On the Trail of the Man who Discovered the Mountain Gorilla
On October 17, 2002, it will have been exactly 100 years since the German
Captain Robert von Beringe came across mountain gorillas on the Virunga
Volcanoes. He left but a few biographical traces.
In the penultimate decade of the 20th century, two events drew the world's
attention to the fate of the East African mountain gorillas, a sub-species
threatened with extinction. On December 26, 1985, the American researcher
Dian Fossey was murdered under circumstances that remain mysterious to
this date. Dian Fossey had devoted almost 20 years of her life to the
study and conservation of these good-natured, gigantic apes. Three years
later, the film Gorillas in the Mist was shown in the cinemas. It is based
on Dian Fossey's book that was published in 1983. The film deeply
touched and delighted the many people who went to see it.
In contrast, the person who actually discovered the mountain gorillas,
the German Captain Robert von Beringe, remains largely unknown. A plaque
commemorates him at the entrance of the Virunga Conservation Area, where
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda meet. Erroneously,
the plaque calls him "Oscar" instead of Robert. Only a few copies
of the reports of his expeditions in this volcanic region remain in museum
archives and special libraries. Most of his personal papers were destroyed
in the Second World War bombing raids on Dresden.
Friedrich Robert von Beringe was born on September 21, 1865, in Aschersleben
on the northeastern border of the Harz Mountains. He was the eldest son
of Cavalry Captain Karl Robert von Beringe and his wife Mathilde Luise.
His father was squadron leader in the second Hussar Regiment of Magdeburg,
stationed in this small town in what is today Saxony-Anhalt, and was then
a part of the Prussian kingdom. Three years later, Friedrich Robert's
younger brother Gottlieb was born, also in Aschersleben. A sister, born
in June 1867, died at the age of two months.
A Career in the Colonial Army
Following the example of his father, Friedrich Robert von Beringe
chose the career of an army officer. From 1894 to 1906 he belonged to
the Hussar Regiment No. 1, the "Totenkopfhusaren" (Death's
Head Hussars). During this time, von Beringe received the "Totenkopfring"
(Death's Head Ring) and developed a deep friendship with August Mackensen,
later Field Marshall von Mackensen. It was von Beringe’s own wish
to join the Imperial Colonial Army for German East Africa, which comprised
today’s countries Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi.
Having reached the rank of Lieutenant, he distinguished himself with a
successful punitive expedition in September 1898. From the Kilwa military
post on the coast of the Indian Ocean he went against the rioting Watumbi,
a mountain tribe of the coastal hinterland. As chief of the Usumbura Military
Post (1902-1904), which today is Bujumbura, the capital of Burundi, he
led an even more significant military campaign. It was described in detail
and its importance acknowledged in the History of the Imperial Colonial
Army in German East Africa published in 1911. At the beginning of
May 1903, von Beringe, who had been promoted to Captain by then, moved
out from Usumbura with a force of eight Europeans, 115 askaris (African
soldiers), two machine guns and about 300 auxiliary warriors, to campaign
against the rebelling tribal chief Muezi Kisabo and "force him into
submission and recognition of German rule". Kisabo managed to escape
twice, but in July, after a prolonged pursuit, he finally gave himself
up. So von Beringe’s campaign achieved its political goal.
Von Beringe's success in natural history pursuits was not even fleetingly
mentioned in the History of the Imperial Colonial Army in German East
Africa. These interests, which led him onto the track of the mountain
gorillas were, after all, rather more peaceful missions.
On August 19, 1902, Captain von Beringe set off from Usumbura Post heading
north in order to visit German field posts in today's Burundi and
Rwanda. The goal of the expedition was to maintain contact with local
tribal chiefs, consolidate relationships with these chiefs, and to strengthen
the power of and their respect for the German administration. The unit
was small (but equipped with a machine gun) and included the medical officer
Dr. Engeland, sergeant Ehrhardt, 20 askaris and a number of porters.
