Many people evaluate his life and books from the position of belonging to the Nazi party, making a conclusion about the driving force of his sports and scientific achievements.
Heinrich Harrer always regarded his stay in the ideological and military organizations of the Nazis as a forced and not fully realized, although he tried not to advertise it. If you do not attach particular importance to Harrer’s political views, you can only admire the stubbornness and courage of this famous climber and traveler.
early years
He was born in 1912, in the small Austrian town of Obergossen, in the family of the postal worker Joseph Harrer and his wife Johanna. In 1927, they moved to Graz, where Heinrich Harrer graduated from high school and entered the University of Karl-Franz. From 1933 to 1938 he studied geography and physical education, while actively involved in mountaineering and skiing.
He was a candidate for participation in the 1936 Winter Olympics, held in Germany. But Austria boycotted it due to the number of ski instructors as professionals, which blocked their access to the Olympic tracks. In 1937, Heinrich Harrer won the downhill competitions included in the program of the World Student Games, but mountaineering became his true passion.
Eiger North Wall
By the time the university course was completed, Harrer had several mountain ascents of the highest category of difficulty. In 1938, together with his friend and fellow countryman Fritz Casparek, Heinrich Harrer went to conquer the legendary "Death Wall" - the northern edge of the huge granite pyramid 3970 meters high, called the Eiger mountain in the Swiss Alps.
This wall has remained unsurpassed for a long time, although numerous attempts have been made that claimed dozens of lives. The routes laid along the northern slope of Eiger were complicated by the geological structure of the peak and the climatic situation in the area. The surface, smoothed by numerous avalanches, is almost entirely covered with ice and has an average steepness of 75 degrees, and in some areas a negative slope.
The high frequency of rockfalls and avalanches, a rapid change of weather made the climb along the northern wall of Eiger deadly. As a result, the authorities officially closed this slope for climbers, and mountain rescuers refused to rescue those who would independently go on this route.
July 24, 1938
Already on the wall, the Austrians Harrer and Kasparek teamed up with two German climbers - Anderl Hekmeyer and Ludwig Wörg, who had more reliable equipment for passage on the ice surface. The joint attempt to climb was successful, despite several failures, when only insurance saved, and hit the avalanches, from which only the reliability of equipment, patience and perseverance saved. Heinrich Harrer, whose books usually describe his various expeditions, later spoke about this event in the documentary short story The White Spider (1959).
The success of the Austrian-German group of climbers, which occurred only three months after Austria joined Hitler Germany, Nazi propaganda made a symbol of the correctness of the aggressive policy of fascism. Harrer, along with other Eiger conquerors, received numerous titles and awards, as well as the audience of Hitler and other Nazi leaders.
Expedition to the Himalayas
Mountaineering was a sport that Nazi Germany paid special attention to. In the conquest of new peaks and the passage of unknown routes, Hitler propaganda saw the symbolic significance of the future world domination of the Aryan nation. Hitler’s passion for mystical teachings about Shambhala, a legendary country inhabited by superhumans with knowledge that makes them invincible and omnipotent, combined with this.
According to legend, this monastery was located among the Himalayan peaks, possibly in Tibet, a mysterious country where only a few foreigners managed to get and about which the Europeans did not have accurate information. Therefore, several expeditions of German climbers organized to study this area are known. It is not known whether the Himalayan expedition of 1939, which included Harrer, was aimed at searching for the mythical Shambhala, but this is what the researchers often say, excited that the famous traveler had been hiding his Nazi past for a long time.
Exploration of the path to Nanga Parbat
The long journey, the result of which was the most famous book of those that Heinrich Harrer wrote - “Seven Years in Tibet”, aimed at preparing for the conquest of one of the Himalayan peaks - the Nanga Parbat massif, located in the north-west of the Himalayas, in what was then English Colonies - India.
After a new path was found to the peak, which ranks third in the number of victims among those who tried to conquer it, German climbers were in Karachi by the beginning of autumn 1939, waiting for the ship to return to Europe. The ship was delayed. And shortly after September 1 - the date of the start of the World War and after the entry of Great Britain into it - September 3 - they found themselves on enemy territory and were arrested.
Successful escape
Escape attempts - solitary and as part of a group - an energetic Austrian made from the very beginning of his detention. After their team ended up in an internment camp located in the foothills of the Himalayas, the escape route became clear for Harrer — through mountain passes to Tibet. Moving in the highest mountainous region of the world, even for a trained athlete, is not an easy task, requiring serious preparation, so it was far from the first attempt for Harrer.
The regime in the camp, where civilized British commanded, was obviously very different from the order that the Germans arranged for prisoners of war on the Eastern Front. Therefore, Harrer and his friends had a good opportunity to carefully prepare their escape. But even then, not everyone reached the border of India and Tibet - many chose to return to the camp. In Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, only Peter Aufschneiter, who is often mentioned in an autobiographical book written by Heinrich Harrer, ended up with Harrer.
"7 years in Tibet"
The book, which made the Austrian traveler famous, contains a lot of information about the country, access to which foreigners were prohibited by law. There was a prediction of one of the sages, according to which Tibet would lose independence after foreigners appeared in it. Therefore, at first, Harrer and his friend felt hostile from all Tibetans — ordinary shepherds and noble officials.
It has changed largely due to changes in the protagonists themselves - it is unlikely that ordeals on high mountain paths, encounters with the unusual way of life of Tibetans, acquaintance with their religion, which deny violence against any living creature, left no trace in the soul of a person who at first even shared arrogant Nazi ideas.
Dalai Lama Fourteenth
Tengjin Gyamtskho - a living embodiment of Buddha, the spiritual leader of Tibet, an inquisitive boy who wants to learn more about the world, located thousands of kilometers from his homeland - another hero of the book. Heinrich Harrer and the Dalai Lama, having met in 1940, maintained acquaintance until the death of Harrer in 2006, exerting a strong mutual influence on each other. It was from the Austrian, 26 years old, that the Dalai Lama learned a lot about the traditions of Europeans, the scientific and technological achievements of our time.
This has led to accusations of Tibetan Buddhists by the Chinese authorities, painfully related to the issue of Tibetan independence, in ties with the Nazis. On the other hand, the huge authority of the Dalai Lama in world politics, which, despite adherence to the ancient religious doctrine, is a person inseparable from modern civilization, also originates in this communication of two young people who (especially judging by the 1994 film) became real friends.
Based on these events, he created his best-selling book Heinrich Harrer. “Seven Years in Tibet,” a book and a film based on it, starring Brad Pitt, made his name famous all over the world. Although after returning to his homeland in 1950, he made many mountaineering and simply geographical expeditions, was engaged in diverse social activities, and published more than 20 books. Harrer often said that these were the brightest pages of his life, that since then Tibet has forever settled in his heart.