Alexander Theodor von Middendorff

Alexander Theodor von Middendorff (1855)

Middendorff's coat of arms

Alexander von Middendorff ( Russian Александр Федорович Миддендорф , scientific. Transliteration Aleksandr Fedorovič Middendorf * August 6 ^jul. / 18th August  1815 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg , † January 16 ^jul. / 28. January  1894 ^greg. On his estate Hellenorm (Estonian Hellenurme ) in Livonia / Estonia ) was a German-Baltic zoologist and explorer in the Russian service.

Middendorff became professor of zoology at Kiev University in 1839 and visited Lapland in 1840 for research purposes . He presented the results within the framework of the work Contributions to Knowledge of the Russian Empire (Vol. 11, Saint Petersburg, 1845) edited by Karl Ernst von Baer and Helmersen .

He then traveled to the far north of Siberia on behalf of the Russian Academy of Sciences between 1842 and 1845 , examining in particular the Taimyr country and reaching the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk and the upper reaches of the Amur . The results of this trip are published in the trip to the extreme north and east of Siberia during the years 1843 and 1844 (4 vols. Saint Petersburg, 1848–1875), which he edited .

In 1845 Middendorff was elected a member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences. In the memoranda of this institute he published, among other things, his treatise on the Isepiptes of Russia , i.e. on bird migration , in 1855 ; In it he expressed the assumption that migratory birds could have a magnetic sense that guides them.

In September 1860 he accompanied the Grand Duke Vladimir on his trip to Siberia, as a result of which the treatise on the Barabasteppe (1870) appeared. In the summer of 1867 he traveled to Iceland and Novaya Zemlya with Vladimir's brother, Grand Duke Alexis . In 1868 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

In 1878 he made a trip to Ferghana , which he described in Insights into the Ferghanathal (Saint Petersburg 1881).

The Middendorff warbler ( Phylloscopus plumbeitarsus ) was named after Alexander von Middendorff. He is also the namesake for several capes in the Russian Arctic, the Middenforffberget on Edgeøya in the archipelago of Spitsbergen , for Middendorf fjord on the Siberian Taimyr peninsula and Middendorff Glacier on the Rudolf Island , Franz-Josef-Lands .

literature

• Alexander Theodor von Middendorff: On sledge, boat and reindeer back 1842–45 . Edition Erdmann, 2013, ISBN 978-3-86539-855-0 .
• Hubertus Neuschäffer:  Middendorff, Alexander. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 463 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Ludwig Stieda :  Middendorff, Alexander Theodor von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 52, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 387-395.
• Erki Tammiksaar, Ian Stone: Alexander von Middendorff and his expedition to Siberia (1842–1845). In: Polar Record. Volume 43, No. 3, 2007, pp. 193-216. doi : 10.1017 / S0032247407006407

Web links

Commons : Alexander Theodor von Middendorff  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Alexander Theodor von Middendorff in the catalog of the German National Library
• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Alexander Theodor von Middendorff. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
• Trip to the far north and east of Siberia as a digital copy (based on microfiches), with an atlas (18 plates)
• Short biography , Russian Academy of Sciences

Individual evidence

1. ↑ A. von Middendorff: Die Isepiptesen Russlands. Basics for researching the migration times and directions of the birds in Russia. Book printing of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1855. Also published in: Mémoires de l'Académie des Sciences de St.-Pétersbourg. VI. Série, Sciences naturelles. T. VIII, pp. 1-143 (here: p. 9).
2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 169.
3. ↑ Jörg Brauneis: Alexander Theodor von Middendorff on the HGON-Birdnet website, October 28, 2011, accessed on February 4, 2018.
4. ↑ Middendorff warbler ( Seicercus plumbeitarsus ) at Avibase; accessed on February 4, 2018.
5. ↑ GP Awetissow: Middendorff Alexandr Fjodorowitsch (06 (18) .8.1815-16 (28 ) .01.1894) . In: Imena na Karte Rossijskoi Arktiki , Nauka, Sankt Petersburg 2003, ISBN 5-02-025003-1 (Russian).