The Sheltering Desert

Henno Martin, born in 1910 in Freiburg, Germany, lived in Göttingen since 1965, where he died on January 7th, 1998. In 1935 he left Germany together with his friend and colleague, Hermann Korn, to do geological research in South-West-Africa. At the outbreak of WWII they fled into the Namib desert, where they lived for two and a half years. The undescribable physical and mental hardship they had to bare, the challenge to survive in the vastness of the Namib desert, the constant threat of detection and their gradual adaptation to live a life as ancient bushmen, while being confronted on the radio with the horrible clash of civilisations in Europe is described in this book, The Sheltering Desert. Henno Martin wrote numerous scientific publications throughout his succesful academic career as a geologist. This is his only non-scientific work, an »autobiographic novel«, a classical tale of escape and survival. Henno Martin spent many years in Africa, where he worked as a scientist at the Geological Survey of South Africa and as professor at the University of Capetown. From 1958 until 1960 he was professor at the University of São Paulo. In 1965, he became professor at the Institute of Geology and Paleontology of the University of Göttingen, where he also became a member of the Academy of Sciences.