Jean-Henri Fabre

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Jean-Henri Fabre
Jean-Henri Fabre, portrait by Nadar

Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre (born December 21, 1823 in Saint-Léons , † October 11, 1915 in Sérignan-du-Comtat , Département Vaucluse ) was a French natural scientist ( entomologist ), poet and writer, member of the Académie Française and the Légion d'honneur . He is considered a pioneer in behavioral research and ecophysiology .

Life

During his poverty-stricken childhood in Lévezou, Jean-Henri Fabre experienced the barren landscape of the French Massif Central . Today the Micropolis , a modern insect museum, is located in his hometown of Saint-Léons . A small private museum also shows what Fabre's birthplace might have looked like.

At the age of ten Fabre received a scholarship for the high school in Rodez , where he laid the foundation for his humanistic education over the next few years. Here he acquired knowledge of Latin and Greek and it was here that he met Virgil , who particularly shaped his relationship with nature. In 1834 the family left Saint-Léons due to financial difficulties. Jean-Henri moved with his parents to Toulouse , later to Montpellier and finally in 1840 to Avignon . There he passed the entrance exam for the teachers' college at the age of seventeen. Thanks to a scholarship, he was able to complete his training after two years with a diploma. From 1842 to 1849 Fabre worked as a teacher in Carpentras in Provence . In 1844 he made up his Abitur. In 1846 he received his degree in mathematics and in 1848 in physics. In 1855 he received his doctorate from the Faculty of Natural Sciences in Paris. From 1849 to 1853 he worked as a physics teacher at the Lyceum in Ajaccio ( Corsica ). During this time he studied the plants and shells of Corsica. In 1853 he was transferred to Avignon as a physics professor, where he worked until 1870.

Avignon

After the July Revolution of 1830 , a law ( loi Guizot ) reforming the public school system was passed in 1833 , which was supposed to reorganize education as a means of reconciling the strengthened bourgeoisie with the still restless people. The modernization was carried out in particular by Victor Duruy , who had been minister of culture since 1863. In 1867 Duruy began an adult and girls education program. He visited Fabre in Avignon and won him over for a collaboration, Fabre took over the organization of evening courses for everyone. In the Second Empire , the Catholic Church had regained influence in France. She took offense at the courses, especially the participation of girls. Under their pressure Duruy had to resign as minister of education in 1869. Fabre also felt the ecclesiastical resistance: he was dismissed from school and lost his rented apartment. In the meantime, however, his income from the publication of textbooks and school books was so substantial that he wanted to venture into self-employment. A first attempt to move his family to a rural location did not last. It was not until 1879 that he was able to acquire a property in Sérignan-du-Comtat in the canton of Orange-Est . His friend, the English politician and natural philosopher John Stuart Mill , who lived temporarily in Avignon, financed the purchase of the property with a loan of 3,000 francs . (The loan amount corresponds to around 24,000 euros today.)

Sérignan-du-Comtat

Fabre called this property his Harmas . In the Souvenirs Entomologiques he writes about it:

“That's what I was looking for, hoc erat in votis: a piece of land, no, not particularly large, but closed and protected from prying eyes; a piece of land, deserted, barren, scorched by the sun, but favorable to thistles and hymenoptera. I can ask sand wasp and grave wasp without being disturbed by passers-by […] Hoc erat in votis: yes, that was my wish, my dream, pursued for so long and repeatedly entranced into a misty distance […] I have been fighting for forty years unshakable courage against the petty wretchedness of life; now the long-awaited laboratory has finally become a reality. What it cost me in persistent, persistent effort, I will not try to say. It's there and with it - even more difficult to get - maybe a little leisure [...] It's a Harmas . This is the name given to an uncultivated, stony area left to the thyme ... "

Fabre lived in this house in Sérignan-du-Comtat for over 30 years until his death. Today the Harmas Museum Jean-Henri Fabre is housed there.

