Adolf Friedrich of Mecklenburg | |
---|---|
Governor of Togoland | |
In office 19 June 1912 - 31 August 1914 |
|
Monarch | Wilhelm II |
Preceded by | Edmund Brückner |
President of the German Olympic Committee | |
In office 1948-1949 |
|
Preceded by | Karl Ritter von Halt |
Presidents of the National Olympic Committee of Germany | |
In office 1949-1951 |
|
Succeeded by | Karl Ritter von Halt |
Personal details | |
Born |
Schwerin, Mecklenburg-Schwerin |
10 October 1873
Died | 5 August 1969 Eutin, West Germany |
(aged 95)
Spouse(s) | Viktoria Feodora of Reuss-Schleiz (m.1917-1918) Elisabeth of Stolberg-Rossla (m.1924-1969) |
Children | Duchess Woizlawa Feodora |
Religion | Lutheranism |
Adolf Friedrich Albrecht Heinrich, Duke of Mecklenburg (German: Adolf Friedrich Albrecht Heinrich, Herzog zu Mecklenburg; 10 October 1873 – 5 August 1969), was a German explorer in Africa, a colonial politician, the elected Duke of the United Baltic Duchy from 5 November to 28 November 1918, and the first president of the National Olympic Committee of West Germany (1949–1951).
Born in Schwerin, Adolf Friedrich was the third child of Frederick Francis II, Grand Duke of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (1823–1883), and his third wife Princess Marie of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt. His younger brother was Prince Hendrik of the Netherlands, prince consort to the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina.
From 1907 to 1908, Adolf Friedrich led a scientific research expedition in the region of the Central African Graben and traversed Africa from east to west. In 1908, he was awarded the Eduard Vogel Medal of the Association of Geography of Leipzig. The insects from his expeditions and residence in Togo are in the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin and in the Senckenberg Museum
From 1910 to 1911, he led an expedition to Lake Chad and the northern rivers of the Congo to the Nile in current Sudan. Adolf Friedrich and his companions explored the then little-known primeval forest region of the Congo tributaries and the basin of Lake Chad. Individual groups extended their explorations to the Bahr el Ghazal near the upper Nile, while others travelled to south Cameroon and the islands of the Gulf of Guinea. Vom Kongo zum Niger und Nil ("From the Congo to the Niger and the Nile"), a two-volume work based on the 1910–1911 expeditions, has an excellent reputation today for its detail and images.