29 Facts About Heinrich Harrer

Heinrich Harrer was a member of the four-man climbing team that made the first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, the "last problem" of the Alps, in July 1938.

Heinrich Harrer had joined the Nazi Party shortly after the annexation of Austria in March 1938, and was personally received by Hitler after the climb.

Heinrich Harrer eventually escaped to Tibet, staying there until 1951 and never seeing active combat from that point onwards.

Heinrich Harrer wrote the books Seven Years in Tibet and The White Spider.

Heinrich Harrer was born 6 July 1912 in Huttenberg, Austria, in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in the state of Carinthia.

From 1933 to 1938, Heinrich Harrer studied geography and sports at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz.

Heinrich Harrer became a member of the traditional student corporation ATV Graz.

In 1935, Heinrich Harrer was designated to participate in the Alpine skiing competition at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

In 1937, Heinrich Harrer won the downhill event at the World Student Championships at Zell am See.

In 1996, ORF editor and filmmaker Gerald Lehner found in American archives the membership card of Heinrich Harrer, who joined the Sturmabteilung in October 1933.

Heinrich Harrer later said he wore his SS uniform only once, on the day of his marriage to Charlotte Wegener, daughter of the eminent explorer and scholar Alfred Wegener.

In 1939, Heinrich Harrer joined a four-man expedition, led by Peter Aufschnaiter, to the Diamir Face of the Nanga Parbat with the aim of finding an easier route to the peak.

Aufschnaiter and Heinrich Harrer escaped and were re-captured a number of times before finally succeeding.

Aufschnaiter and Heinrich Harrer, helped by the former's knowledge of the Tibetan language, proceeded to Tibet's capital city, Lhasa, which they reached on 15 January 1946, having crossed Western Tibet, the South-West with Gyirong County, and the Northern Changthang.

In 1948, Heinrich Harrer became a salaried official of the Tibetan government, translating foreign news and acting as the Court photographer.

Heinrich Harrer first met the 14th Dalai Lama when he was summoned to the Potala Palace and asked to make a film about ice skating, which Heinrich Harrer had introduced to Tibet.

Heinrich Harrer built a cinema for him, with a projector run off a Jeep engine.

Heinrich Harrer soon became the Dalai Lama's tutor in English, geography, and some science, and Heinrich Harrer was astonished at how fast his pupil absorbed the Western world's knowledge.

In 1952, Heinrich Harrer returned to Austria where he documented his experiences in the books Seven Years in Tibet and Lost Lhasa.

Heinrich Harrer took part in a number of ethnographic as well as mountaineering expeditions to Alaska, the Andes, and the Mountains of the Moon in central Africa.

In 1954, some with German-American Fred Beckey, Heinrich Harrer made the first ascents of Mount Deborah, Mount Hunter, and Mount Drum, all in Alaska.

Heinrich Harrer made expeditions to Nepal, French Guiana, Greenland, Sudan, India, Ladakh, Andaman Islands, Uganda, Kenya and Bhutan.

Heinrich Harrer wrote more than 20 books about his adventures, some including photographs considered to be among the best records of traditional Tibetan culture.

Heinrich Harrer was an excellent golfer, winning Austrian national championships in 1958 and 1970.

In December 1938, Heinrich Harrer married Lotte Wegener, the daughter of Alfred Wegener, German polar researcher and originator of the theory of continental drift.

Heinrich Harrer's father had died on a Greenland expedition when she was 10.

Heinrich Harrer later wrote his autobiography published in English as Beyond Seven Years in Tibet in 2007.

Heinrich Harrer made approximately 40 documentary films and founded the Heinrich Harrer Museum in Huttenberg, Austria dedicated to Tibet.

Heinrich Harrer died on 7 January 2006 in Friesach, Austria at the age of 93.