Ferdinand Ochsenheimer

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Ferdinand Ochsenheimer (born March 17, 1767 in Mainz , † November 2, 1822 in Vienna ) was a German actor and lepidopterist (butterfly researcher).

Life

Ochsenheimer, son of an electoral Hessian roast master , grew up in Mainz and showed his first interest in butterflies in his youth. At the age of twelve he was apprenticed to a saddler . However, when his talent was recognized, friends of the family made it possible for him to study science. On September 16, 1788 he received his doctorate in philosophy in his hometown. In the same year Ochsenheimer got a job in Mannheim as court master with the parents of the later politician Reinhard Carl Friedrich von Dalwigk . He later moved to Baron von Reipelt in the same position .

He took a liking to the theater and acting, wrote his first small comedies in Mannheim (He should strike himself, Der Brautschatz) and applied to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe for the court theater in Weimar with a letter dated July 15, 1791 . Through his literary work, theater director Daniel Gottlieb Quandt became aware of Ochsenheimer and in 1794 engaged him as an actor at the court theater in Ansbach and at the Margravial Opera House in Bayreuth . Ochsenheimer made his debut there on November 12, 1794 in the role of Flickwort in the Black Man by Friedrich Wilhelm Gotter . He later switched to the ensemble of Friedrich Wilhelm Bossann , where he a. a. tried as a singer (tenor) at the opera.

In 1796 Ochsenheimer was hired by Karl Theophil Döbbelin to Prussian Stargard . On the way there he appeared in the electoral court theater in Leipzig and was engaged by the principal Joseph Seconda that same evening . He now appeared alternately with Döbbelin in Stargard and Frankfurt (Oder) , and with Seconda in Dresden and Leipzig.

In 1797 Ochsenheimer finally moved to the city theater in Dresden. In addition to his colleagues Gustav Friedrich Großmann and Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Unzelmann, Ochsenheimer liked the audience as well as the official theater critic. Contemporaries even compared him to August Wilhelm Iffland .

In 1798 signs of overexertion set in and the doctor prescribed more exercise. On his long walks, Ochsenheimer began to deal with lepidopterology again "and unnoticed he had taken on a second, no less laborious one to recover from a business". During this time he got to know the theater poet Friedrich Treitschke , who shared his interest in lepidopterology and acting.

Ochsenheimer as "Talbot" in Schiller's Jungfrau von Orléans , ( Schiller Gallery by Froer after Pecht , around 1859)

On September 17, 1801, Ochsenheimer made the acquaintance of Friedrich Schiller , who saw him as Talbot in his Maiden of Orléans and was enthusiastic about the production and Ochsenheimer's skills. During this time, Ochsenheimer gave many guest performances at almost all of Germany's major theaters. During the summer months he only performed once a week and thus had plenty of time for lepidopterological excursions, which preferably took him to the Rosental and University Woods.

In December 1802 and December 1805 he played at the invitation of August Wilhelm Iffland as a guest at the Berlin National Theater . Among other things, he played Franz Moor in Schiller's Die Räuber on December 29, 1802 and Mr Sperling in August von Kotzebue's Die deutscher Kleinstädter on December 25, 1805

In 1802 Ochsenheimer met the entomologist Jacob Heinrich Laspeyres during a lengthy guest appearance at the National Theater in Berlin , who encouraged him to publish passages from his entomological diary. He started work immediately, but laid out the work very extensively, so that the first part (the butterflies) of his natural history of the butterflies of Saxony did not appear until 1805. However, due to differences of opinion with the publisher Engelhard Benjamin Schwickert - especially about the type of illustrations - he had to break off the work and instead tackled an even more detailed presentation under the title The Butterflies of Europe . In the same year he went on a tour to Mannheim, Mainz and Frankfurt am Main. There it came to a dispute between the theater management and Ochsenheimer, because he spent all free time in the house of the banker Johann Christian Gerning to study his famous entomological collection . In December of the same year, Ochsenheimer used a guest performance in Berlin to again exchange experiences with Laspeyre.

