Eduard Toll

Eduard Gustav von Toll was a Baltic German geologist and Arctic explorer in Russian service. Often referred to as Baron von Toll or as Eduard v. Toll, in Russia he is known as Eduard Vasiliyevich Toll (Russian: Эдуард Васильевич Толль). Eduard Toll was born on (March 14 [O.S. March 2] 1858, in Reval (now Tallinn, Estonia) and he died in 1902 in an unknown location in the Arctic Ocean). He belonged to a noble family of Baltic German origin and was married to Baroness Emmy von Toll.

Eduard Toll graduated from the University of Dorpat (Tartu) as a zoologist in 1882. Already while he was a student he traveled to the Mediterranean and researched the fauna, flora and geology of Algeria and the Balearic Islands.

Expeditions and Surveys[link]

In 1885-1886, Toll took part in an expedition to the New Siberian Islands, organized by the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and led by Alexander Bunge. Eduard Toll explored the Great Lyakhovsky Island, Bunge Land, Faddeyevsky Island, Kotelny Island, as well as the western shores of the New Siberia Island. In 1886 Toll thought that he had seen an unknown land north of Kotelny. He guessed that this was the so-called "Zemlya Sannikova" (Sannikov Land), a land that Yakov Sannikov and Matvei Gedenschtrom claimed to have seen during their 1808-1810 expedition, but whose existence had never been proved. The results of this expedition were appreciated by the Academy as "a true geographical deed".

In 1893 Toll led an expedition of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences to the northern parts of Yakutia and explored the region between the lower reaches of the Lena and Khatanga Rivers. Eduard Toll was the first one to map the plateau between the Anabar and Popigay Rivers and a mountain ridge between the Olenek and Anabar Rivers (which he named after Vasily Pronchischev). He also carried out the geological surveys in the basins of the following rivers: Yana, Indigirka, and Kolyma. During one year and two days the expedition covered 25,000 km, of which 4,200 km were up the rivers, carrying out geodesic surveys en route. Owing to the difficulties of the expedition and his hard work, the Russian Academy of Sciences awarded Eduard v. Toll with the Large Silver Medal of N.M. Przhevalsky.

In 1899, Toll took part in a voyage of the icebreaker Yermak under the command of Stepan Makarov to the shores of Spitsbergen.

Toll's last venture: The Russian Polar Expedition, 1900-1903[link]

In 1900-1902, Eduard Toll headed an expedition of the Petersburg Academy of Sciences to the New Siberian Islands, The Russian Polar Expedition, on ship Zarya (Заря). The main aim of the expedition was to find the legendary Sannikov Land. During this voyage and especially during the winterings near the northwestern part of the Taymyr Peninsula and western part of the Kotelny Island, Eduard Toll conducted an extensive hydrographical, geographical, and geological research.

Due to severe ice conditions the expedition was forced to spend two winters in the region of the bleak New Siberian Archipelago. In the end, Eduard von Toll traveled to Bennett Island by sledge and kayak along with three expedition members.

Ship "Zarya" attempted to reach Bennett Island to evacuate Toll's party but was unable to do so because of severe ice conditions. Apparently, Toll made a decision to go south to the continent but no further traces of the four men have ever been found.

Two search parties were dispatched in the spring 1903. One of them, under engineer Mikhail Brusnev, searched the shores of the New Siberian Islands and the other, naval commander Aleksandr Kolchak traveled by whaleboat to Bennet Island. They did not find the lost explorers but they found the diaries and the collections of the Zarya expedition, which shed light on the tragic fate of Baron Eduard von Toll and his companions.

Posthumous Honors[link]

Kuckers Manor where Eduard von Toll lived

The name of Eduard von Toll remained on the geographical maps Fridtjof Nansen published. He named the Bay at the north-west coast of the Taymyr Peninsula in honour of Eduard von Toll. There is also the Tollievaya River, a cape on the Tsirkul Island in the Minina Skerries, mountains in Novaya Zemlya, the northernmost cape at Stolbovoy Island, the strait and a plateau at Kotelny Island and the central ice cap at Bennett Island.

In certain fields, like paleontology, zoology and botany many specimens of fauna and flora are named after Baron Eduard von Toll, like for example the foraminiferan named Dendrophyra tolli (Awerinzew, 1911).

Baron Toll was an expert in Siberian palaeontology. The following statement of Russian Academician V. A. Obruchev is well-known: "In all our guides on physical geography you can encounter the name of Eduard v. Toll as the founder of the doctrine of fossilized ice formation – the doctrine which became a classic one".

References[link]

• William Barr, (1980) "Baron Eduard von Toll’s Last Expedition: The Russian Polar Expedition, 1900-1903", Arctic, 34 (3: September), p. 201-224

• A. Bunge & E. von Toll, The Expedition to the New Siberian Islands and the Jana country, equipped by the Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1887

See also[link]

• Zarya (polar ship)
• New Siberian Islands
• Great Lyakhovsky Island
• Nikolai Kolomeitsev

Eduard Zimmermann (4 February 1929 – 19 September 2009) was a German journalist, television presenter and security expert.

