Hans Wilhelm Viereck

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Hans Wilhelm Viereck in Mexico

Hans Wilhelm Viereck (born October 12, 1903 in Schorrentin ; † December 6, 1946 in the special camp Fünfeichen ) was a German plant collector in Mexico .

Life

Hans Wilhelm Viereck was born on October 12, 1903 in his parents' mansion in Schorrentin near Neukalen in Mecklenburg. The manor at that time had been owned by the Viereck family since the end of the 18th century. Viereck had contact with Hugo Baum , the director of the Botanical Garden in Rostock , from an early age . This was also the trigger for his interest in the cacti . After graduating from school and starting his agricultural apprenticeship, he moved to Mexico with his parents in 1920. His parents leased and ran a finca in San Vicente near Jaumave in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas .

Viereck was initially not interested in cacti. Only after several letters and requests from Baum did Viereck send a small bag full of cacti to the Botanical Garden in Rostock in 1924 and invited Baum to visit Mexico.

There were already novelties among the plants sent. In January 1925, Baum set out on the long journey to be friends with the Viereck family. This visit to Mexico and the later orders placed by Baum made Viereck a recognized cactus hunter . Until 1938, most of the plants Viereck had collected were sold through the Klissing nursery in Barth (Western Pomerania), and some of them were also collected for Kakteen-Haage in Erfurt.

In 1927 the Viereck family returned to Mecklenburg and successfully managed their lands in Schorrentin. After returning home, greenhouses for their own cacti were set up on the estate. Hans Wilhelm traveled to the Mexican states of Tamaulipas and Sonora until 1938, despite the tense currency situation . His name is associated with many species.

From 1941 he was a soldier and returned to Schorrentin, the family estate, towards the end of the war. Here he was arrested by the NKVD and died in 1946 in the special camp Fünfeichen near Neubrandenburg .

Honors

Several plants have been named in honor of Hans Wilhelm Viereck, for example: Echinocereus viereckii , Mammillaria viereckii , Turbinicarpus viereckii and Astrophytum capricorne var. Viereckii . The plant genus Viereckia R.M. King & H.Rob. from the sunflower family (Asteraceae) is named after him.

Fonts

  • HW Viereck: How I became a cactus collector . In: Kakteenkunde . 1934, pp. 101-105.
  • HW Viereck: Astrophytes as the collector sees them in their home regions . In: Leaves for succulents and care . 1939, p. 4.
  • HW Viereck: Travel memories from the cactus areas of Sonora . In: Kakteenkunde . 1941, pp. 7-12.

literature

  • Oda Kremer-Viereck: In search of the cactus collector Hans W. Viereck . In: Kakteen und other Sukkulenten , 2000, issue 8, p. 222 ff.
  • Werner Hoffmann: The cactus collector HW Viereck . In: Cacti and other succulents . 2001, issue 12, p. 338 ff.
  • Angelika Halama: A cactus hunter from Mecklenburg - Hans Wilhelm Viereck discovered numerous species in Mexico . In: Schweriner People's Newspaper. Mecklenburg Magazin of August 24, 2007, p. 22.
  • Peter A. Mansfeld: Hugo Baum - The life story of a German botanist . 2nd Edition. BoD, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-8448-1463-7 , p. 68-82 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Viereck, Hans Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Square, HW
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German plant collector in Mexico
DATE OF BIRTH October 12, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Schorrentin
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1946
Place of death Special camp Fünfeichen