EXPLORERS from Austria

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Austrian Explorers of all time. This list of famous Austrian Explorers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Friedrich Welwitsch (1806 - 1872)

With an HPI of 49.88, Friedrich Welwitsch is the most famous Austrian Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Friedrich Martin Josef Welwitsch (25 February 1806 – 20 October 1872) was an Austrian explorer and botanist who in Angola was the first European to describe the plant Welwitschia mirabilis. His report received wide attention among the botanists and general public, comparable only to the discovery of two other plants in the 19th century, namely Victoria amazonica and Rafflesia arnoldii. In Angola, Welwitsch also discovered Rhipsalis baccifera, the only cactus species naturally occurring outside the New World. It was found a few years later in Sri Lanka too, which reignited the now already one-and-a-half-century-old debate on the origin of cacti in Africa and Asia. At the time, the debate concluded with the conviction of numerous authors that they were introduced and spread by migratory birds. Among the botanists, Welwitsch is also known after his descriptions of numerous other plants, for example Cyphostemma macropus (common name: Butter Tree), Tavaresia angolensis (common name: Devil's Trumpet), Dorstenia psilurus, Sarcocaulon mossamedense, Acanthosicyos horridus, Pachypodium namaquanum and Pachypodium lealii. The earthstar fungus Geastrum welwitschii, a species he collected in Spain, is named in his honor.

2. Franz de Paula Adam von Waldstein (1759 - 1823)

With an HPI of 47.47, Franz de Paula Adam von Waldstein is the 2nd most famous Austrian Explorer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Franz de Paula Adam Norbert Wenzel Ludwig Valentin von Waldstein (14 February 1759 – 24 May 1823) was an Austrian soldier, explorer and naturalist. A member of the noble Waldstein family, he was born in Vienna, the third son of Count Emanuel Philibert von Waldstein-Wartenberg (1731–1775) and his wife Maria Anna Theresia von Liechtenstein. His younger brother Count Ferdinand Ernst Gabriel von Waldstein (1762–1823) became known as patron of Ludwig van Beethoven. Waldstein married Karolina Ferdinandi (1777–1844). As a soldier he took part in Habsburg campaigns against the Ottoman Empire and Russia. From 1789, he studied the botany of Hungary with Pál Kitaibel. His herbarium is archived in Prague. Together with Kitaibel he wrote Descriptiones et icones plantarum rariorum Hungariae ("descriptions and pictures of the rare plants of Hungary"; M. A. Schmidt, Vienna, three volumes, 1802–1812). In 1814, Waldstein was appointed member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities. He died at his manor in Litvínov (German: Oberleutensdorf), Bohemia. The genus Waldsteinia (Rosaceae) was named after him by Carl Ludwig von Willdenow, as well as a Campanula (bellflower) species (Campanula waldsteiniana) by Josef August Schultes.