What question did this study set out to answer?

The aim is to analyze the expedition logistics and the routes taken during the Second German Turfan Expedition.

April 16, 2026Open Access

Some Notes on the Itineraries of the Second German Turfan Expedition (September 1904 to December 1905) as Found in its Archives

Puntos clave

The aim is to analyze the expedition logistics and the routes taken during the Second German Turfan Expedition.
Review of expedition files held at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst in Berlin.
Comparison of different reports by expedition leaders.
Accessing archival materials via CrossAsia thematic portal.
Revealed discrepancies in the reported logistics and routes by expedition leaders.
Highlighted significant historical insights into planning of early 20th-century expeditions.
Showcased the importance of archival materials in understanding past explorations.

Resumen

Between 1902 and 1914, four German expeditions were sent to Chinese Central Asia (now Xinjiang). These expeditions brought objects of art and around 40,000 text fragments to Berlin in 423 crates. The majority of the latter are in the curatorial care of the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin as a deposit of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW). The expedition leaders, Albert Grünwedel (1856–1935) – for the first and third expeditions – and Albert von Le Coq (1860–1930) – for the second and fourth expeditions – reported very differently in their publications about their logistics, the routes, and the places visited. The expedition files held at the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (AKu) in Berlin, publicly accessible via a thematic portal on CrossAsia (crossasia.org), offer deeper insights into the planning, processes and perspectives of those involved. This paper aims to take a closer look at some of these insights.

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