āmēnˈ päˈshä, 1840–92, German explorer, whose original name was Eduard Schnitzer. A physician, he served (1876–78) under Gen. Charles Gordon in Sudan as a district medical officer. In 1878 he succeeded Gordon as governor of Equatoria, the southernmost province of the Egyptian Sudan. In 1885 he was cut off from the outside world by the Mahdist uprising, and several European explorers—including Sir H. M. Stanley —were sent to rescue him. Although his position was not desperate, he agreed (1889) at length to accompany Stanley to Mombasa. He was murdered while engaged in exploration for Germany in the region of Lake Tanganyika.

See Sir Henry Stanley, In Darkest Africa, ed. by J. S. Keltie (1890, repr. 1969); studies by I. R. Smith (1972) and R. Jones (1973).

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