Sven Hedin was born in Stockholm on February 19, 1865. He embarked on his first expeditions to Asia while studying geography under the German geographer and China explorer Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen.

Thanks to his connections to Germany, he was not only celebrated as a great explorer in Sweden. He published his numerous expeditions and discoveries in scientific documentation and popular travel diaries.

In 1927, he set off on his last great adventure on behalf of Lufthansa. Accompanied by 60 men, 300 camels and 40 tons of luggage, he crossed the Gobi Desert to open up new flight routes for aviation. He was subsequently received by numerous heads of state and honored for his life's work. One of these visits took him to Wiesbaden on November 12, 1935, where he signed the city's Golden Book.