Friedrich Bohndorff

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Friedrich Bohndorff (1887)

Friedrich Bohndorff (born August 15, 1848 in Plau ; † March 26, 1921 Locarno ) was a German explorer and ornithologist .

Life

Bohndorff initially completed an apprenticeship as a goldsmith , but in 1870 he went on an extensive journey via Switzerland , Savoy and Italy to Tunis , from there via Malta to Egypt . He stayed in Cairo as a goldsmith for 4 years and learned the Arabic language there. The first short research trip undertaken in 1874 with the botanist Witt was of no scientific importance due to insufficient preparation. The penniless Bohndorff then worked as a valet and interpreter in the service of the British governor of the Anglo-Egyptian province of Equatoria Charles George Gordon and accompanied him as steward on four trips to Sudan. From 1876 to 1879 a four-year expedition to Sudan ( Dongola , Kordofan , Dar Fur , Schakka , Dar Banda , Dar Abu Dinga ) and Central Africa ( Azande , Nsakkara ) followed. During this expedition, Bohndorff was captured by deserted African soldiers in Kaluka and only narrowly escaped death. The preparations and records that were carried along were lost.

From December 1879 to 1882 Bohndorff accompanied an expedition of the German-Russian Africa explorer Wilhelm Junker . On December 4, 1879, they set out from Khartoum to the Mangbetu and Azande ( Niam-Niam ) countries to continue Georg Schweinfurth's research there. They explored the headwaters of the Uelle and Aruwimi . Seriously ill, Bohndorff had to leave the expedition in 1882. The Mahdi uprising initially blocked his way back and forced him to stay at Bahr al-Ghazal with the Dinka people for more than a year . His travelogue "Journey to Dar Abu Dinga" appeared in July 1884.

After a short rest in Germany, Bohndorff traveled to the Congo via Liverpool on the steamer "Kinsembo" at the end of November 1884 in the service of the Belgian International Association to become station master at the Manyanga (Congo) station founded by Henry Morton Stanley in 1881 . A little later, from 1885 to 1887, Bohndorff was released to carry out a west-east crossing of the continent from the mouth of the Congo to the mouth of the Zambezi on behalf of the German African Society together with the Austrian geologist and ethnologist Oskar Lenz , known as " Austrian Congo Expedition ”. He then went on a lecture tour with Oskar Lenz for six months, including to Vienna and Brussels, after which he returned to the Congo. Only a little later he moved back to Cairo.

In 1889, during the East African uprising , Bohndorff became a dragoman and steward of the Wissmann troop in the service of Major Hermann von Wissmann . The following year he was first mate on the Mtoni -Fähre that in a small Besfetigungsposten near Bagamoyo the Kinganifluss crossed. With its bloody suppression, the uprising ended in December 1890.

In 1893 Bohndorff traveled to Berlin for some time and now undertook lecture tours for the General German Ornithological Society (ADOG) . In his company, two young women from the short Akka tribe named Asmini and Schikamao (Chicamajo) caused a sensation. In 1893 and 1895 - Bohndorff had his residence again in Bagamoyo - he was a guest at the annual ADOG meetings in Berlin.

Nothing is known about the last years of Bohndorff's life.

Dedication names

Bohndorff collected several insects as well as bird species and subspecies on his travels. Some have been named after him because of this:

  • Brown-backed pipit ( Anthus leucophrys bohndorffi Neumann , 1906)
  • Village weaver ( Ploceus cucullatus bohndorffi Reichenow , 1887)
  • Black- winged capuchin jay ( Phyllanthus atripennis bohndorffi ( Sharpe , 1884))
  • Syrnium bohndorffi ( Sharpe , 1884) a synonym for a subspecies of the African tawny owl ( Strix woodfordii nuchalis ( Sharpe , 1870))
  • Grünkopf nectar bird ( Cyanomitra verticalis bohndorffi ( Reichenow , 1887))

A longhorn beetle called a "living jewel" also bears his name:

Also carries with Dalsira bohndorffi a Baumwanzenart his name. Bohndorff was also honored in the stink bug species Carbula bohndorffi Distant , 1890 and Basicryptus bohndorffi Distant , 1890.

literature

  • Richard Leslie Hill: A Biographical Dictionary of the Sudan , Routledge 1967
  • Conrad Weidmann: German men in Africa. Lexicon of the most outstanding German Africa researchers, missionaries etc. with 64 portraits in collotype ; Lübeck 1894
  • Bruno Hassenstein: Friedrich Bohndorff's travels in Central Africa, 1874 to 1883 . In: Dr. A. Petermann's communications from Justus Perther's Geographical Institute . tape 31 , 1885, p. 368–379 ( zs.thulb.uni-jena.de ).
  • Oscar Neumann: Birds of the Shoah and South Ethiopia . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 54 , no. 2 , 1906, p. 229-300 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Anton Reichenow: New bird species from the upper Congo area . In: Journal for Ornithology (=  4 ). tape 15 , no. 2 , 1887, p. 213-215 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Richard Bowdler Sharpe: Notes on a Collection of Birds made by Herr F. Bohndorff in Bahr el Ghazal Province and the Nyam-nyam Country in Equatorial Africa . In: The Journal of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology. tape 17 , 1884, p. 419-441 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Charles Owen Waterhouse: Characters of undescribed Coleoptera in the British Museum . In: The Annals and magazine of natural history; zoology, botany, and geology being a continuation of the Annals combined with Loudon and Charlesworth's Magazine of Natural History (=  5 ). tape 17 , no. 46 , 1886, p. 497-501 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • William Lucas Distant: Ethiopian Rhynchota in the Collection of the Brussels Museum . In: Comptes Rendus des Séances de la Société entomologique de Belgique. (=  4 ). No. 5 , April 5, 1890, p. LI-LXI ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ according to a handwritten note at the baptism entry in the Plau church register
  2. ↑ Oscar Neumann, p. 236.
  3. ^ Anton Reichenow (1887), p. 214.
  4. ^ Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1884), p. 422.
  5. ^ Richard Bowdler Sharpe (1884), p. 439.
  6. ↑ Anton Reichenow (1887), pp. 214-215.
  7. ^ Charles Owen Waterhouse, p. 501.
  8. ^ William Lucas Distant, p. LVI.
  9. ^ William Lucas Distant, p. LVIII.
personal data
SURNAME Bohndorff, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German African explorer and ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 15, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Plau
DATE OF DEATH March 26, 1921
Place of death Locarno