Katrin Figge

The exhibition at Erasmus Huis on the occasion of the bicentenary of explorer Junghuhn’s birth runs through Jan. 10. (Photo: Katrin Figge, JG)

Indonesian Exhibition Reveals a German-Dutch Botanist on the Frontier

Many travelers have come and gone to the island of Java, fascinated by its beauty. But only a few have really explored it, let alone dedicated years of their lives to the task.

But Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn, born in 1809 in Mansfeld, a small city in central Germany, spent a great deal of his life in Java, during a time when Indonesia, then the Dutch East Indies, was still a blank spot on the map for many.

Overshadowed by colleagues such as Alexander von Humboldt, and almost forgotten by Germans, the Dutch and Indonesians, a new exhibition, titled “Researching, Measuring, Arguing,” reintroduces the life and work of Junghuhn, 200 years after his birth, in a collaboration between the Dutch Erasmus Huis and the German Goethe-Institut.

The jewel of this exhibition is Junghuhn’s map of Java, surprisingly accurate for the time it was created, including almost every village and river.

“There were so many different aspects of his life,” said Roman Roesener of the Goethe-Institut and curator of the exhibition. “He was an explorer, a naturalist, a botanist, a doctor, a photographer, all at the same time.”

On several wall charts, visitors to the exhibition find a biography of Junghuhn. The timetable pointing out the most significant events in Junghuhn’s life reads like an adventure story itself, starting at an early age.

“His father initially wanted him to be a doctor,” Roesener said. “But Junghuhn was more interested in botany. He began his medical studies but was so unhappy about it that he dropped out. After an attempted suicide, it seemed that his father finally gave in and let him do what he wanted.”

In 1830, Junghuhn came in conflict with the law. After a quarrel, he fought a duel with a fellow student. Duels, however, were already against the law at the time and Junghuhn was arrested. He spent a year in prison.

“He was about to be released, pardoned by the Prussian king,” Roesener said. “But he was unaware of that fact, and one night before he was actually to be a free man again, Junghuhn escaped from the military prison and fled through France all the way to Algeria.”

He joined the Foreign Legion and later worked in Paris for a couple of months.

Junghuhn first set foot on Java in October 1835. Initially hired as military doctor, his superior, Dr. Fritze, soon recognized Junghuhn’s talent as a naturalist and asked him to join him on a medical, geological and botanical tour through western and later eastern Java. This was the beginning of a lifelong passion for Junghuhn. Together they inspected the volcanos on the island. Junghuhn was eventually released from his medical duties and became a member of the Natural History Commission.

“They paid him a monthly salary, and that gave him the opportunity to focus on the things he loved,” Roesener said.

He also traveled to Sumatra to explore the lands of the Batak.

“The Dutch sent him there for self-serving reasons, of course,” Roesener said. “It was very important for them to have maps of the region, and to see if there were any natural resources.”

This points to an inner conflict that would bother Junghuhn for the rest of his life: Though he loved nature, he was financially dependent on the Dutch and had little choice but to participate in colonial exploitation.

In his book “Java, Vol. 1,” he wrote: “Through increasing population and cultivation of the soil the beauty of nature is destroyed. The magnificent flowering bushes, the grasslands alternating with forests and home to so many living creatures, so attractive, so entertaining to see — they are being crowded out by the land use systems predominant in Central Europe, by ugly monotonous fields, which one cannot look at without wishing to away as quickly as possible. This is the end of the song for which Nature sacrificed herself.”

In 1848, after spending 13 years in the Dutch East Indies, Junghuhn was forced to return to Europe due to poor health. His book “Journey Home from Java to Europe on the So-Called English Overland Mail” was published three years later. Settling down in the Netherlands, Junghuhn married the daughter of a Dutch officer and became a Dutch citizen in 1853.

But after only six years in Europe, Junghuhn became restless and decided to return to Java. As the inspector for natural history investigations on Java, Junghuhn settled down in Cianjur with his wife, but spent most of his time traveling, until he was put in charge of cinchona cultivation. Quinine, the first known treatment for malaria, is derived from the bark of the cinchona, so the Dutch government was eager to grow the trees in Java.

Junghuhn succeeded where his predecessors had failed. However, he never witnessed the success of his cultivation methods as he died of amoebic dysentery one year too soon, in 1864.

“Junghuhn was deeply bothered by this inner conflict,” Roesener said. “He died at the age of 54, and some say that he died of a broken heart.”

It is believed that Junghuhn’s last request before he died was for his doctor to open the window, so he could see his beloved mountains and breathe the fresh air one last time.

Researching – Measuring – Arguing
Franz Wilhelm Junghuhn
Until January 10
Erasmus Huis
Jl. Rasuna Said Kav. S3, Kuningan
South Jakarta
Tel. 021 524 1069

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