Harald Othmar Lenz

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Old Lenz among his favorites . Drawn from life by A. Toller (from Daheim magazine , 1868)

Harald Othmar Lenz (born February 27, 1798 in Schnepfenthal ; † January 13, 1870 there ) was a German natural historian.

Life

Harald Othmar Lenz was born in Schnepfenthal in 1798, where his father, the philologist Christian Ludwig Lenz (1760–1833), was then a teacher at the local educational institution. His mother, Magdalena Salzmann, was the eldest daughter of Christian Gotthilf Salzmann , the founder of the Schnepfenthal educational institution. Harald was accepted into the local pupils early on and from 1812 he attended the grammar school in Weimar , of which his father was the director at the time. In 1816 he moved to the University of Göttingen , preferring to study philology . In addition, he also attended natural science lectures, including those of the anatomist and zoologist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach , which heightened his predilection for natural history, which his grandfather Salzmann had already awakened.

Lenz continued his studies in Leipzig in 1818 , passed the senior teacher examination in Berlin in 1820 and received his doctorate in Halle on the basis of a treatise on the Homeric Hymn to Dionysus . He then took over a teaching position at the Gymnasium in Thorn, where he taught Latin , Greek and natural history. In 1823 Lenz switched to the Marienwerder grammar school , but had to give up this position for health reasons as early as 1824 and return to Schnepfenthal, where he initially taught Latin, Greek, mythology and natural history, later almost exclusively natural history and technology, at the educational institute founded by Salzmann . Here he was also able to make continued observations of the native fauna. In 1839 he married Charlotte, born 16 years his junior. Girtanner, with whom he had two sons and two daughters.

On several trips in 1837 and 1839, Lenz visited a large part of Switzerland, Northern Italy, Hungary, Galicia and Bohemia, and later also Ostend , Paris and Strasbourg . Since the mid-1850s, he handed over the teaching of the ancient languages ​​to younger teachers in order to be able to devote more time to his scientific studies and his writing activities. Appointed professor on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment (1859), he vigorously performed his teaching and educator position until a few weeks before his death on January 13, 1870 at the age of almost 72 years.

plant

Among the numerous teachers who worked in Schnepfenthal, Lenz was one of the most important. He made his lessons interesting and engaging and won the respect and affection of his students. As a natural scientist, Lenz has enriched science through many observations made with great care and perseverance, in particular on the way of life of native animals and the spread of fungi . As a writer, Lenz is characterized by the liveliness of the descriptions and the clarity of the presentation; the story of the animal fights he organized, the stories about his dogs, cats, etc. are outstanding achievements in this field. Everywhere in his writings, practical interest comes to the fore.

Lenz's first work was the natural history of mammals, edited according to Cuvier’s system (Gotha 1831): a systematic enumeration of almost all mammals known at the time , the native forms of which are dealt with in more detail with numerous personal observations and experiences. To counter the consequences of a famine that threatened the inhabitants of the Thuringian Forest from 1828-29, Lenz recommended in his work The useful and harmful sponges (Gotha 1831; 7th edition, edited by O. Wünsche, Gotha 1890) to his compatriots edible mushrooms. This book was the first book about mushrooms that was understandable for laypeople, but was written on a scientific basis. In his snake science (Gotha 1832; 2nd edition under the title snakes and snake enemies , Gotha 1870) Lenz gave a wealth of precise, long-term observations and experiments on the way of life of native snakes, as well as numerous reports on the more important foreign species, which were brought together with great diligence. In particular, he had dealt with the way of life of the adder and made many experiments on the effects of their venom.

Lenz's best-known work is his Gemeinnützige Naturgeschichte (5 vols., Gotha 1834–39; 6th edition, edited by O. Burbach, 1884–91), which work because of the liveliness of its descriptions, the grace of its stories, the constant Consideration for the needs of practical life found widespread use. The notes contained therein on the behavior, benefits and harms of animals served Alfred Brehm as a source for his animal life . Lenz also published the writings Die Löthrohrschule (Gotha 1848) and Technology for Schools (Gotha 1850). A product of his philological education is his zoology, botany and mineralogy of the ancient Greeks and Romans (3 vols., Gotha 1856-61), the content of which he drew from ancient authors. Four plant genera were named after Lenz.

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Lenz, Harald Othmar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German natural historian
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1798
PLACE OF BIRTH Schnepfenthal
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 1870
Place of death Schnepfenthal