From the end of March 1807 Ochsenheimer went on a tour through Austria and from May appeared in various plays at the kk Hoftheater in Vienna, where - with the support of Treitschke, who was now working at the court - Ochsenheimer would have liked to be engaged. In mid-July 1807, Treitschke accompanied Ochsenheimer back to Dresden and helped him to terminate his contract with the Dresden stage. At the beginning of November Ochsenheimer moved to Vienna and was able to publish the first volume of his Butterflies from Europe in the same year . Although this actually only represented a revised version of the butterflies of Saxony, the work contained significantly more facts and a number of newly described species, which Ochsenheimer received partly from Count Hoffmannsegg from Portugal, partly in Viennese collections (from southern France and Russia) or in the Gerning Collection. Since his contract at the Burgtheater initially only provided for a few appearances, Ochsenheimer was able to complete the second volume ( Sphingidae , Zygaenidae , Sesiidae ) of the Butterflies of Europe as early as 1808 . Since Treitschke did not renew his contract as an actor this year for health reasons, he was able to deal more intensively with lepidopterology and became Ochsenheimer's companion on most excursions. In 1810 the third volume appeared (the so-called Spinner including the Psychidae ). Ochsenheimer acquired the Radda collection , Treitschke also bought a smaller collection and both were combined. On this basis, Ochsenheimer approached the other volumes, "but his strength has decreased since 1815". The fourth volume, completed with the help of Treitschke, contained additions to the first volumes as well as a system draft of the owl butterflies (Noctuidae) and appeared in 1816.

In the following years, Ochsenheimer had less and less time for appearances as an actor. In 1817 he was officially commissioned to organize part of the butterfly collection of the Imperial and Royal Court Museum according to his work, whereby he also integrated the foreign species, a work that cost him over a year. His health deteriorated more and more. From the fifth volume of his work he could only edit part of the first genus ( Acronicta ), the main work was done by Treitschke. On September 23, 1822, Ochsenheimer passed out after a performance and did not recover. He died on November 2, 1822 around 10 p.m. at the age of only 55.

He was married to his colleague Magdalena Ochsenheimer , whom he had married in Frankfurt am Main before 1808.

Effect as an actor

Ochsenheimer was considered an excellent character actor who was compared to August Wilhelm Iffland in his facial expressions and the way he emphasized. He was positively shocking in the roles of villains, also excellent in comical old men and pedants. His brilliant achievements included Gottlieb Koke in Ziegler's Party Wut , Wurm in Schiller's Kabale und Liebe and Marinelli in Lessing's Emilia Galotti . Ochsenheimer published some of his dramatic writings under the pseudonym Theobald Unklar .

“Like most comedians, he was melancholy, dry, bland, even boring, except when entomology was discussed; he was also a rejected misogynist. "

This description probably belongs more to the anecdotal area:

“After the rehearsal, he immediately went to the area around town to collect and did not return until just before the performance began. If he had a happy day, he played unsurpassed and roused the audience to frenetic applause. But on days when he had taken little or nothing, he was in a bad mood and did not rise above mediocrity. 'Today,' it was said on the ground floor, 'Ochsenheimer definitely didn't catch anything'. "

During his appearances in Vienna from May 9th to 26th, 1807 he made a great impression on the Austrian actor Ferdinand Raimund with his acting performances, especially with his facial expressions .

Entomological work

In entomology Ochsenheimer was one of the most influential Lepidopterologen the early 19th century. His work The Butterflies of Europe was successfully continued by Friedrich Treitschke and grew to ten volumes. In addition to a wealth of information on the biology and ecology of the individual species, it contains carefully and detailed first descriptions of numerous species, of which only a few of the more well-known are mentioned here: Thymelicus lineola (Hesperiidae), Polyommatus eros , Iolana iolas (Lycaenidae), Psilogaster loti ( Lasiocampidae), Hyles zygophylli (Sphingidae), Phalera bucephaloides (Notodontidae), Hoplodrina superstes , Polia serratilinea (Noctuidae) Pyropteron doryliformis , Synanthedon cephiformis (Sesiidae) Pachythelia villosella (Psychidae), Zygaena hilaris , Zygaena punctum , Zygaena angelicae (Zygaenidae) and other.

