From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Dragutin Lerman (August 24 1863 - July 12 1918) was a Croatian explorer. Lerman was born in Požega, Slavonia, but he left his home very soon.
He was a member of 1882 Henry Morton Stanley expedition to Congo and one of his most trusted men. Later the the cofidant of the king Leopold the II and representative of Belgian government in Congo.His first exploration trip lasted from 1882 to 1885, second from 1888 to 1890, third between 1892 and 1894. The fourth lasted six months during 1896.During the journey through Congo in 1882 he discovered huge waterfalls on the river of Kwil and named them the Zrinski Waterfalls to honor the family of national of his native country.
The precise diary of him was transfered into two books. First one in 1891 Dnevnik iz Afrike (Diary from Africa) was written and printed by his friend from Požega Julije Kempf whom Lerman informed about the course of the exploration. The second was published in 1894 with the title Novi dnevnik iz Afrike (New diary from Africa). Lerman was inspiration for two additional explorers (Mirko and Stjepan Seljan) who were mapping Africa and South America at the turn of 20th century.
Big part of he collection Lerman brought home from Congo, 493 artifacts, was donated to the Ethnographic Museum in Zagreb and is part of the permanent exposition ever since. His original diary is in the archives of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Hrvatska Akademija Znanosti i Umjetnosti).
