Payer, Julius

Julius Payer was born on September 2, 1841 in the family of a retired Austrian army officer Franz Anton Rudolf Payer and his wife Blondine Francisca ( Czech. Blandine Francisca ). His father died when Julius was only 14 years old, but not without his influence, he decided to choose a military career for himself. In 1852, he began to study at a cadet school in near Krakow . Upon its completion in 1856, he continued his studies at the Theresian Military Academy , from which he graduated in 1859 with the rank of non-commissioned lieutenant of the 2nd class and was assigned to serve in the 36th Infantry Regiment in Verona in northern Italy . In the same year, 17-year-old Julius Payer took part in the battle of Solferino , the largest battle of the Austro-Italian-French war , which occurred on June 24, 1859 between the combined forces of France , Piedmont and Sardinia against the Austrian army ^{[1] [2]} .

Until 1862, Payer served in the garrison of Verona. Since 1863 he taught history at a cadet school in Eisenstadt , Austria , but for the "independence of judgment" ^{[K 1]} he was transferred to Venice in the same year. A year later, he was awarded the rank of non-commissioned lieutenant of the 1st class, and two years later he distinguished himself at the Battle of Kustoc ( Austro-Prussian-Italian War of 1866). For his courage, he was awarded the Cross "For Military Merit" and promoted to the rank of lieutenant (Czech overseer ) ^{[1] [2]} .

During his service in Verona, Payer fell in love with the mountains. “For three years I looked from the Verona Valley to the mountain ranges of the Alps. I considered the goal of my life to investigate them ” ^{[K 2]} . From 1864 to 1868, he made 118 documented ascents to alpine peaks, of which 26 peaks in the massif and 92 peaks in the Ortler Alps , many of which were made for the first time ^[3] . During the ascents, he carried out a detailed topographical survey of these regions, he earned a reputation as an excellent cartographer, climber and expert in the Alps, which did not go unnoticed. In 1868, he was transferred to the Military Geographic Institute in Vienna , where he could work on mapping the Alps on a professional basis - using much more advanced measuring instruments than he had before ^[2] .

Second German Polar Expedition

The determination and abilities of the young lieutenant did not go unnoticed by the scientific community either. In the fall of 1868, the German geographer Dr. August Peterman offered Payer the position of topographer on the planned second German polar expedition to the eastern shores of Greenland under the leadership of Karl Koldevei , to which Julius agreed. The essence of Peterman’s assumptions, and, as a result, organized by German Arctic expeditions, as well as later ones, to confirm them, was that the Gulf Stream carries warm waters far to the north, as a result of which, even in the polar regions, significant areas of the ice-free ocean may exist ^{[ 4]} .

On June 15, 1869, the expedition left the port of Bremerhaven on two ships - Hansa and . In the area of Jan Mayen Island, in bad weather conditions, the ships parted, and until the end of next year their crews were not aware of each other. The Germania, on which Payer was located, reached the east coast of Greenland, marched along its coast to latitude 75 ° 30 'on the 17th meridian , and anchored in the Germania Harbor off the island of with the beginning of winter. During the spring-summer of 1870, Payer made four tobogganing campaigns, during which he and Koldevei reached latitude 77 ° 1 'on April 15, 1870 - then the northernmost latitude on the east coast of Greenland was opened by Kaiser-Franz Joseph Fjord ( 08/03/1870), as well as the first ascent to the peak of ~ 2,200 m, later called . Germania safely returned to their homeland on September 11, 1870 ^{[1] [4]} . For the results achieved during the expedition, on November 29, 1870, Payer was awarded the Order of the Iron Crown of the 3rd class by the Austrian Emperor ^{[5] [6] [1] [7]} . On January 2, 1872 he became a knight of the Imperial Order of Leopold ^{[8] [6]} , on April 6 - a knight of the Order of the Crown of Italy ( Italy ) and a knight of the Order of the White Falcon of the 2nd degree ( Saxe-Weimar ) ^{[9] [10] [11] [7]} , and on August 19 received the Order of the Red Eagle of the 4th class ( Prussia ) ^{[8] [6]} .

Austro-Hungarian Polar Expedition

Both German expeditions of Koldevei proved that the alleged "thermometric gateway" of Peterman either does not exist, or it should be sought elsewhere, possibly significantly east of Greenland. In a further search to confirm the assumptions of the German geographer - are there ice-free areas in the polar seas leading to the Siberian coasts, in 1871 Payer, together with Karl Weiprecht, the captain-lieutenant of the naval forces of Austria-Hungary , made a short expedition to the shores of New Land and Svalbard , which was of a preparatory character before the larger Austrian polar expedition ^{[K 3]} , which started in the early summer of 1872 ^[12] .

