Hermann Schlegel

Hermann Schlegel ( born June 10, 1804 in Altenburg, Thuringia, † January 17, 1884 in Leiden ) was a German ornithologist.

Biography

Schlegel was the son of a bronze caster. His father collected butterflies and this aroused in him at an early interest in natural history. The accidental discovery of a buzzard nest led him to bird studies and to meet with Christian Ludwig Brehm. He began to work for his father, but soon after he went to Vienna. In 1824 he attended lectures by Johann Jacob Heckel and Leopold Fitzinger. A letter of recommendation from Brehm Josef Natterer him a position at the Natural History Museum in Vienna.

A year after his arrival came Schlegel, on the recommendation of Karl Franz Anton Schreiber, director of the Natural History Museum Vienna, Coenraad Jacob Temminck in contact with, which at the time was director of the Natural History Museum in Leiden and was looking for an assistant. First Schlegel worked mainly on the collection of reptiles, but soon he expanded his field of activity to other zoological groups.

It was intended that Schlegel was to go to Java to there join the Natural History Commission, but the sudden death of Temminck -designate successor Heinrich Boie prevented the realization of the project. At this time, Schlegel became acquainted with Philipp Franz von Siebold. Together, they realized the work Fauna Japonica ( 1845-1850 ).

As Temminck died in early 1858, Schlegel was his successor as director of the Natural History Museum in Leiden. Previously, Schlegel had worked 33 years for Temminck. Schlegel was particularly interested in Southeast Asia and so he sent his son Gustaaf 1857 as a bird collector to China. 1859 traveled Heinrich Agathon Bernstein ( 1828-1865 ) on behalf of Schlegel to New Guinea. As Bernstein died in 1865, sat Hermann von Rosenberg whose work continues.

In 1862, Otto Finsch Schlegel's assistant. At the same time Schlegel published the museum magazine Notes from the Leyden Museum, as well as the work of Museum d' histoire naturelle des Pays -Bas, which appeared from 1862 to 1880 in fourteen volumes and John Gerrard Keulemans, Joseph Smit ( 1836-1929 ) and Joseph Wolf was illustrated. 1864 Schlegel's wife died and Otto Finsch changed as a curator and since 1866 as Director of the Ethnology Museum to Bremen. In order Schlegel Joseph Peter Audebert explored the east coast of Madagascar. Schlegel was a staunch opponent of Darwin's theory of evolution, which he regarded as simple speculation.

Named after Schlegel taxa

According to Schlegel, among others, the following animals are named:

  • Schlegel ring Beutler ( Pseudochirulus schlegeli, 1884 by Anna Fredericus Jentink named),
  • The hood Penguin ( Eudyptes schlegeli, 1874 by Otto Finsch named),
  • The Sunda Gavial ( Tomistoma schlegelii, by Salomon Müller named),
  • Schlegel 's Francolin ( Francolinus schlegelii, 1863 by Theodor von Heuglin named) and
  • The gold vane steering Bunting ( Arremon schlegeli, 1850 by Charles Lucien Jules Laurent Bonaparte named).

Works (selection)

Literature on Hermann Schlegel

  • A Concise History of Ornithology, Michael Walters ISBN 1-873403-97-6
  • William Stricker: Schlegel, Hermann. In: General German Biography (ADB ). Volume 31, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig, 1890, pp. 377 f
  • Ornithologist
  • Curator of a natural science collection
  • Member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences
  • Non-fiction
  • Born in 1804
  • Died in 1884
  • German
  • Man
Johann Jakob Heckel Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers Darwinism Fredericus Anna Jentink Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Integrated Authority File
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