Rudolf Fehrmann (22 June 1886 – 1947), a German, was a pioneer rock climber at
Elbsandsteingebirge
The Elbe Sandstone Mountains, also called the Elbe Sandstone Highlands (german: Elbsandsteingebirge; cs, Děčinská vrchovina), are a mountain range straddling the border between the state of Saxony in southeastern Germany and the North Bohemian ...
near
Dresden
Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...
.
Climbing career
He began climbing at the age of 17 and was soon at the leading edge of the fledgling sport. He and
Oliver Perry-Smith, an American college student and fellow climber living in Dresden, became as close as brothers and formed a team which pushed the limits of risk and difficulty on the steep sandstone spires, making many first ascents. Early on, Fehrmann exerted leadership in both climbing ethics and environmental protection. He imagined the purest of climbing routes as "great lines", ascending directly up steep faces and cracks and sometimes presenting considerable difficulties, and he encouraged the use of rope-soled slippers and a minimum of metal protective devices in order to avoid destroying the fragile rock.
In 1903, Fehrmann began climbing on the
Schrammsteine
The Schrammsteine are a long, strung-out, very jagged group of rocks in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains located east of Bad Schandau in Saxon Switzerland in eastern Germany. To the north they are bordered by the Kirnitzsch valley, to the south by t ...
rocks.
Extract from Fehrmann's report, ''Wie ich Bergsteiger wurde''
/ref> Before long, he became one of the best mountain climbers in Saxon Switzerland
Saxon Switzerland (german: Sächsische Schweiz) is a hilly climbing area and national park around the Elbe valley south-east of Dresden in Saxony, Germany. Together with the Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic it forms the Elbe San ...
and ascended a number of important climbing peak A climbing peak (german: Klettergipfel) may refer to a mountain or hill peak or a rock formation that has to be ascended by climbing. The term is common in Germany where it is specifically used of free-standing rock formations in the climbing regio ...
s. Among his 'firsts' were, in 1904, the ''Chinesische Turm'' (Alter Weg, Saxon grade V), in 1905, the ''Barbarine
The Barbarine is the best-known free-standing rock formation in the German part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. It is a rock pinnacle, high, and is the symbol of Saxon Switzerland. It was first climbed on 19 September 1905.
Location
The Barba ...
'' (grade VI), the '' Höllenhund'' (grade V(VIIa)) and the ''Schwedenturm
The Schwedenturm ("Sweden Tower") in East Germany is a 35-metre-high rock formation made of sandstone in the hills of Saxon Switzerland near the spa town of Rathen and the famous Bastei rocks. From the car park for the Bastei, a path runs towards ...
'' (grade V). Among his other firsts, were the ''Fehrmannweg'' route (VIIa) on the ''Mönch
The Mönch (, German: "monk") at is a mountain in the Bernese Alps, in Switzerland. Together with the Eiger and the Jungfrau, it forms a highly recognisable group of mountains, visible from far away.
The Mönch lies on the border between the c ...
'' in 1904 and the ''Südriss'' (VIIb) on the ''Dreifingerturm'' in the Schrammsteine in 1906.
Fehrmann also climbed in the Alps
The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, ...
and Dolomites
The Dolomites ( it, Dolomiti ; Ladin: ''Dolomites''; german: Dolomiten ; vec, Dołomiti : fur, Dolomitis), also known as the Dolomite Mountains, Dolomite Alps or Dolomitic Alps, are a mountain range located in northeastern Italy. They form pa ...
, as well, creating new routes there. In 1908, he published a climbing guide for the sandstone spires near Dresden, his favorite area, entitled "Der Bergsteiger in der Sächsischen Schweiz". Fehrmann joined the NSDAP
The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...
in its early stages, and became a Party functionary. As a lawyer, he served during World War II as a military judge. He was able, during this time, to work out accessibility issues regarding the rocks along the Elbe, assisting the climbing community. He was captured at the end of the war and interned in an East German
East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
war prisoner camp, where he died a natural death at the age of 61 in 1947.
See also
* Oliver Perry-Smith
* History of rock climbing
In the history of rock climbing, the three main sub-disciplines: bouldering, single-pitch climbing, and big wall (or multi-pitch) climbing can trace their origins to late 19th-century Europe. Bouldering started in Fontainebleau, and was advance ...
References
Literature
* Thorington, J. Monroe (1964). "Oliver Perry Smith: Profile of a Mountaineer", American Alpine Journal
* A. Goldhammer & M. Wachtler (1936). "Bergsteigen in Sachsen", Dresden
* www.gipfelbuch.de
External links
German Climbing Site
German rock climbers
1886 births
1947 deaths
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