Ornithology on the island of Helgoland and the role of the Biologische Anstalt up to the foundation of the separate “Vogelwarte”
1995; BioMed Central; Volume: 49; Issue: 1-4 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1007/bf02368343
ISSN0174-3597
Autores Tópico(s)History of Science and Natural History
ResumoThe enormous number of transmigrating and breeding birds on Helgoland had for hundreds of years been the major source of food for the inhabitants of the formerly Danish island (Stresemann, 1967).At the beginning of the 19th century, many natural history collections were established in Europe, and with this an interest in bird taxidermy developed.After the occupation of the island by the British in 1807, an island craftsman, Erich J. Koopmann (t 1835), around 1820, began collecting skins for a number of museums.Visiting scientists (Stresemann, 1967, p. 421) like Johann Friedrich Naumann (1780-1857), drew attention to Helgoland, which had slowly been developing into a seaside resort since 1826; the island now became very popular among ornithologists.Even the secretary to the British Governer and well-known painter of seascapes Heinrich G~itke (1814-1897) -a resident of Helgoland since 1837 -could not resist the attraction of ornithology.He started independently collecting rare birds in 1843, for both scientific and artistic purposes.His exact observations were reflected in his well-written, famous book "Die Vogelwarte Helgoland" (G~itke, 1891); the second edition with drawings by the author and additions by Rudolf Blasius, was fortunately reprinted on the initiative of Gottfried Vauk in 1987, and is still available.We are also very much indebted to Herbert Ringleben for his evaluation of this book and his comments on the observation of some rare birds on Helgoland (Ringleben, 1969), The book consists of three parts.The first deals with the migration of birds (2nd.ed., 3-153), the second with the changing of colours without moult (157-170), and the last and most important is a catalogue of about 400 species of birds seen on Helgoland (173-636).The term "Vogelwarte" -created by G~tke between 1879 and 1883, probably as an analogy to "Sternwarte", (Ringleben, 1958J -became very popular and was adopted in 1901 by Johannes Thienemann , the founder of the "Vogelwarte Rossitten" (Thienemann, 1927).Even before the island became part of the German Reich in 1890.G~tke had, for private reasons, been negotiating the sale of his bird collection with the British Museum of Natural History in London.Archival research by Dr. Petra Wemer has thrown new light on the circumstances of how the Prussian State succeeded
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