SCHLAGINTWEIT-SAKUNLONSKI, HERMANN VON (1826-1882), the eldest of a band of brothers, all more or less noted as scientific explorers or students of foreign countries, sons of an oculist of Munich. Hermann was born on the 13th of May 1826. His first scientific labours were studies in the Alps, carried on between 1846 and 1848 in association with his brother Adolf (born January 9, 1829). The publication of the Studien fiber die physikalische Geographie der Alpen in 1850 founded the scientific reputation of the two brothers, and their reputation was increased by their subsequent investigations in the same field, in which the third brother Robert (born Oct. 27, 1837) also took part. Soon after the publication of the Xeue Untersuchungen fiber die plays. Geog. v. Geol. der Alpen (1854, 4to), the three brothers received, on the recommendation of Alex. von Humboldt, a commission from the East India Company to travel for scientific purposes in their territory, and more particularly to make observations on terrestrial magnetism. Their explorations extended over the period 1854-57, during which they travelled, sometimes in company, sometimes separately, in the Deccan and in the region of the Himalayas, even prosecuting their investigations beyond the frontiers of the Company's territory into the region of the Karakorum and Kuenlun Mountains. Hermann and Robert were the first Europeans who crossed the latter mountains, and it was in honour of that achievement that the former had the title or surname of Saktinlfinski bestowed upon him (in 1864). The two returned to Europe in the summer of 1857, but Adolf, who remained to prosecute his explorations in Central Asia, was put to death by the emir of Kashgar on the 26th of August. Between 1860 and 1866 Hermann and Robert published in four volumes the "Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia." The extensive collections of ethnography and natural history made by them were ultimately deposited in the Burg at Nuremberg through the intervention of the king of Bavaria (May 1877). Hermann spent the last years of his life chiefly in literary and scientific activity, partly at Munich partly at the castle of Jiigernburg near Forchheim. He died at Munich on the 19th of January 1882.

His brother Robert was appointed professor of geography at Giessen in 1864, but his academical labours were sometimes interrupted by travels, especially in the United States, which furnished him with material for more or less important works. He died at Giessen, June 6, 1885. Of two other brothers, one, Edward (born March 23, 1831), killed in battle at Kissingen in 1866, made himself known by an account of the Spanish expedition to Morocco in 1859-60. Emil (born July 7, 1835) is the author of several learned works relating to India and Tibet.