Life[link]

Eduard Zimmermann was born on 4 February 1929 in Alte Heide in the borough of Schwabing-Freimann in Munich, Germany to a teenage mother who worked as a waitress. Shortly before the Second World War Zimmermann moved to his grandparents house in Ottobrunn. At the end of the war Zimmermann moved to the city of Magdeburg where his mother had remarried to a hotelier, and where Zimmermann was first employed at his stepfather's hotel.

Following the Second World War the man who would later be known as a 'criminal hunter' and 'crook's bane' eked out a living as a thief and black market trader, for which he served a sentence at Fuhlsbüttel Prison. With a false identity and diploma he finally found work as a roadworks engineer in Sweden.

Zimmermann returned to the Soviet occupation zone in Germany on an assignment for Dagens Nyheter newspaper. There he was charged with espionage in 1950 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. He served five years of his sentence in Bautzen and was released early on 17 January 1954 under the Viermächtekonferenz (Conference of the Four Powers).

Subsequently he worked as a journalist and editor at NDR and ZDF.

From 20 October 1967 to 24 October 1997 Zimmermann presented 300 episodes of the ZDF TV series Aktenzeichen XY... ungelöst (File Sign XY … Unsolved), whom he also co-hosted with his adopted daughter Sabine from 6 November 1987 until 24 October 1997 (Sabine would remain at the said programme until 7 December 2001), as well as 180 episodes from 1964 to 1997 of Vorsicht Falle! - Nepper, Schlepper, Bauernfänger (Beware, Trap! - Scammers, Hustlers, Conmen). He then retired from the television business and maintained an Internet security portal in co-operation with ZDF.

Zimmermann was a co-founder of Weißer Ring e.V. (White Ring), an organisation that assists victims of crimes, and was its chairman for many years.

On the occasion of Aktenzeichen XY's hundredth episode on October 1977 Zimmermann received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany on ribbon, and was later awarded the Order of Merit First Class. In 1982 he received the Humanitarian Award of the German Freemasons.

Zimmermann himself revealed his past as a criminal in 2005 through his autobiography, titled Auch ich war ein Gauner (I was a crook too). In a newspaper interview he said that the time had made him tough:

Zimmermann's last appearance on TV was on the 400th episode of Aktenzeichen XY on 10 May 2007, and died on 19 September 2009 in Munich.

References[link]

• This article incorporates text translated from the corresponding German Wikipedia article as of 25 March 2006, which cites the following reference:
  • Zimmermann, Eduard: Auch ich war ein Gauner, Riva Verlag 2005. ISBN 3-936994-13-7

External links[link]

• (German) Eduard Zimmermann's security portal
• (German) Spiegel Online article

Eduard Künneke (also spelled Künnecke) (27 January 1885 – 27 October 1953) was a German composer of operettas, operas and theatre music. He was born in Emmerich. His daughter was the actress and singer Evelyn Künneke.

Künneke studied musicology and literature in Berlin, and was also an advanced student of Max Bruch. He worked as a repetiteur and chorus master at a Berlin operetta theatre, the Neues Operettentheater am Schiffbauerdamm, but relinquished his post as chorus master after his opera Robins Ende (1909) was premiered in Mannheim and then received productions at 38 different German opera houses. Künneke later worked under Max Reinhardt and wrote incidental music for Reinhardt’s staging of Part Two of Goethe's Faust.

Künneke's graceful music is distinguished by its rhythm and striking harmonies. His best-known work is the 1921 operetta Der Vetter aus Dingsda; many of his songs are still familiar today.

In 1926, when his operetta Lady Hamilton was premiered in Breslau (now Wrocław), he formed what would become a long friendship with the conductor Franz Marszalek. Marszalek was a dedicated advocate of Künneke's music, and during his tenure at the Westdeutscher Rundfunk in Cologne (1949–65) made numerous recordings of his works (many currently unavailable) with the Cologne Radio Orchestra and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Selected works[link]

• Operas
  • "Robins Ende", 1909
  • "Coeur As" 1913
  • "Nadja", 1931
  • "Walther von der Vogelweide", 1945

• Operettas
  • "Wenn Liebe erwacht", 1920
  • "Der Vetter aus Dingsda (The Cousin from Nowhere)", 1921
  • "Die Ehe im Kreise", 1921
  • "Verliebte Leute", 1922
  • "Lady Hamilton", 1926
  • "Der Tenor der Herzogin", 1930
  • "Glückliche Reise", 1932
  • "Die lockende Flamme", 1933
  • "Die große Sünderin", 1935
  • "Zauberin Lola", 1937
  • "Hochzeit in Samarkand", 1938
  • "Hochzeit mit Erika", 1949

• Orchestral
  • Piano Concerto No. 1 A flat major, op. 36. Recorded on Koch Schwann CD 3-1372-2 (1997) with Tiny Wirtz, piano; Rundfunkorchester Des Sudwestfunks led by Wlodzimierz Kamirski
  • Jazz Suite for Jazz Band and Orchestra, 1929

References[link]

This article is a translation of the article on Künneke in the German-language Wikipedia.

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