After Fabre had renovated the long uninhabited, neglected building and walled the garden, he lived here with his family until his death. He defended his material and intellectual independence - also at the cost of occasional financial worries.

Today the Harmas is open to the public as a state museum. It is close to Orange , not far from the A7 motorway that connects Lyon with the south. In addition to the garden and living rooms, you can also see Fabre's workspace with the tiny, barely a square meter table on which he worked and wrote. When a Japanese company recreated the scholar's famous furniture, it sold 10,000 pieces straight away.

family

In 1844 Jean-Henri Fabre and Marie-Césarine Villard married, and their first daughter was born in the same year. A total of seven children resulted from the marriage, two of which did not survive childhood. Marie-Césarine died in 1885. In 1887 Fabre married his young housekeeper Marie-Joséphine Daudel (* 1863), with whom he had three other children. After Marie-Joséphine's death, his daughter Aglaé took care of her father. She lived in Harmas until 1931 .

activities

Fabre was in correspondence with many greats of his time, especially with Charles Darwin . However , he remained skeptical about his theory of evolution , just as he showed reluctance to all theories and systems. His strength was the careful and precise observation of details, field research . He was always wary of any hasty, generalizing conclusions from his observations. In numerous detailed observations and experiments, he was particularly concerned with animal instinctual behavior .

Fabre has published numerous books with which he tried to introduce scientific and other subjects - chemistry, botany, arithmetic, celestial science, algebra, trigonometry, agriculture, etc. - in a popular way, especially to the youth. He was so successful with it that he was finally able to make a living from his publishing activities. Even if the general upswing in education was of benefit to him, the breakthrough was mainly due to his special educational talent. His ability to present complicated facts and processes in an exciting, easy-to-read form is particularly evident in the Souvenirs Entomologiques .

Fabre also painted, but never had any drawing or painting lessons. From childhood he had a special interest in mushrooms and so he created 616 watercolors of mushrooms, according to the judgment of proven experts they are of great scientific accuracy.

Fabre also made music. Today you can visit the harmonium at Harmas , on which he played for evening entertainment. He could read and write notes and knew how to improvise here, as everywhere. One day he sent a friend the notes and lyrics for a song he had composed and wrote: “... don't be alarmed by the many semitones. I've noticed that semitones sound softer on the harmonium ... "

In 1912 Fabre was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature . However, this year the Swedish Academy honored the German poet and playwright Gerhart Hauptmann . From 1887 he was a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris.

In 1951 the French director Henri Diamant-Berger directed Monsieur Fabre , a film about Jean-Henri Fabre's life with Pierre Fresnay in the title role.

Publications

Fabre's Souvenirs Entomologiques (Entomological Memories), an extensive work that he published in ten series between 1879 and 1907, are world-famous and translated into many languages . It combines the careful and exact description of insect observations with personal memories, descriptions of the people and the nature of his southern French homeland and with poems in French and Occitan. Especially in Japan, Fabre is revered as a man who knew how to combine scientific and literary education in an exemplary manner.

In Germany, Fabre and his souvenirs entomologiques were largely unknown for a long time. Meanwhile there are also translations into German. Kurt Guggenheim writes in his selection The Obvious Secret : “... art is, so to speak, a by-product in Fabre's work. Just as the scent of thyme and lavender rests above all of his descriptions , the sun of Provence shines and the mistral blows, so in many of his chapters an indescribable poetry has spread that touches the reader. "

Works (selection)

