Siegfried Passarge was born in
Königsberg, the son of travel writer . He attended
Collegium Fridericianum, and after graduation studied geography in
Berlin and
Jena. He also trained in medicine, and worked as a doctor during his military service. In 1894 Passarge took part in an expedition to
Adamawa, at the northern boundary of the former German colony of
Cameroon. From 1896 to 1899 Passarge worked as a geologist and surveyor for the British West Charterland Company in
South Africa, during which time he made extensive ethnographic studies of the
Khoisan and
Bantu. In 1901–1902 he took part in an expedition to the
Orinoco, followed by travel in Algeria in 1906 and 1907. His travel memoirs record his experiences, including the violences he committed whilst in Africa. although he favoured an empirical, descriptive system rather than a genetic one. Passarge's theories of racial geography (expounded in the 1920s in
Das Judentum als landschaftskundlich-ethnologisches Problem) were embraced by the Nazi Party after 1933. On 11 November 1933, he was among the signatories of the
commitment of the professors at German universities and colleges to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi state. ==Works (selection)==