Johann Anderson

Copper engraving by Johann Anderson by Christian Fritzsch .

Memory of Johann Anderson in the Althamburg Memorial Cemetery (Ohlsdorfer Friedhof)

Johann Anderson (born March 14, 1674 in Hamburg ; † May 3, 1743 ibid) was a German lawyer , Hamburg mayor and natural scientist and linguist . His abbreviation as a biologist is Ander.

Life

Johann Anderson, the son of the Hamburg merchant and whaling shipowner Ammon Anderson, studied law from 1694, first in Leipzig , then between 1695 and 1697 in Halle and did his doctorate in Leyden as Doctor iuris utriusque . The title of his dissertation was De iuramento Zenoniano . In addition to his law studies, Anderson had studied the natural sciences, especially through acquaintances such as the Dutchman Antoni van Leeuwenhoek .

Anderson returned to Hamburg at the end of August 1697 to initially work as a lawyer. In 1702 he became council secretary and in 1708 a syndic . In this position he negotiated with a representative of the British about a contract that brought about the equality of salted herring of different origins in Hamburg. Anderson was Mayor of Hamburg from February 5, 1723 until his death .

On January 11, 1731 he was elected with the academic surname Marcus Cato as a full member ( matriculation no. 420 ) of the Imperial Leopoldine-Carolinian Academy of Natural Scientists .

Anderson collected literature, particularly on Iceland and Greenland, and on the fishing and whaling areas in the North Atlantic . His work News from Iceland, Greenland and the Davis Strait appeared posthumously in 1746 , which deals with the living conditions in Iceland and Greenland and which has been translated into several languages. Anderson, who had never been to Iceland or Greenland himself, wrote this work, in addition to his scientific interest, also to contribute to Hamburg's economic advancement. In the appendix to the work there is a description of the grammar and vocabulary used by the Inuit in Greenland. In the work itself there is, among other things, a scientifically significant treatise on herring migration , which found international dissemination as the polar tribe theory .

Johann Anderson was married to Margaretha von Lengerke, daughter of the Hamburg Mayor Peter von Lengerke . They had a son of the same name, the jurist Johann Anderson junior (1717–1790), who was also Hamburg's mayor between 1783 and 1790. The grandson Christian Daniel Anderson (1753–1826) was also a lawyer and council secretary in Hamburg.

Fonts

De iuramento Zenoniano. 1697 (dissertation).
News from Iceland, Greenland and the Davis Strait, for the true benefit of science and action. Georg Christian Grund, Hamburg 1746 ( digitized in the World Digital Library ).

drawings

literature

Hans Kellinghusen: Anderson, Johann. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 269 ( digitized version ).
Gerd Wegner: On the contemporary and lasting significance of the findings from the North Atlantic region compiled by Johann Anderson (1674-1743) from economic interests in Hamburg.
Emil Julius Hugo Steffenhagen: Anderson, Johann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, p. 430.
Friedrich Georg Buek , genealogical and biographical notes on the mayors who have died since the Reformation , Verein f. Hamburg History , Johann August Meissner (publisher), Hamburg, 1840, p. 188

Web links

Commons : Johann Anderson - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

↑ Gerd Wegner: Meteorological and oceanographic from the "Greenland trip". ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2 archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 503 kB). Meteorological conference 10. – 14. September 2007 in Hamburg.

↑ Gerd Wegner: Herring research in the mirror of the centuries. A 250 year old theory and new knowledge. (PDF; 375 kB). In: Research report on nutrition, agriculture, forest 2/1997, pp. 36–39.

personal data
SURNAME	Anderson, Johann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Marcus Cato
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German legal scholar, Hamburg mayor and natural scientist and linguist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 14, 1674
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	May 3, 1743
Place of death	Hamburg

[1] Gerd Wegner: Meteorological and oceanographic from the "Greenland trip". ( Memento of the original from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2 archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 503 kB). Meteorological conference 10. – 14. September 2007 in Hamburg.

[2] Gerd Wegner: Herring research in the mirror of the centuries. A 250 year old theory and new knowledge. (PDF; 375 kB). In: Research report on nutrition, agriculture, forest 2/1997, pp. 36–39.