu den Quellen des Nils. Band II. Berlin, 1914''
*

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kandt, Richard 1867 births 1918 deaths Physicians from Poznań People from the Province of Posen German explorers of Africa 19th-century German explorers German people in German East Africa Kigali German psychiatrists German male writers German military personnel killed in World War I 20th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in Germany