Johann Casimir Benicken

Johann Casimir Benicken (born August 1, 1782 in Schleswig ; † December 1, 1838 ibid) was a German judicial councilor, city secretary and ornithologist .

Life

Johann Casimir Benicken was a son of the Chancellery and Supreme Court Councilor Johann Hinrich Oswald Benicken (* 1746; † March 26, 1787 in Schleswig). The mother Helena Christina, née Clausen († October 24, 1835 in Schleswig) was a great-aunt of the poet Theodor Storm .

Benicken attended the cathedral school in Schleswig and began studying law at Kiel University in 1799 . In 1800 he continued his studies at the University of Göttingen . In 1803 he passed the legal exam at the Gottorf Higher Court and in the same year took up a position as a lower court lawyer in Schleswig. From 1808 to 1837 he worked here as the city secretary. Since 1825 he was also a judicial officer for the noble estates Buckhagen , Roest , Karlsburg and Windeby .

Benicken was married twice: in his first marriage, he married Friedericke Henriette Meckelburg (born January 9, 1799, † November 23, 1819 in Schleswig). In his second marriage he married Elsabe Eleonore Müller (* 1786; † December 11, 1846 in Schleswig), with whom he had a daughter.

Working as an ornithologist

Benicken first published about seagulls and limikoles in 1812 . This aroused the interest of the well-known ornithologist Johann Friedrich Naumann . In the further course Benicken developed into a renowned expert on seagulls. In the Baltic Sea in particular, he collected birds and sent bird hides, which he had found on the Schleswig-Holstein coasts, to numerous ornithologists. This enabled them to gain new knowledge about the appearance and living conditions of gulls and terns.

After 1827, Benicken was able to prove that ivory gulls lived near Schleswig , which are otherwise very rare in the region. He wrote letters and exchanged birds with Frederik Faber , JF Mechlenburg, Friedrich Boie , Heinrich Boie , Johann Philipp Achilles Leisler and Christian Ludwig Brehm .

Benicken was a contact point for whalers who gave him bird eggs and hides from animals living there from Iceland and Greenland . In 1821 he received a now extinct giant aalk that had lived on Diskoinsel . He also got many rare bird species from fishermen and hunters around Schleswig. Benickens collection was considered an attraction of the city.

Benicken donated some of his exhibits, which no longer exist today, to Kiel University. After his death, the ornithologist Emil Hage bought the rest of the collection.

literature

• Hans-Peter Müller: Benicken, Johann Casimir . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 3. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1974, pp. 36-37