Jan Bohls

Jan Bohls (oil painting from the open-air museum in the Speckenbüttel city park in Bremerhaven)

Jan (also: Johann) Friedrich Wilhelm Bohls (born November 19, 1863 in Lehe ; † April 3, 1950 in Bremerhaven -Lehe) was a German zoologist , private scholar , folklorist and local history researcher .

biography

Bohls was born in Lehe in 1863 as the son of a farmer, lime burner and patch manager. He attended the Rector's School in Lehe and then the Realgymnasium in Hildesheim . After graduating from high school, he studied botany , geology , paleontology and zoology ; first at the Georg-August University in Göttingen - there he joined in 1884 in the connection and subsequent fraternity Holzminda one - then in the meantime at the University of Berlin and the University of Munich . After returning to Göttingen , he did his doctorate with Professor Ernst Ehlers . Subsequently, he became a private tutor for a family from Lehe in Paraguay for a few years . There he collected linguistic monuments of the Indians in the Gran Chaco and made zoological research; especially in the field of ants . Here he also discovered some new (sub) species of ants named after him:

• Eciton ( Acamatus ) bohlsi
• Leptogenys bohlsi
• Cryptocerus bohlsi
• Cephalotes bohlsi

Some of these exhibits from Paraguay now form the oldest part of the America collection of the Institute for Ethnology at the University of Göttingen .

Bohls was a member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory .

After his return from South America he became an assistant at the Natural History Museum in Hamburg . In the mid-1890s, Bohls returned to his old homeland, where he made the acquaintance of the writer Hermann Allmers , who introduced him to the Men from Morgenstern association . Together with Gustav von der Osten, in 1898 he turned this rather sociable round table into a local community for the entire area between the Elbe and Weser estuaries . He was also a member of the Leher Heimatverein. In the 1890s, Bohls played an important mediating role in the beginnings of German boat research .

Bohls made many different discoveries in terms of local history. He examined an urn cemetery for things in the Wurster Marsch , on which he excavated Old Saxon vessels made with the barbotine technique of Roman provincial origin. In the Fickmühlen forest he uncovered a stone age grave. Finds of bog bodies and an excavation of the Debstedter Galgenberg , which goes back to the Bronze Age , were further projects.

The finds of the Heimatbund der Männer vom Morgenstern were sold to the city of Geestemünde in 1902 and shown in the Städtisches Morgenstern Museum from 1906 . The first museum director was Jan Bohls until 1907.

Geest farm in the Speckenbüttel open-air museum in Bremerhaven

In order to be able to make the finds that have accumulated over time accessible to the public, the Lehe Farmhouse Association was founded under Bohl's direction in 1908 , creating the beginnings of the Speckenbüttel open-air museum , one of the oldest open-air museums in Germany. In 1909 the Geesthaus was inaugurated; In addition to a mill, other buildings were gradually built in Speckenbüttler Park. In 1920 he promoted the founding of the Low German stage "Waterkant" by providing it with space for performances in the smoke house of the Speckenbüttel open-air museum.

Fonts

• The mouthparts of the physopods . Dissertation. Goettingen 1891.
• Information about the catch and way of life of Lepidosiren from Paraguay . In: News from the Society of Sciences in Göttingen. Mathematical-physical class from 1894 . Göttingen 1895, p. 80-83 .
• C. Emery: Formicides, collected in Paraguay by Dr. J. Bohls . In: Zoological Yearbooks . Department of Systematics, Ecology and Geography of Animals. tape 9 , 1896, pp. 625-638 .
• Dieter Riemer : De iserne Hinnerk. A Low German fairy tale captured by Jan Bohls . In: Men from Morgenstern , Heimatbund an Elbe and Weser estuary e. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 774 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven June 2014, p. 4 ( digital version [PDF; 2,3 MB ; accessed on June 14, 2019]).