Encounter on the Volcano's Summit
First, von Beringe paid a visit to Sultan Msinga of Rwanda. Then he continued
on his way north in the direction of the chain of volcanoes in today's
Volcano National Park. From 16 to 18 October, after they had reached the
volcanoes, von Beringe, Dr. Engeland, some askaris and porters attempted
to scale Kirunga ya Sabyingo (Mt. Sabinyo) for the first time. Von Beringe
estimated the volcano’s altitude to be approximately 3,300 m.
On the evening of the first day they camped on a mountain saddle at about
2,400 m. Local people, who had climbed up, provided them with "ample
food", as von Beringe later reported in the Deutsches Kolonialblatt
(German Colonial Newspaper).
On October 17, 1902, Captain von Beringe and Dr. Engeland set off for
the summit, accompanied by five askaris and the required porters. They
carried a tent and eight water containers. Initially they marched through
bamboo forest with thick undergrowth. Although they tried to use elephant
paths wherever possible, they often had to cut their way through the vegetation
with machetes.
"After two hours we reached rock rubble with blackberry bushes and
blueberry plants", von Beringe wrote of the continuing ascent.
"With every step, vegetation became scarcer, the hill became steeper
and the going got more difficult, until we had to climb over great boulders
during the last hour and a quarter. We were on a ridge that climbed in
a south-westerly direction. Both sides of the ridge fell away steeply
into deep gorges."
At an altitude of 3,100 m, the two Germans put up their tent, after they
had tried to level the ground with moss they had gathered. The ridge was
so narrow that the tent pegs had to be fastened into the slopes. The askaris
and the porters sheltered in rock caves and tried to protect themselves
against the bitter cold with the help of fires.
And so the scene was set for the historic encounter that von Beringe described
in the Deutsches Kolonialblatt:
From our camp we saw a herd of large black apes who were trying to
climb the highest point of the volcano. We succeeded in killing two large
individuals. With a great rumbling noise of falling rocks, they fell into
a crater opening towards the northeast. After five hours of strenuous
work we managed to get one animal up on a rope.
A Baffling Discovery
The retrieved animal was a large, human-like, male ape with a body length
of 1.5 m and a weight of more than 200 pounds. He had no chest hair, but
enormous hands and feet.
"Unfortunately, I was not able to identify the genus the ape belonged
to",
the Captain wrote with regret. He thought that it could not be a chimpanzee
because of the animal's size, and, until then, the gorillas that
were known to live in the lowlands had not been found in the area of the
East African Great Lakes.
Robert von Beringe decided to send his discovery to the Zoological Museum
in Berlin for examination. The ape's skin and one of his hands were
eaten by a hyena on the way back to Usumbura. With the skull and the part
of the skeleton that arrived in Berlin intact, Prof. Paul Matschie (1861-1926),
who worked at the museum, was able to classify the animal as a new form
of gorilla, which he called Gorilla beringei after the man who
discovered it. Later the mountain gorilla was considered a subspecies
(Gorilla gorilla beringei), but in the meantime Matschie's name
is used again for the eastern gorilla.
In 1906, Captain von Beringe returned to Germany. On October 9, 1906,
the slim and attractive 41-year old married the merchant's daughter
Johanna Caroline Luise Edith Lademann from Steglitz, whom he had met when
he was out horse riding. The church wedding took place in the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche
in Berlin. Robert von Beringe then continued his career in the army. He
was in the Dragoon Regiment No. 11 of Wedel (the Pomeranian Regiment)
until 1912, and thereafter in the Dragoon Regiment Prince Albrecht of
Prussia No. 1 (the Lithuanian Regiment). He was promoted to Major in 1908
and stayed a Major until he retired in 1913. He lived with his family
- he had one son and one daughter - in Dresden until the beginning
of the Second World War. After having suffered severely from diabetes
for years, he died on July 5, 1940, in Stettin, where his daughter Ursula's
parents-in-law lived.
Andreas von Beringe
For their help with my research I am grateful to my mother, Friedel von Beringe, who met the "very quiet man" as Robert von Beringe's daughter-in-law; to my brother Niklas; to the Director of the Armed Forces History Museum in Rastatt, Dr. Joachim Niemeyer; to Dr. Harald Pieper, Zoological Museum Kiel.
