Hermann Heinzel

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Hermann Heinzel (* 1939 in Poland ) is a German bird draftsman and ornithologist who illustrated numerous identification books.

Live and act

Heinzel is the son of a German and a Polish woman. After the liberation in 1945, the family moved to the Münsterland, where Heinzel grew up on a farm and went to a local school in the forest. After school he completed an apprenticeship as a painter. In the third year of his apprenticeship, he made the acquaintance of a Belgian Jesuit during the holidays, who recognized and promoted his talent for drawing. Heinzel did his Abitur and at the age of 17 he began studying biology at the University of Ghent , where systematics was his main focus. To finance his studies, he sold his bird drawings, mainly portraits of parrots, to private collectors. After graduating, he worked in his own studio at the Museum Alexander Koenig as a bird draftsman. Here he met the systematist Hans Edmund Wolters , with whom he had a long-standing friendship. In 1962 he enrolled at the Cologne factory schools . To finance his art studies, he drew bird boards for international bird magazines from Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands. His first illustrated work was the Readers Digest Book on Birds , published by Collins Publishers and published in several countries. In 1972 he illustrated the very successful bird guide The birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East , which was translated into 27 languages, including German (as Parey's bird book: all birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East ). He also made color plates for the bird volumes of Grzimek's animal life . Heinzel has lived in southern France since the late 1970s. In 1991 and 1999 the French filmmaker Jacques Mitsch shot the documentaries Hermann Heinzel, ornithologue and Hermann Heinzel ou Le point de vue de l'echassier . Heinzel was awarded the Chevalier de l ' Ordre national du Mérite for his work with children .

Works (selection)

  • The birds of Britain and Europe with North Africa and the Middle East (with Richard Fitter and John Parslow), 1972
  • Parey's Bird Book: All Birds of Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, 1972
  • The Birds of New Providence and the Bahamas (with PGC Brudenell-Bruce), 1975
  • Field Guide to the Sea-birds of Britain and the World (with Gerald Tuck), 1978
  • Field Guide to the Sea-birds of Southern Africa and the World (with Gerald Tuck), 1978
  • Handguide to the Birds of Britain and Europe (with Martin Woodcock ), 1978
  • Cage Birds, 1979
  • The Bird Table: Attracting Birds to Garden or Balcony: How to Recognize and Feed Them, 1979
  • A field guide to the seabirds of Australia and the world (with Gerald Tuck), 1980
  • The world's sea birds (with Gerald Tuck), 1980
  • Collins Handguide to the Birds of the Indian Sub-Continent, Including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal (with Martin Woodcock), 1980
  • Collins Handguide to the Birds of New Zealand (with Chlöe Talbot-Kelly), 1984
  • Galapagos Diary: A Complete Guide to the Archipelago's Birdlife (with Barnaby Hall), 2000
  • Birds of Napa County, 2006

literature

  • Portrait in Der Falke , Volumes 47–48, Aula Verlag, 2000, pp. 49–51

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Heinzel, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bird artist and ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Poland