Its main task was to search for the north-eastern passage , in accordance with the theory of Peterman perhaps north of the already explored sea routes. On June 13, the expeditionary ship sailed from Bremerhaven. Weiprecht commanded the "marine" part of the expedition, Payer "land". On August 21, at 76 ° 22 'N, 62 ° 03' the Tegetgoff airborne was captured by ice and drifted for the next 11 months - first to the north of Novaya Zemlya and then to the west. On August 30, 1873, the ship was within sight of the shores of an unknown land that was named in honor of the Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph I. On November 1, Payer reached the nearest island , which received the name of the main sponsor of the expedition, Johann Wilczek - “ On November 1, we stood and looked at the ground visible in the fog. <> Full of wild excitement, we quickly climbed and jumped over the icy shafts. <> Through this plain we fled from all legs towards the near land. When they finally reached it and stood on solid ground, it seemed to us that this is a paradise on earth, although in reality there was nothing but snow, rocks and frozen stones ” ^[13] . Subsequent tobogganing was undertaken by him in the spring of 1874. March 10 - 15, he made a sortie to the southern coast of the island of Hall . March 26 went on a new toboggan trip - along the ice-covered Austrian Strait, together with seven crew members and three dogs, he reached Cape Fligely on April 12, the northern tip of Rudolph Island (82 ° 05 'N). Due to the nature of the refraction of light at this time of the year, Payer claimed that from this point he observed the earth to the north and northwest. Assuming that these could be islands or even vast masses extending to the North Pole , he called them, respectively, “ ” and “ ”. April 29 - May 3, he made another short outing - this time to the island of McClintock ^[12] .

On May 20, due to the objective danger that the expeditionary vessel would not be free from the ice fetters, and the crew would not survive another wintering, by the decision of Weiprecht, the team left Tegetgoff and headed for Novaya Zemlya, which reached three months later heavy sand boat crossing. On August 24, by a happy coincidence, the Austrians in Dunin Bay met two Russian fishing schooners, and on September 3 they were taken to Norwegian Vardø , from where they returned to their homeland, where they were greeted with all kinds of honors ^[12] . On September 14 (22), 1874, Payer became an honorary citizen of Schönau (Teplice) ^{[5] [6]} . On September 20, he was awarded the Imperial Order of Leopold with a Knight's Cross ^{[8] [6] [14] [7]} . On September 19, he was elevated to the rank of knight of the Order of the North Star ( Sweden ), and on November 19 received the Order of Saints Mauritius and Lazarus from King Victor Emmanuel II ( Italy ) ^{[8] [6]} . On January 9, 1875, Payer was awarded the Order of the White Falcon of the 1st degree (knight) ^[7] , and on April 10 the Order of the Red Eagle of the 3rd class ^{[8] [6]} . In the same year, for “research and discoveries in the polar regions”, Payer received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society ( Medal of Patrons ) ^{[K 4] [15]} . October 24, 1876 he was ranked among the with the right to prefix von to the family name ^[2] . On December 29, 1876, Payer became a holder of the Order of the Legion of Honor ( France ) ^[8] , and on October 31, 1898, became commander of the Order of St. Olav , 2nd class ( Norway ) ^{[8] [6]} . He was also awarded the Order of the Tower and Sword ( Portugal ) ^{[16] [7]} .

One of the main results of the expedition's work was the first map of Franz Josef Land compiled by Yu. Payer, but, as subsequent studies showed, it turned out to be inaccurate, due to the extremely limited time and technical capabilities available to the researcher ^[12] .

In the same 1874, Payer resigned (presumably due to skepticism about the results of his discoveries in military circles), which was adopted in December ^{[1] [2]} . Over the next few years, he devoted all his time to processing expeditionary materials that were published in his fundamental work Die österreichisch-ungarische Nordpol-Expedition, in den Jahren 1872-1874: nebst einer Skizze der zweiten deutschen Nordpol-Expedition 1869-1870 und der Polar -Expedition von 1871. " It was published in 1876 with a circulation of 60,000 copies and contained 3 maps and 146 illustrations, many of which were made by Payer during tobogganing trips and often in extreme conditions ^[17] . A partial translation of the book in Russian was published in 1935 by the Glavsevmorputi publishing house under the title “725 days in the ice of the Arctic” ^[18] .

Work on the book, especially in its illustrative part, is not excluded, has become one of the decisive factors that influenced the further choice of von Payer's life path. He devoted all subsequent years of the life of painting. In 1877, Julius moved to Frankfurt , where he studied at the Städel Institute for two years. From 1880 to 1882, he continued his studies at the Munich Academy of Arts , and at the same time began working on a series of paintings dedicated to the tragic Arctic expedition of John Franklin from 1845-1847. The first work of the cycle - "The Bay of Death" (1883), was shown in galleries in many European capitals and was later sold in the United States . In 1883, Payer moved to Paris , where he wrote other works of the cycle: “The Death of Franklin”, “Leaving the Ship”, “A Sermon on the Snow” ( Czech Franklinova smrt, Opuštění lodi, Bohoslužba na sněhu ; English The Death of Sir John Franklin, Abandoning the Vessels, The Bible Reading ^[19] ). These paintings of the polar theme were marked by various art awards and were successfully exhibited at many prestigious European exhibitions ^[2] .