The Linnaean system, which had already been subdivided into genera by Fabricius at the turn of the century and thereafter , was enriched by Ochsenheimer with many new genera, including such well-known names as Zerynthia , Charaxes , Endromis , Aglia , Gastropacha , Thyatira , Notodonta , Acronicta , Plusia , Heliothis , Amphipyra , Caradrina , Cosmia , Xanthia , Apamea , Gortyna , Nonagria , Euclidia , Anarta , Mamestra , Polia , Mythimna , Orthosia , Agrotis , Orgyia , Colocasia and others.

In honor Ochs Wertheimer genus were Ochsenheimeria Hübner, 1825 ( ypsolophidae ) and the types Nemophora ox heimer ella (Hübner, 1813) ( Adelidae ) Pammene ochsenheimeriana (Lienig & Zeller, 1846) ( Tortricidae ) and Pieris ochsenheimeri Staudinger, 1886 ( Pieridae ) named.

In zoological literature, his name is usually abbreviated with "O.", less often with "Ochs."

Ochsenheimer's collection, which originally comprised 3,772 copies, was sold to the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest in 1824. After being under water for almost two days in a flood in 1838, Emerich von Frivaldszky made a great contribution to its restoration. It is also thanks to Friváldszky that after the death of Friedrich Treitschke in 1844, his collection also came to Budapest.

Stage roles (selection)

Fonts

Entomological writings

  • The butterflies of Saxony, with consideration for all known European species. Part 1. Moths, or day butterflies . Schwickert , Leipzig 1805. IV (recte VI) + 493 pp.
  • The Butterflies of Europe, Volume 1 . Fleischer, Leipzig 1807. 2 + 323 pp.
  • The Butterflies of Europe, Volume 2 . Fleischer, Leipzig 1808. 30 + 241 pp.
  • The Butterflies of Europe, Volume 3 . Fleischer, Leipzig 1810.
  • The Butterflies of Europe, Volume 4 . Fleischer, Leipzig 1816. X + 212 pp.
  • (with Friedrich Treitschke): The Butterflies of Europe, Volume 5/1 . Fleischer, Leipzig 1825. 414 pp.

Dramatic works and other writings (selection)

  • The manuscript. A play in one elevator . Fleischer, Frankfurt am Main 1791.
  • He should fight. Comedy in one act . Schwan & Götz, Mannheim 1792.
  • The bride and groom . 1793 (?).
  • Strolling through some areas of Germany . Voss, Leipzig 1795 (previously ascribed to Alois Wilhelm Schreiber ).

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Friedrich Treitschke: Natural history of the European butterflies. Enthusiasts and nuts. Hartleben, Pesth 1841.
  2. ↑ Databases Berliner Klassik, Nationaltheater
  3. ↑ The place of marriage according to the note in the baptism entry of her daughter Eleonora Katarina , who was baptized on July 7, 1810 in Vienna (Roman Catholic church book of the parish St. Josef ob der Laimgrube in Vienna, 6th district, baptism book 1809–1811, p. 104)
  4. ↑ Joseph Kürschner:  Ochsenheimer, Ferdinand . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1887, p. 144.
  5. ↑ a b R. Kuhn: From the life of a famous entomologist. In: Entomologische Zeitschrift, 7 (1893), pp. 97-100.
personal data
SURNAME Ochsenheimer, Ferdinand
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Unclear, Theobald (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German actor and lepidopterist (butterfly scientist)
DATE OF BIRTH March 17, 1767
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1822
Place of death Vienna