Heinrich Harrer (German: [ˈhaɪnʁɪç ˈhaʁɐ]; 6 July 1912 – 7 January 2006) was an Austrian mountaineer, explorer, writer, sportsman, geographer, and briefly SS sergeant.

[1] Harrer had joined the Nazi Party shortly after the annexation of Austria in March 1938, and was personally received by Hitler after the climb.

[2] A year later in 1939, he and the climbing team went on an expedition to the Indian Himalayas, where they were arrested by British colonial authorities due to the outbreak of World War II.

[3] Heinrich Harrer was born 6 July 1912 in Hüttenberg, Austria, in the district of Sankt Veit an der Glan in the state of Carinthia.

Following his final university exams in July 1938, Harrer and Kasparek traveled to Kleine Scheidegg at the foot of the Eiger and set out on their climb.

Halfway up the mountain, Harrer and Kasparek encountered another team making the attempt, Ludwig Vörg and Anderl Heckmair from Germany.

In 1996, ORF editor and filmmaker Gerald Lehner found in American archives the membership card of Harrer, who joined the Sturmabteilung (SA) in October 1933.

[4] In his memoir, Beyond Seven Years in Tibet, Harrer called his involvement with the Nazi Party a mistake made in his youth, when he had not yet learned to think for himself.

[8] In 1939, Harrer joined a four-man expedition, led by Peter Aufschnaiter, to the Diamir Face of the Nanga Parbat with the aim of finding an easier route to the peak.

They considered escaping to Portuguese Goa, but when further transferred to Dehradun to be detained there for years with 1,000 other enemy aliens, they found Tibet more promising, the final goal being the Japanese front in Burma or China.

After Sattler gave up on 10 May, the remaining four entered Tibet on 17 May 1944, crossing the Tsang Chok-la Pass (5,896 m, 19,350 ft) and thereafter split into two groups: Harrer and Kopp, Aufschnaiter and Treipel.

Several months later, when the remaining three were still without visas for Tibet, Kopp also gave up and left for Nepal (where he was handed over to British colonial authorities within a few days).

In February 1962, he was the leader of the team of four climbers who made the first ascent of the Carstensz Pyramid (4,884 m, 16,024 ft; later named Puncak Jaya) on Papua, Indonesia (then Dutch New Guinea), the highest peak in Oceania and one of the Seven Summits.

He also made expeditions to Nepal, French Guiana, Greenland, Sudan, India, Ladakh, Andaman Islands, Uganda, Kenya and Bhutan.

The Kirkus Review of his sequel said: In 1982 he was able to revisit Tibet during the 'Chinese-staged thaw,' and he was by turns heartbroken and inspired by what be observed: Valuable cultural treasures had been destroyed by the invaders, and stories of concentration camps, forced labor, and political murders sent him reeling.

[12] He made approximately 40 documentary films and founded the Heinrich Harrer Museum in Hüttenberg, Austria dedicated to Tibet.