Despite creative success, in the 1880s, Payer began to have health problems and in his personal life. In 1890, leaving his family in Paris, he moved permanently to Vienna , where he opened his own art school for girls. In 1892, by order of Emperor Franz Joseph, he wrote, later becoming the most famous of his paintings, “Nie zurück!” ( Eng. No Return!, Adj. Not a step back, No way back!, Back - never! ), which depicts the scene of the return of the Weiprecht-Payer expedition to Novaya Zemlya in the summer of 1874 (currently exhibited at the Vienna Military History Museum ^{[20] [21]} ). Another painting on the polar theme was written by Payer on the order of Count Wilczek to decorate the Earl's library in the near Korneuburg . In addition to “monumental” works, he was the author of numerous drawings and sketches, which are stored in various public and private collections, including in Teplice and Prague ^{[22] [2]} .

In 1895, von Payer drew up a plan for a new Austrian expedition to the Arctic (to the eastern shores of Greenland), in which he saw himself as an artist, but his idea did not find, first of all, financial support. In 1899, an aging researcher was assigned an annual pension equivalent to four hundred Austrian guilders . In May 1912, he suffered a stroke, after which he was partially paralyzed and lost his speech. He died on August 29, 1915 in Feldes and on September 4 was buried in the Vienna Central Cemetery ^[2] .

In 1877, Julius von Payer married Fanny Cann - the former wife of a wealthy banker. Two children were born in the marriage - Julius and Alice ^[1] . In 1890, the marriage broke up, and until the end of his life, Payer did not see any of his family members, but for a long time he kept in touch with the children ^[2] .

Many geographical objects are named in honor of Julius von Payer, as well as places of regional significance (streets ^{[23] [24]} , a hotel in Teplice ^[2] , a , etc.) ^[18] :

• Payer Island - the island of the Franz Josef Land archipelago;
• - The in Greenland .
• Mount Payer - the highest peak of the Polar Urals ;
• - Queen Maud Land ;
• Cape Payer - the northern coast of Greenland in the Lincoln Sea ;
• Cape Payer - the east coast of about. Western Svalbard ;
• Payer Glacier - Alexandra Land ;
• Bay on Island - Smith Strait .

Comments

Sources

• Wiener Geschichtsblätter / Felix Czeike. - Wien: Verein für Geschichte der Stadt Wien, 1991 .-- T. 46 .-- 203 p. - ( ).
• Christoph Ransmayr. The Terrors of Ice and Darkness . - Grove Press, 1996 .-- 228 p. - ISBN 0802134599 . - ISBN 9780802134592 .
• William James Mills. Exploring polar frontiers: a historical encyclopedia . - ABC-CLIO, Inc, 2003. - 844 p. - ISBN 1576074226 . - ISBN 9781576074220 .
• Günther Berger. Cuore d'Austria: bedeutende Österreicher des 16. bis 20. Jahrhunderts . - P. Lang, 2004 .-- 320 p. - ISBN 3631375565 . - ISBN 9783631375563 .
• Hermann F. Koerbel. Encyclopedia of the Arctic / Mark Nuttall. - Routledge, 2012 .-- 2380 s. - ISBN 1136786805 . - ISBN 9781136786808 .
• Konstanze Fliedl, Marina Rauchenbacher, Joanna Wolf. Handbuch der Kunstzitate . - Walter de Gruyter, 2012 .-- 988 p. - ISBN 3110256703 . - ISBN 9783110256703 .

• Dr. Prof. Julius Ritter von Payer (Neopr.) . Date of treatment May 11, 2018.
• Julius Payer (unopened) (inaccessible link) . Wien Geschichte Wiki. Date of treatment May 11, 2018. Archived May 12, 2018.
• Payer, Julius von (neopr.) . Austria-Forum. Date of treatment May 11, 2018.
• Payer, Julius // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : in 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Payer, Julius von (1841-1915), Offizier, Kartograph, Alpen- und Polarforscher, Maler und Schriftsteller (neopr.) . Institut für Neuzeit- und Zeitgeschichtsforschung. Date of treatment May 8, 2018.
• Julius Payer (1842–1915) Abenteurer, Alpinist und Polarforscher (neopr.) . Österreichischer Alpenverein. Date of treatment May 8, 2018.
• Julius von Payer (1842-1915) (neopr.) . Arctic Institute of North America . ARCTIC, VOL. 44, NO. 2 (JUNE 1991) P. 165-166. Date of treatment May 8, 2018.
• Julius Payer: from the military to scientists, from a scientist to polar explorers, from polar explorer to artists (neopr.) . New Vienna Journal (01/06/2016). Date of treatment May 8, 2018.