[Website status as of: 10.2025]

Nowadays, but also while Peter Kolb was still living, there are people doing research on Kolb himself or on the work Kolb has done. While I was doing my own research, I had contact to quite a few people doing research on Kolb, or related topics, too. Some of which, I will briefly introduce here, in case you are interested in contacting them.

NB: If you, too, are working on Peter Kolb or related research, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I am very much interested in your input and feedback, and I’d be delighted to get to know you! :-)

Current Research

• Hans Gaab, Historian & Educator, Germany
  • In general, Mr. Gaab is working on the history of astronomy at Nuremberg during the 17th and 18th century. However, this covers the period of Kolb, as Kolb was living, studying and working in Nuremberg and he kept close contact to many local astronomers.
  • Gaab published a series of publications regarding his research topics. In particular, he also created an online archive of transcribed letters and documents, including some of Kolb and his contemporaries.
  • At the end of 2025, Gaab published an overview-article on Kolb and (Nicolas-Louis de) LaCaille, since LaCaille followed Kolb in his footsteps, roughly 40 years after Kolb visited the Cape of Good Hope. Both visits to the cape relate, since LaCaille benefitted from knowing about Kolbs experience.
• Andreas Henkel, Historian, Germany
  • Mr. Henkel only recently has started working on Kolb, but he has since collected a vast amount of information on Kolb, and gave a few public talks on him. Together with Hans Gaab, he is transcribing and publishing letters and documents from Kolb on Gaabs online archive.
• Adrien Delmas, Historian, South Africa
  • Mr. Delmas does do research on the history of the Cape and its people. As such, Kolb naturally lies within his research interest.
  • He published a few articles involving Kolb.
• Professor Nigel Penn, Historian, South Africa
  • Prof. Penn does do research on the history of the Cape and its people. As such, Kolb naturally lies within his research interest.
  • He currently also works on a long awaited modern Englisch translation of Kolbs German book.

Recent Research

• Anne Good, Historian, United States of America
  • Mrs. Good has written her PhD-thesis on Kolb, published in 2005, and wrote at least one article related to Kolb.

Previous Research

• Johannes W. Raum, Ethnologist & Educator, Germany
  • Mr. Raum published at least one article related to Kolb.
• Monika Firla, Historian, Germany
  • Mdm. Firla published at least one article about the influence of Kolbs works on Immanuel Kant.
• Heinrich Pleticha, Writer, Germany
  • Mr. Pleticha published a book with adventurers from Franconia, including a chapter on Peter Kolb.
• Hermann Braun, Historian & Educator, Germany
  • Mr. Braun wrote a small booklet on Peter Kolb.
• August Wolfschmidt, Historian & Educator, Germany
  • Mr. Wolfschmidt published a small, but quite detailed book about Peter Kolb.
• Werner Jopp, Ehnologist, Germany
  • Mr. Jopp wrote a dissertation on the early Cape of Good Hope and the Khoisan people living there. He also wrote a book on Kolb with extracts of Kolbs description of the Khoisan.
• Alfons Kalb, Germany
  • Mr. Kalb wrote a small booklet on the history of the school in Neustadt, where Kolb was headmaster, thus Kolb is mentioned within.
• Georg Mairoser, Educator, Germany
  • Mr. Mairoser published an extensive account of Peter Kolb.