Johann Friedrich Naumann

Johann Friedrich Naumann ( born February 14, 1780 in Ziebigk; † August 15, 1857 ) was a German ornithologist. He is regarded as the founder of ornithology in central Europe.

Life

Johann Friedrich was born the first of three sons of the farmer Johann Andreas Naumann on 14 February 1780 Ziebigk village about 10 km southeast of Köthen. The age of nine he was excellent birds. With ten years he left school in Ziebigk and went to the school in Dessau. However, he had in the same year (or until 1794) leave school to help his father in agriculture. He also had the opportunity to deal with the birds around.

1815 appeared his first work with taxidermy. In this he explained his method, auszustopfen birds. Later, he created most of the engravings for the natural history of the birds of his father Johann Andreas Naumann of Germany. This was actually his own work, but was released in honor of his father, in whose name. His brother Carl Andreas Naumann supported his research, he began by and shot the birds.

In 1821 he sold his bird collection to the Duke Ferdinand of Anhalt- Köthen for 2,000 dollars and was simultaneously appointed to the curator. It was housed in the newly built " Ferdinandsbau " the castle, where it is available to the public since 1835.

During his other work, he was able to accumulate a total of 1,280 specimens. 1845 a meeting of ornithologists took place in Köthen, which was one of the pre-meeting to the meeting of 1850, on which in Leipzig, the German Ornithologists' Society was founded by JF Naumann as one of the founders. The first official journal of the Society was the Rhea (only two issues ) and then the Naumannia. 1857 Naumann was inhibited in its work by an eye condition. He died on August 15, 1857 and was buried beside his wife in Prosigk Juliane Marie Naumann.

Naumann has sought in his work to portray as vividly as possible the nature. He is said to have said: "We must strive us to give the auszustopfenden hides the appearance, than put the living animal body still in it ."

Museum

The exhibition of bird preparations and other works of Naumann began in 1835 Ferdinandsbau Köthen castle. There, they can still be seen today in the Museum Naumann Köthen, claims to be the only ornithology history museum in the world.

Honors

Works

• Taxidermy or teaching, animals easiest and most convenient auszustopfen all classes for cabinets and storage. Hemmerde & Schwetschke, Halle 1815
• Johann Andreas Naumann and Johann Friedrich Naumann: natural history of the birds of Germany. Designed By his own experiences. Fleischer, Leipzig 1822-1866, Volume 1-13 (basic work of modern ornithology)
• The natural history of the birds of central Europe. Edited 1897-1905
• The birds of Central Europe - a selection, ed. and with an essay by Arnulf Conradi, Frankfurt am Main 2009, ISBN 978-3-8218-6223-1