Klaus Minges (phD)

Personal information

Klaus Minges Mail: klaus@minges.ch Web: www.minges.ch

Klaus Minges phD (cultural history)

Hailing from the Black Forest in Germany and looking back on 10 years in Switzerland as a museum scientist, editor and mountaineer, I am now living in Cape Town, South Africa. On top of my guiding experience in europe and muslim countries, I'm now in the tourism industry for 7 years as a SA tourist guide (national), mountain guide (AMWL), field guide level 2 (Western Cape and overlanding).

My mountaineering merits were earned in the swiss and french Alps where I scaled most of the 4'000m peaks, usually via other than the normal routes. As a rock climber I succeeded in opening a multi-pitch route, in spite of the fact that virgin rock faces in Switzerland are hard to come by. I also helped create a climbing park next to a hut owned by my swiss club, the Academic Alpine Club Zurich (AACZ). The club, which is doing its own expeditions since more than a century, asked me to co-lead an exploration to the Pamirs where we did first ascents of three 6'000m peaks.
But then, approaching the fifties and having fought my contemplative inner self for so long, I decided to let him go look for the rock art and flowers of southern Africa. Now I support him by fighting alien vegetation across the Cape ...

Main issues of the first half of my life (chronological order):

• German army (4x4 truck driver)
• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich (natural sciences)
• University of Freiburg, Germany (geography, history of art, european ethnology)
• Tourist guide, guiding in Europe and several muslim countries
• Dissertation on the early history of collections
• Museum Bellerive Zurich (international arts and crafts)
• Museum of Design Zurich (University of Applied Sciences and Arts Zurich)
• Setting up a micro enterprise: "Lectus Content Consulting", internet editing

Events:

• 1997/98: Expedition leader; first ascent of three 6000 m peaks in the Pamir range, China
• 2002: Mentor for gifted children