French complete editions
  • Souvenirs entomologiques. Études sur l'instinct et les moeurs des insectes - I. Première à cinquième série . Robert Laffont, Paris 2001, ISBN 2-221-05462-8 .
  • Souvenirs entomologiques. Études sur l'instinct et les moeurs des insectes II. Sixième à dixième série . Robert Laffont, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-221-05463-6 .
German-language editions
  • Pictures from the insect world. First to fourth rows in two volumes. Stuttgart: Kosmos, Franckh'sche Verlagshandlung, Volume I: undated, Volume II: 1914.
  • The revealed secret. From the life's work of the entomologist ( Souvenirs Entomologiques - Études sur l'instinct et les moeurs des insectes [selection] ). Artemis, Zurich and Munich 1977, ISBN 3-7608-0716-X .
  • Miracles of the living. From the diverse world of insects ( Souvenirs Entomologiques - Études sur l'instinct et les moeurs des insectes [selection] ). Artemis, Zurich and Munich 1989, ISBN 3-7608-1014-4 .
  • Pictures from the insect world. One-time edition of the original Kosmos editions from 1908 to 1914 * First to fourth series ( Souvenirs Entomologiques [selection] ). Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-440-09642-4 .
  • A look into the life of beetles ( souvenirs entomologiques [selection] ). Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1910.
  • The starry sky. Lectures for young and old from the field of astronomy (edited by R. Graff). Franckh-Kosmos, Stuttgart 1911.
  • The air ( L'air, nécessaire à la vie ). Friedenauer Presse, Berlin 1985, ISBN 3-921592-18-6 .
  • But I research it in the middle of life! From the poetry of insects Heinrich and Hahn Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008 (selection from the Souvenirs Entomologiques ), ISBN 978-3-86597-047-3 .
German Complete Edition of Souvenirs Entomologiques (Entomological Memories)

The German first edition of all works (10 volumes), translated by Friedrich Koch and with drawings by Christian Thanhäuser , should be completed by 2019.

  • Memories of an entomologist I . First volume of the complete edition of the souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin , 2009, ISBN 978-3-88221-664-6 .
  • Memories of an entomologist II . Second volume of the complete edition of souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2010, ISBN 978-3-88221-672-1 .
  • Memories of an entomologist III . Third volume of the complete edition of the souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2011, ISBN 978-3-88221-673-8 .
  • Memories of an entomologist IV . Fourth volume of the complete edition of the souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2012, ISBN 978-3-88221-674-5 .
  • Memories of an entomologist V . Fifth volume of the complete edition of the souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2013, ISBN 978-3-88221-675-2 .
  • Memories of an entomologist VI . Sixth volume of the complete edition of the souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2015, ISBN 978-3-88221-676-9 .
  • Memories of an entomologist VII . Seventh volume of the complete edition of the souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2016, ISBN 978-3-88221-677-6 .
  • Memories of an entomologist VIII . Eighth volume of the complete edition of souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2016, ISBN 978-3-88221-678-3 .
  • Memories of an entomologist IX . Volume ninth of the complete edition of souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2018, ISBN 978-3-88221-679-0 .
  • Memories of an entomologist X . Volume tenth of the complete edition of the souvenirs entomologiques . Matthes & Seitz Berlin, 2019, ISBN 978-3-88221-680-6 .
Complete bilingual edition of the Souvenirs Entomologiques (Entomological Memories)

In the bilingual complete edition, the German and French texts are placed side by side, making it easier to compare the texts directly. The edition contains the original drawings by Fabre. The publication is not in numerical order, so far (?) Six volumes (1,2,3,6,10,11) have appeared in eight books. The more recent translations are titled Provençal Memories .

literature

Web links

Commons : Jean-Henri Fabre  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entomological Memories . 2nd series. 1882, bilingual edition, translated by Franz-Josef Wittmann, p. 1.
  2. ↑ Jean-Henri Fabre: Mushrooms . Ed .: Judith Schalansky . 1st edition. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-95757-031-4 .
  3. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter F. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 12, 2019 (French).
  4. ↑ Deutschlandfunk website
personal data
SURNAME Fabre, Jean-Henri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fabre, Jean-Henri Casimir (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French entomologist and author
DATE OF BIRTH December 21, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint-Léons
DATE OF DEATH October 11, 1915
Place of death Sérignan-du-Comtat , Vaucluse department