Schweinfurth, Georg August (1836–1925)

German explorer, botanist, and archaeologist. He travelled 1857–62 in Russia, France, and Italy. In 1863–66 he examined the African coast of the Red Sea and travelled from Suakin through Abysinnia (Ethiopia) to Khartoum, Sudan. He was commissioned by the Prussian Academy to explore the Bahr-el- Ghazal area (1868–71), and was the first European to visit the River Uele and make contact with the pygmies of Akka.

He was born at Riga (now in Latvia). After 1862 he was employed arranging the botanical collections brought from the Sudan by von Barnim and Hartmann, which inspired his interest in Africa.

On his 1868–71 expedition much of his collected material was destroyed by an accidental fire in his camp. He described his experiences in Im Herzen von Afrika 1868–71 (translated into English as In the Heart of Africa 1874, new edition 1918).