Honors

• The Jan-Bohls-Weg in Bad Bederkesa was named after Jan Bohls
• In 1933 Jan-Bohls-Strasse in Bremerhaven was named after him
• In 1933 the architect Hans Scharoun dedicated a poem to him for his 70th birthday
• In 1951 the Jan Bohls oak was planted in front of the Geesthaus in Bremerhaven-Speckenbüttel
• In 1952 the city of Bremerhaven and various associations honored him with a bronze plaque on his gravestone

literature

• Hartmut Bickelmann : Bremerhaven personalities from four centuries . A biographical lexicon . Ed .: City of Bremerhaven, City Archives. Self-published, Bremerhaven 2002, ISBN 3-923851-24-3 , p. 37-38 .
• Hans-Walter Keweloh: Jan Bohls and the research of traditional boats in Germany - an example of local research and its share in research projects in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century . In: Oldenburgische Landschaft (Ed.): Blickwechsel. Festschrift for Ewald Gäßler . Isensee Verlag, Oldenburg 2010, ISBN 3-89995-705-9 , p. 59-77 .
• Arne Krone: pioneers of the seaside city of Bremerhaven . tape 2 . Schünemann Verlag , Bremerhaven 2009, ISBN 3-86509-924-6 .
• Herbert Black Forest : The Great Bremen Lexicon . 2nd Edition. tape 1 . Edition Temmen Verlag, Bremen 2003, ISBN 3-86108-693-X , p. 86 .
• Benno Eide Siebs : Bohls, Johann Friedrich Wilhelm . In: State Archive Bremen / Historical Society Bremen (Ed.): Bremische Biographie 1912–1962 . Hauschild Verlag, Bremen 1969, ISBN 3-920699-09-2 , p. 65 (col. 1) -66 (col. 1) .
• Robert Wiebalck: Dr. Johann Bohls in memory . In: Yearbook of the Men of the Morning Star . tape 32 . Bremerhaven 1951 (special print).

Individual evidence

1. ^ Wilhelm Ebel : The register of the Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen 1837-1900 . August Lax Verlag, Hildesheim 1974 (No. 61208, registered on April 22, 1884).
2. ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members according to the status of the winter semester 1927/28 . Verlag der Burschenschaftliche Blätter, Frankfurt am Main 1928, p. 47 .
3. ^ Wilhelm Ebel: The register of the Georg-August-Universität zu Göttingen 1837-1900 . Hildesheim 1974 (No. 62715, enrolled on May 14, 1886 & No. 64940, de-registered on October 31, 1889).
4. ↑ Insa Wendt: America - Ethnological Collection . In: Ulrike Beisiegel (Hrsg.): The collections, museums and gardens of the University of Göttingen . 2nd Edition. Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-86395-338-6 , pp. 33 , doi : 10.17875 / gup2018-1064 .
5. ↑ Christian Hasemann: Jan Bohls and the men from the morning star. In: Weser-Kurier website . July 28, 2011, accessed June 14, 2019 .  
6. ↑ Hans-Walter Keweloh: Research into traditional boats. Great interest in an offer from Jahn Bohls . In: Men from the Morgenstern Heimatbund at the mouth of the Elbe and Weser. V. (Ed.): Niederdeutsches Heimatblatt . No. 729 . Nordsee-Zeitung GmbH, Bremerhaven September 2010, p. 2–3 ( digitized version [PDF; 2,3 MB ; accessed on June 14, 2019]).
7. ↑ Hartmut Bickelmann: Bremerhaven personalities from four centuries. A biographical lexicon . Ed .: City of Bremerhaven, City Archives. Self-published, Bremerhaven 2002, ISBN 3-923851-24-3 , p. 38 .
8. ↑ City Theater Bremerhaven - Low German Stage Waterkant. In: www.stadttheaterbremerhaven.de. Retrieved June 14, 2019 .  
9. ↑ Johann Friedrich Geist ; Klaus Küvers; Dieter Rausch: Hans Scharoun - Chronicle of life and work . Ed .: Academy of the Arts. Self-published, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-88331-974-0 , p.  64 .