Otto Finsch

Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch ( born August 8, 1839 in Warmbrunn, today Cieplice Śląskie -Zdrój, Silesia, † January 31, 1917 in Braunschweig) was a merchant, anthropologist, ornithologist and explorer, who primarily for his preparation to take possession of the German colony of German New Guinea was known. According to him, the area Finschhafen in Papua New Guinea and the Finschküste are named.

Life

Finsch was born in Silesia. His father owned a glass grinding and initiated a school of drawing. He should be on his father's merchant request. Without school, he undertook with 19 years first travel through Bulgaria and Hungary to the study of the local birdlife. In 1861 he received a position as assistant at the Netherlands National Museum of Natural History in Leiden.

Bremer time

Through the mediation of the Bremen physician and ornithologist Jewellers Hartmann came Finsch 1864 from Bremen. It was in 1864 at the age of 25 years curator of a natural history and ethnological collection of the Museum Society and was from 1866 to 1878 director of the newly established Ethnology Museum in Bremen. In 1868 he became an honorary doctorate from the University of Bonn. In 1872 he traveled through North America and 1873 through Lapland. Accompanied by the zoologist Alfred Brehm and Count of Waldburg- Zeil Finsch undertook on behalf of the Bremen Geographical Society in 1876 an expedition through western Siberia, Turkestan and north-western China. In Bremen and Delmenhorst he was from 1885 also a private scholar.

South Seas

After time at the Bremen museum Finsch turned to with the support of the South Seas of the Humboldt Foundation, which he toured from 1879 to 1882. As an agent of the private Hamburger Guinea Consortium ( later renamed New Guinea 's Company ) by Adolph von Hanse man he traveled in 1884 and 1885 with Captain Eduard Dallmann on several trips of Mioko from almost the entire north coast of New Guinea and discovered the Sepik ( Empress Augusta River ). Finsch has also entered into contracts for land acquisitions. 1885, the northern half of the island under the name Kaiser-Wilhelms -Land " reserve" of Guinea 's Company, and with Finschhafen the first administrative center of the colony of German New Guinea was established. Finsch was still two years consultant to the New Guinea Company.

In suffering and Braunschweig

Finsch in 1898 curator of the Rijksmuseum in Leiden and in 1904 director of the Ethnographic Department of the Municipal Museum in Braunschweig. During the First World War, he was the museum director Franz Fuhse. In 1910 he received the title of professor.

Honors

• The extinct New Zealand duck Finsch ( Chenonetta finschi ) bears his name as well as some parrot birds, including the Finsch Parakeet ( Aratinga finschi ), the blue cap (Amazona finschi ) and Finsch - Spechtpapagei ( Micropsitta finschi ).
• After named him the district is Finschhafen on the northeast coast of the Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea, the same port on the Salomonensee northeast of the Huon Gulf and the Finschküste between Humboldt Bay and the mouth of the Sepik ( the former Empress Augusta River ).
• On the Earth's moon reminds since 1976, the Finsch crater at him.
• In Germany, streets were named after Otto Finsch in Bremen- Walle, in Braunschweig, in Delmenhorst and Dusseldorf - Urdenbach.

Works (selection)

• New Guinea and its inhabitants. Müller, Bremen 1865.
• The parrots. 2 Bd, Brill, Leiden, 1868, doi: . 10.5962/bhl.title.44767 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.49338
• Ornithology Northeast Africa. T. Fischer, Cassel 1869-1874 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.48711 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.49865
• Prisoners birds. 2 Bd, C. F. Winter'sche Verlagshandlung, Leipzig 1872-1876 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.64347
• Trip to Western Siberia in 1876 ( PDF file, 33.89 MB). Erich Wallroth, Berlin, 1879.
• Ethnological Atlas - Types of Stone Age New Guinea. In: Samoa trips. Traveling in Kaiser-Wilhelms -Land and English New Guinea in the years 1884 and 1885 on board the German steamer Samoa. Ferdinand Hirt, Leipzig, 1888.
• Systematic overview of the results of his travels and literary activity ( 1859-1899 ). Friedlander & Sohn, Berlin, 1899.
• Zosteropidae. R. Friedlander and son, doi Berlin 1901: 10.5962/bhl.title.1204 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.69288