Ferdinand Heine senior

Ferdinand Heine senior, 1890

Jakob Gottlieb Ferdinand Heine senior (born March 9, 1809 in Halberstadt , † March 28, 1894 ibid) was a German ornithologist . Up until the 1860s, he brought together one of the largest private bird collections in Central Europe at the time in Halberstadt. His collection forms the basis for the ornithological museum Heineanum Halberstadt, the extensive today collections of bird specimens (of which more than 11,500 bird skins of Heine's collection), eggs / Nests and skeletons, and bellows houses of small mammals.

Life

Ferdinand Heine's father Jacob Gottlieb Heine (1759–1836) was a counselor and owned some property. Ferdinand Heine Sr. studied as his two older brothers Jura and took up a position at the Court of Appeal of. After the death of their father, the three brothers bought the monastery of St. Burchardt (Burchardikloster) near Halberstadt in 1836 . A sugar factory and a distillery were added later.

He married in 1839; Ferdinand Heine junior was born in 1840 as the youngest of eight children . He later continued work on the bird collection and ensured that it was secured.

Heine began building an ornithological collection as early as 1830. At that time, you could easily buy bird preparations if you had the money. As a result of the many research trips to all parts of the world, large quantities of natural history preparations came to Europe. He soon tried to organize his collection scientifically and systematically. That is why he visited the ornithological department of the Zoological Museum Berlin at least twice and established friendly relations with the museum director Martin Lichtenstein . He recommended Jean Louis Cabanis , who had introduced the new classification and identification criteria here. In 1846 Cabanis first viewed the Heinesche bird collection, which impressed him in terms of its scope. This marked the beginning of a lifelong collaboration and friendship between Cabanis and Heine. Heine continued to organize the collection until around 1855 and kept making purchases, whereby he could rely on the professional support of his friend.

In 1852 he joined the German Ornithological Society (DO-G), which was only founded in 1850 . Its 7th annual meeting took place in Halberstadt as early as 1853 - at the latest this made the Heineanum widely known. The concept of the museum comes from the first inventory catalog, "Museum Heineanum, directory of the ornithological collection ...", which appeared in five volumes from 1850 to 1863. It was edited by Cabanis, later together with Ferdinand Heine jun., But remained unfinished. Since such a scientific catalog was a big exception at the time, it significantly increased the reputation of the collection in specialist circles.

Since the beginning of the 1860s, Heine withdrew more and more from the management of the estate and concentrated his work on the collection, which he continued to expand. But after the mid-1860s there was little growth. The ornithological library with the most important German magazines as well as the English "The Ibis" and many important works from the 18th and 19th centuries was expanded.

In 1890 a shorter but more complete catalog appeared, the so-called “Nomenclator Musei Heineani”, which lists almost 12,000 copies in 5187 species. He was from F. Heine sen. written, reviewed by Cabanis and reviewed by Anton Reichenow and Ferdinand Heine jun. published.

In 1892 the DO-G chose Heine sen. to the President, but he had to refuse this office for health reasons. In his will he determined Ferdinand Heine jun. to the heir of the Heineanum. This ensured that the collection was preserved and that it was on public display from 1909.

literature

• Bernd Nicolai, Beate Neuhaus, Rüdiger Holz: Museum Heineanum, history and meaning . Halberstadt 1994

Web links

• Entry in German biography