Isis (magazine, 1876)

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Isis was a magazine published in Berlin by Karl Russ from 1876 to 1889 . Bruno Dürigen was co-editor and editor-in-chief until 1885 .

description

The magazine had a popular scientific character. According to its subtitle “Journal for all scientific hobbies”, it addressed a readership of nature lovers, such as cactus lovers, insect and mineral collectors, aquarium and terrarium enthusiasts as well as beekeepers, hunters and geobotanists. The importance of the magazine lay mainly in the fact that, even before the creation of subject-specific associations and periodicals, it often offered all these nature lovers, who lived far apart from each other, a forum for the exchange of special experiences and objects for enthusiasts and provided them with knowledge in a wide variety of areas that otherwise hardly in the required quality and timeliness.

From 1876 to 1889, Isis was initially published every two weeks, from year four (1879) onwards, weekly. During this time a total of 646 eight-page booklets were published, occasionally supplemented by supplements. First Isis was published by the Berlin bookstore Louis Gerschel. After its bankruptcy in 1885 from the Magdeburg Creutz'sche Buch- und Musikalienhandlung (later: Creutz'sche Verlagbuchhandlung).

Range of topics

The range of topics of the magazine was broad in order to appeal to as many readers as possible. It included the subjects of zoology , botany , mineralogy , chemistry , physics as well as reports from natural institutions such as museums and zoological and botanical gardens. Further topics were the creation and maintenance of scientific collections, hunting and fishing as well as inquiries, search advertisements and offers. There was a section for literature reviews and reports on events and exhibitions.

history

At the beginning of the publication, the interest in the new magazine had been underestimated and too few copies had been printed. From the eighth issue of the first year onwards, the number of copies was adjusted to meet requirements.

Isis appeared at a time when environmental awareness, especially among the urban population, was not even remotely developed as it is today, at most in individual cases. While in 1879 soot was able to spread proudly in Isis about the role of man in the fight against nature, in 1881 he felt compelled to publish a warning article about the extinction of all wild animals he feared. He considered it possible "when the harmless strollers on the path and footbridge ... literally blows around fanatically, beating down every butterfly, crushing every beetle ..." and thus gave a terrifying example of the attitude of parts of society at the time to their environment. But even after the first vivaristic beginnings, about which Dürigen reported in Isis , it still took a learning process of over a hundred years to reach today's norms for the appropriate keeping of wild animals in human care.

The editorial team worked together successfully up to the ninth year. On July 3, 1884, the commentless and therefore very brief announcement appeared that Bruno Dürigen had stopped his editorial work on the magazine that day; in the middle of the current year. This is surprising, because Dürigen liked to refer to himself in the Berlin address books as the “teacher and editor of Isis”.

From then on, Russ remained the only publisher and editor of the paper. He initially wrote a few articles on topics himself - which Dürigen had previously worked on - and reprinted articles that had already appeared in other publications. New authors were found quickly, such as Paul Nitsche or Hermann Lachmann.

In the last edition of the 14th year of December 26, 1889, Russ informed the readers that Isis had ceased its publication. In his opinion, three reasons had contributed significantly to this: First, the Isis was too expensive. Second, other entertainment journals were now also offering natural history articles in an easily understandable form. Ruß had written quite a few of them himself, thus rivaling his own magazine. Thirdly, Isis had trained its readers in a wide variety of specialist fields over the years, thereby promoting specialization. These readers were less and less interested in the entire range of natural history fields of activity, but ultimately only in their own hobby. With this in mind, they endeavored to found special associations and their own specialist journals. So appeared z. B. the journal Blätter for aquarium and terrarium friends three months after the end of Isis in the same Magdeburg publishing house with Bruno Dürigen as the first editor and editor.

literature

  • Erich Bleich: Dr. Karl Russ (born January 14, 1833, died September 19, 1899). His development primarily as a writer. In: Die gefiederte Welt , Vol. 28, 1899: pp. 321–323 and 329–332.
  • Bruno Dürigen: The hedgehog as a room dweller. In: Isis, Vol. 3, Berlin 1878, pp. 171-172, 179-180.
  • Hermann Lachmann: Our amphibians and reptiles in August. In: Isis, Vol. 13, Berlin 1888, pp. 308-309.
  • Hans-Joachim Paepke: The "Isis" - a forerunner of vivaristic and other natural history journals. In: Aquaristik Fachmagazin, No. 197 Vol. 39 (5), Tetra Verlag, Felten 2007, pp. 72–79.
  • Hans-Joachim Paepke: The life of Prof. Dr. hc Bruno Dürigen (1853–1930) and his herpetological-vivaristic achievements. Secretary, contributions to the literature and history of herpetology and terrarium science. Vol. 9, H. 1, Bonn 2009, pp. 25-56.
  • Karl Ruß: Man in the fight against nature. In: Isis, Vol. 4, Berlin 1879, pp. 2-3.
  • Karl Russ: The decline of all free-living animals .. In: Isis, Vol. 6, Berlin 1881, pp. 394-396.
  • Karl Russ: New experiences in macropod breeding. In: Isis, Vol. 9, Berlin 1884, pp. 303-304, 311-313.
  • Karl Russ: Farewell to the readers and employees. In: Isis, Vol. 14, Berlin 1889, pp. 409-410.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Joachim Paepke: The "Isis" - a forerunner of vivaristic and other natural history journals. In: Aquaristik Fachmagazin. No. 197. Vol. 39 (5), Tetra Verlag, Velten 2007, p. 72.
  2. ↑ Bruno Dürigen: The hedgehog as a room dweller. In: Isis, Vol. 3, Berlin 1878, pp. 171-172, 179-180.
  3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Paepke. The "Isis" - a forerunner of vivaristic and other natural history magazines. In: Aquaristik Fachmagazin. No. 197, vol. 39 (5), Tetra Verlag, Felten 2007, p. 76.
  4. ↑ Karl Russ. New experiences in macropod breeding. In: Isis Vol. 9, Berlin 1884, pp. 303-304, 311-313.
  5. ↑ Hermann Lachmann: Our amphibians and reptiles in August. In: Isis , Vol. 13, Berlin 1888, pp. 308-309.