Kilimanjaro-Hans Meyer memorial

Who was the first person to summit Kilimanjaro?

Oct 10, 2024
Reading time: 6 minutes

In 1889, Hans Meyer and Ludwig Purtscheller became the first men to summit Kilimanjaro. They were aided by a team of locals, though it's unlikely the latter ascended to the actual peak. It was actually harder to summit Kilimanjaro back then, here's why ...

Mount Kilimanjaro climb
Who was the first person to summit Kilimanjaro?

In October 1889, when Tanzania (or then Tanganyika) was a protectorate of Germany, German geology professor Hans Meyer and Austrian mountaineer Ludwig Purtscheller became the first individuals to successfully summit Mount Kilimanjaro.

That fact isn't, we feel, overly interesting in and of itself to a modern audience.

What is interesting, however, is learning how many prior summit attempts were made, not just by Meyer but also by others. Because climbing Kilimanjaro in those days was much more challenging than it is today. For a handful of reasons ...

Kilimanjaro was a much harder trek in the 1800s

The lower slopes of Kilimanjaro were more dangerous in the 1800s because back then there were elephants, leopards and wild dogs roaming around. The rainforest was also trickier because you had to hack through the dense vegetation. Today, there are well-established paths.

The upper portion of Kilimanjaro was also more difficult than today because climb groups would run out of water and supplies and so couldn't stay up there long enough to find a route through the snow and ice. Also, the summit section of Kilimanjaro was more challenging than today because there was far more snow and ice, and it came further down the mountain.

According to National Geographic, "Scientists have studied satellite images and learned that Kilimanjaro has lost more than 90 percent of its ice since 1900." In fact, in the late 1800s, trekkers would've had to navigate their way through snow and ice from around 4,500 m. Since Uhuru Peak is 5,895 m, that means a summit push involved punching foot holes into the snow and ice for roughly 1.5 vertical kilometres!

Finally, all of these challenges faced by Meyer and Purtscheller were on top of the core challenge that one still faces today: the enervating and potentially dangerous effects of extremely high altitude.

Kilimanjaro archival photo, Mary Meader, 1937

This 1937 winter photograph by Mary Meader shows snow as low down as Shira Plateau on the western slope of Kilimanjaro

Notable prior summit attempts

The first non-Africans to ever clap eyes on Kilimanjaro were German missionaries Johannes Rebmann and Johann Krapf in 1848. Or they were, at least, the first in modern times to successfully report this sight to the rest of the world, according to The Nineteenth Century and After. (It's unclear if Kilimanjaro was known to scholars of antiquity.)

Once known to the wider world, Kilimanjaro unsurprisingly became a siren call to European adventurers. And thus began the sequence of explorers hoping to be the first to summit the mountain.

Here are the noteworthy summit attempts that led up to Meyer and Purtscheller's victorious moment in 1889:

  • In August 1861, Prussian officer Karl Klaus von der Decken and English geologist Richard Thornton made an attempt on the summit of Kilimanjaro but "got no farther than 2,500 m (8,200 ft) owing to the inclemency of the weather" (according to Meyer in his 1891 book).
  • In December 1862, Von der Decken made a second summit attempt, this time accompanied by German geographer Otto Kersten, and reached 4,200 m (13,780 ft) according to Von der Decken's own account.
  • Meyer seemingly disputes the height of Von der Decken's second attempt by claiming that missionary Charles New, in 1871, became the "first European to reach the equatorial snows" on Kilimanjaro at roughly 4,000 m (13,000 ft).
  • In June 1887, the Hungarian Sámuel Teleki made it as far as the summer snow line at 5,300 m (17,400 ft), or so we are told by his climbing companion Ludwig von Hohnel who himself turned back at 4,950 m (16,240 ft).
  • In 1887, Hans Meyer made his first attempt to climb Kilimanjaro. He reports that he made it to the edge of the ice cap, but had to turn around because he didn't have the necessary equipment to trek across snow and ice.
  • The following year, in 1888, Meyer intended to attempt the climb again, but was held hostage as part of the Abushiri Revolt against German occupation. He was later ransomed, but the incident naturally scuppered his plans for that year.
  • In late 1888, the American naturalist Dr Abbott and German explorer Otto Ehrenfried Ehlers made a summit attempt. Abbott claimed to have reached the summit but after much controversy retracted his statement.
  • Then, in October 1889, Meyer made a third attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, this time in the company of Purtscheller. Critically, the pair had various campsites established that could be resupplied with food and water by others, allowing them to maintain their elevation near the snow line while figuring out a path to the summit. And this turned out to be the expedition that enabled them to go down in history as the first men to successfully climb Africa's tallest mountain.
Hans Meyer's map of Kilimanjaro as published in his 1891 book

Hans Meyer's map of Kilimanjaro as published in his 1891 book

What about the locals who helped with the climb?

Today there is a plaque on the mountain containing the names of the local men believed to have made the climb with Meyer and Purtscheller.

Notable among them was Mwini Amani, who cooked for them and supplied the high camps with water and firewood.

Another notable aide was Yohani Kinyala Lauwo, a Chagga man believed to have been their guide. In later life, Lauwo (who grew to be very old and wasn't sure of his age) said he didn't remember the two men. But many still believe that he was the guide on this historic climb.

What we do know for sure is that Lauwo summited the mountain many times in his life. Moreover, according to the British-Tanzania Society, he said he did it wearing just a shirt and a blanket, and without any shoes!

plaque commemorating 1889 Kilimanjaro climb

Plaque honouring the local men involved in the first successful Kilimanjaro summit

Naming the peak of Kilimanjaro

When Meyer and Purtscheller reached the summit, they named it Kaiser Wilhelm Spitze (or Kaiser Wilhelm Peak in English) after the German Emperor. The spot was, however, renamed Uhuru Peak in 1964 to celebrate Tanzania's independence from colonial rule (the word uhuru meaning freedom in Swahili).

Today, climbers who make it to the summit of Kilimanjaro can stand by the Uhuru Peak sign and look out on a scene that was first seen by other humans only about 150 years ago!

Group pic Kilimanjaro summit Uhuru Peak Follow Alice flag

Celebrating at Uhuru Peak!