Eduard Zander

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Eduard Zander (born October 22, 1813 in Gröbzig , † September 25, 1868 in Moncullo near Massaua ) was a German naturalist, draftsman and painter.

Life

Eduard Zander

The son of a miller went to Munich at a young age, where he wanted to study painting. There he met the botanist Wilhelm Schimper in 1834 , who in turn undertook a research trip to Ethiopia in 1837 and spent his life researching there.

He followed Schimper in 1847 on an adventurous trip to Ethiopia, where Zander, described as an "adventurer, naturalist, painter, architect and craftsman", was a close colleague of Schimper and was best known for his depictions of Ethiopian landscapes. His drawings illustrated, for example, the book Meine Mission nach Abessinien published by Gerhard Rohlfs in 1883 . In the foreword Rohlf writes: “Zander had an excellent talent for drawing and would certainly have achieved significant things with proper and long lessons. He sent his exquisitely executed pen drawings, which at first glance look like etchings, to the late Duke of Anhalt ”. Many of his drawings are included in Richard Andree's description of Ethiopia , including landscapes and depictions of working people and tools. Zander has also contributed to agriculture in Ethiopia in this book.

Zander also had an impact on history and politics in Ethiopia, initially serving as the military advisor to the Dejazmach Wube Hayle Mariam of Tigray and Simen (known in European literature as Ubie of Tigray and Simen ). He served as a trainer in his army and commanded its artillery at the Battle of Däräsge in 1855, which was won by Kasa, the later Emperor Theodor II . After this battle, Zander switched to Theodor and was appointed commander of the fortified Gorgora peninsula on Lake Tana and finally Dejazmach. Together with Schimper he built the Marienkirche in Däräsge in the Simen Mountains , where Theodor II was crowned Emperor of Ethiopia in 1855.

Together with Schimper and other Europeans, Zander was hostage of the Ethiopian Emperor Theodor II, who were freed in the course of the Magdala punitive expedition of British General Robert Napier . While in captivity, Theodor forced him to build cannons.

Familiar

Eduard Zander's wife with child

Zander was married to Ethiopian women twice. His daughter Katharine (called Walatta Iyassus ) in turn married the Krakow-born missionary Moriz Hall (1838–1914). From this marriage came Magdalena Hall, who was born on the day Magdala was stormed. She later married the Russian-born German Baron Plato von Ustinow and was thus mother Jona von Ustinovs and grandmother of Peter Ustinov . Zander is therefore Peter Ustinov's great-great-grandfather.

Honors

  • Anhalt Gold Medal for Services to Art and Science (1858)

Fonts

  • Abyssinian agriculture. Manuscript sent to the Duke of Anhalt Contribution in Richard Andree (see below).
  • Richard Andree: Abyssinia, the alpine country under the tropics and its border countries - descriptions of country and people mainly under King Theodoros (1855–1868) according to the reports of older and newer travelers. Spamer, Leipzig 1869. Numerous illustrations by Zander and Robert Kretschmer as well as with a contribution by Zander.

literature

  • Gerhard Rohlfs: My mission to Abyssinia. On the orders of Sr. Maj. Of the German Emperor, undertaken in the winter of 1880/1881. Leipzig 1883.
  • Gerd Gräber: Eduard Zander, adventurer, naturalist, painter, architect and craftsman in Ethiopia - A biography. In: Aethiopica. International Journal of Ethiopian and Eritrean Studies. 8, 2005, pp. 10-28.
  • Dorothea McEwan, Gerd Graves, Johannes Hock: The sketchbook Eduard Zanders (1813-1868). Views from Northern Ethiopia (1852-54). (= Publications of the Dessau City Archives. Volume 4). Association for Anhalt Regional Studies. Köthen / Dessau 2006, DNB 981812198 .
  • Volker Matthies: Magdala Company. Punitive expedition in Ethiopia. Ch. Links Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-572-0 .
  • Viktor HantzschZander, Christoph Eduard . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 44, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1898, p. 683 f.

Web links

Commons : Eduard Zander  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Communications from Justus Perthes' Geographischer Anstalt Volume 9, 1863, p. 73.
  2. anglo-ethiopian.org
  3. ^ Matthies, V. (2010: 146)
  4. Communications from Justus Perthes' Geographischer Anstalt. Volume 9, 1863, p. 73.