Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, Tibetan traveler and non-fiction author. From 1933 he was a member of the then still illegal SA in Austria. In 1938 he was one of four first climbers of the Eiger north face, which was enthusiastically celebrated by National Socialist propaganda. Harrer became a member of the SS, where he was Oberscharführer, and the NSDAP. In the autumn of 1939, after an expedition to Nanga Parbat, he was interned in India, fled to Tibet and lived there until 1951. During this time, he became a confidant of the 14th Dalai Lama. His book Seven Years in Tibet and its film adaptation made Harrer widely known. In 1962 he succeeded in the first ascent of the Carstensz Pyramid in western New Guinea. Since 1983, the Heinrich Harrer Museum has been located in Hüttenberg.
Heinrich Harrer, traveller, explorer and mountaineer led one of the most extraordinary lives of the twentieth century. This biography describes all his adventures, from the early days of climbing in the Alps, through his time in Tibet, to his expeditions including exploring the Congo with the King of Belgium and travels to remote parts.
A classic of mountaineering literature, this is the story of the harrowing first ascent of the North Face of the Eiger, the most legendary and terrifying climb in history.
Heinrich Harrer returns to Tibet - thirty years after the visit described in his bestselling SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET. SEVEN YEARS IN TIBET told of an idyllic life on the 'rooftop of the world', before Harrer was forced to flee from the invading Chinese armies. Thirty years later, he returns to describe how the Chinese have attempted to destroy this ancient civilisation. Meeting old Tibetan acquaintances, including the Dalai Lama now living in exile in northern India, Harrer examines the current thaw in Peking's relations with this isolated and mysterious country. In its vivid evocation of Tibet, past and present, Return to Tibet provides a fascinating insight into the durability of this profoundly spiritual culture.
A landmark in travel writing, this is the incredible true story of Heinrich Harrer’s escape across the Himalayas to Tibet, set against the backdrop of the Second World War. Heinrich Harrer, already one of the greatest mountaineers of his time, was climbing in the Himalayas when war broke out in Europe. He was imprisoned by the British in India but succeeded in escaping and fled to Tibet. Settling in Lhasa, the Forbidden City, where he became a friend and tutor to the Dalai Lama, Heinrich Harrer spent seven years gaining a more profound understanding of Tibet and the Tibetans than any Westerner before him. More recently made into a film starring Brad Pitt, Seven Years in Tibet is a stunning story of incredible courage and self-reliance by one of the twentieth century’s best travel writers.