Johann Matthäus Bechstein

Johann Matthäus Bechstein ( born July 11, 1757 Walter Hausen, † February 23, 1822 in Dreißigacker at Meiningen ) was a German naturalist, forest scientist and ornithologist. He is considered a pioneer of nature conservation and scientific ornithology.

Life

Johann Matthäus Bechstein was born in Walter Hausen near Gotha. He studied from 1778 to 1780 in Jena theology, natural sciences, forestry and Kameralwissenschaft. From 1785, he was a teacher of science and mathematics at the Philanthropin in Schnepfenthal, now the district of Walter Hausen. This institution still exists today as Salzmann school, a language school. In 1794 Bechstein founded in Kemnote at Walterhausen the Public School of Forestry and hunting client, a Private Forest Institute, which he directed until 1799 also. The end of 1795 he called the " Societät for forestry and hunting client" to life, a first Society of Forest Practitioners and scholars who soon had numerous members at home and abroad. The treatises of the Societät published in 1797 in the company writing Diana.

In 1800 Bechstein was appointed as director of the then opened the following year college for forestry and hunting according to customer Dreißigacker at Meiningen. The institution was collected in 1803 in the rank of a Ducal Academy of Forestry. One of the teachers there was from 1808, the popular writer Carl Gottlob Cramer. Among the students of the Academy of Forestry included, among others Georg Wilhelm von Wedekind, Julius of the Brinken, Carl Heinrich Georg von Heyden and Carl Heinrich Edmund von Berg. In 1800 Bechstein was elected a member of the Leopoldina.

His extensive natural history writings - he described, among others, the first several bird species - Johann Matthäus Bechstein brought in his own lifetime the reputation as the " father of German Ornithology " one. He was one of the first who advocated for conservation. He called for the preservation of animals that can not be regarded in his time as worthy of protection, such as bats. According to him, the Bechstein (Turdus bechsteinii ) and the Bechstein's bat (Myotis bechsteinii ) are named. His writings also dealt with the attitude of cage birds and their diseases. With its natural history of the animal facility he founded the Terrarienkunde. Overall, his work includes some 90 monographs with 132 individual volumes as well as numerous journal articles. 1806 honorary doctorate he was awarded by the University of Erlangen. Bechstein was a member of Masonic Lodge Meiningen " Charlotte at the three cloves ".

He was the adoptive father of Ludwig Bechstein. This published in 1855, Dr. Johann Matthäus Bechstein and the Forstacademie Dreißigacker. A double statue of Ludwig Bechstein, the first independent biography of a German forester in book form. It was not until 1950, almost a hundred years later, Albert Richter wrote the second, full-length biography of a forestry scientist who. Heinrich Cotta

Writings (selection )

• Non-profit natural history of Germany after all drey rich. Leipzig 1789-09.
• Short but thorough screening of all hitherto rightly or wrongly, of the hunter as harmful respected and slain beasts, along with enumeration of some really harmful, he, his professions after, does not recognize it, ... Ettinger, Gotha 1792 to 1805.
• Natural history of cage birds. Ettinger, Gotha 1795.
• Discussions at the inn to Klug home on all sorts of useful and instructive in nature and economy, Nuremberg 1796
• Natural history of the exchange animals. Ettinger, Gotha 1797.
• Ornithological Paperback by and for Germany or Short description of all the birds of Germany for lovers of this part of natural history. Richter, Leipzig 1802.
• Natural history of harmful Waldinsecten. Monath & Kussler, Nuremberg 1798-1800.
• Diana or company font for the extension and rectification of nature, forestry and hunting customer. Walter Hausen 1797-1816.
• Forest Botany or complete natural history of the German woody plants and some strangers. Gotha, Hennings'schen Bookstore, 1809.
• The forestry and hunting science after all its parts for aspiring performers and foresters and hunters. Gotha, Erfurt 1818-35 p.m.