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 ...

who served as the colonial governor of

German New Guinea German New Guinea () consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups, and was part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , became a German protectorate in 188 ...

from 1886 to 1888. He is the namesake of the Schleinitz Range of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...

Biography

Georg von Schleinitz was born on 17 June 1834, in

Bromberg Bydgoszcz is a city in northern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Kuyavia. Straddling the confluence of the Vistula River and its left-bank tributary, the Brda, the strategic location of Bydgoszcz has made it an inland ...

Posen Posen may refer to: Places Europe * Poznań (German: ''Posen''), city in Poland * Grand Duchy of Posen, autonomous province of Prussia, 1815–1848 * Province of Posen, Prussian province, 1848–1918 * Posen (region), the south-western part of t ...

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

cabin boy A cabin boy or ship's boy is a boy or young man who waits on the officers and passengers of a ship, especially running errands for the captain. The modern merchant navy successor to the cabin boy is the steward's assistant. Duties Cabin boys ...

on a trading brig before enlisting into the

Prussian Navy The Prussian Navy (German language, German: ''Preußische Marine''), officially the Royal Prussian Navy (German Language, German: ''Königlich Preußische Marine''), was the naval force of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1701 to 1867. The Prussian N ...

in 1849. He served aboard the steamship ''Danzig'', partaking in the

Battle of Tres Forcas The Battle of Tres Forcas was a battle on 7 August 1856 between boat crews from the Prussian Navy corvette SMS ''Danzig'' (then on a foreign cruise, commanded by Heinrich Adalbert) and the Berber Riffians. It occurred at Cape Tres Forcas in Mo ...

against the

Barbary pirates The Barbary corsairs, Barbary pirates, Ottoman corsairs, or naval mujahideen (in Muslim sources) were mainly Muslim corsairs and privateers who operated from the largely independent Barbary states. This area was known in Europe as the Barba ...

in August 1856. He then served aboard the

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

for its 1860–62 voyage to East Asia. He later commanded ''Arcona'' from September 1869 to May 1871, and again briefly from June to September 1873. In 1874, Schleinitz was made commander of the frigate ''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 subantarctic, sub-Antarctic region. They are among the Extremes on Earth#Remoteness, most i ...

to study the

Transit of Venus A transit of Venus takes place when Venus passes directly between the Sun and the Earth (or any other superior planet), becoming visible against (and hence obscuring a small portion of) the solar disk. During a transit, Venus is visible as ...

. He then traveled to the Pacific, naming the

Gazelle Peninsula The Gazelle Peninsula is a large peninsula in northeastern East New Britain, Papua New Guinea located on the island of New Britain within the Bismarck Archipelago, situated in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The Rabaul caldera is located on t ...

of New Guinea after his ship. After returning to Germany in 1876, he was assigned to the board for the navy's Hydrography Office of the

German Imperial Admiralty The German Imperial Admiralty () was an imperial naval authority in the German Empire. By order of Kaiser Wilhelm I the North German Federal Navy, Northern German Federal Navy Department of the North German Confederation (1866–71), which had ...

, a position he held from May 1876 to February 1886. During this period, on 30 March 1883, he was promoted to the rank of (rear admiral). In 1880, Schleinitz was appointed head of the Imperial German Navy's Hydrographical Office. He became

Landeshauptmann The 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 Ty ...

of the

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 The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the third largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River, Fly and Mamberamo River, Mamberamo. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provi ...

in 1887. The flowering plant genus ''

Schleinitzia ''Schleinitzia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae. It includes four species of trees and shrubs native to the Philippines, New Guinea, and the South Pacific. Typical habitats include tropical secondary rain forest, woodland, ...

'' was named in his honor by German-Jewish botanist Otto Warburg in 1891, as was the Schleinitz Range on the island of New Ireland. 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 Hohenborn 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