Georg August Schweinfurth

Born Dec. 29, 1836, in Riga; died Sept. 19, 1925, in Berlin. German botanist and African explorer.

Schweinfurth studied at the universities of Heidelberg, Munich, and Berlin between 1856 and 1862. From 1863 to 1866 he conducted botanical research in Egypt, eastern Sudan, and on the coast of the Red Sea. Between 1869 and 1871 he was commissioned by the Prussian Academy of Sciences to explore the Bahr al-Gazal River basin. After arriving at Khartoum, Schweinfurth traveled to the Tonj and Jur rivers and discovered the Wau River and the sources of the Jur. In 1870 he discovered the Uélé River in the Congo basin. In 1873–1874 he participated in the Rolfs expedition into the Libyan Desert.