Johann Matthäus Bechstein

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Johann Matthäus Bechstein
The forester Johann Matthäus Bechstein
Plaque for Johann Matthäus Bechstein in Jena, Zwatzengasse 18

Johann Matthäus Bechstein (born July 11, 1757 in Waltershausen , † February 23, 1822 in Drei 30acker near Meiningen ) was a German naturalist , forest scientist and ornithologist . He is considered a pioneer of nature conservation and scientific ornithology.

Life

Johann Matthäus Bechstein was born in Waltershausen near Gotha . From 1776 to 1780 he studied theology , natural sciences as well as forest and camera science in Jena . From 1785 he was a teacher for natural sciences and mathematics at the Philanthropin in Schnepfenthal , now part of Waltershausen. This facility still exists today as the Salzmannschule , a language high school. In 1794, Bechstein founded the Public Training Institute for Forest and Hunting Studies, a private forest institute in Kemnate near Waltershausen, which he then headed until 1799. At the end of 1795 he set up the "Societät für Forst- und Jagdkunde" (Society for Forestry and Hunting Studies), a first society for forestry practitioners and scholars, which soon had numerous members at home and abroad. The treatises of the society appeared from 1797 in the journal Diana .

In 1800 Bechstein was appointed director of the training institute for forest and hunting, which opened the following year, in Drei 30acker near Meiningen. In 1803 the institution was raised to the rank of ducal forest academy. From 1808 one of the teachers there was the popular writer Carl-Gottlob Cramer . The students of the Forestry Academy included Georg Wilhelm von Wedekind , Julius von den Brinken , Carl Heinrich Georg von Heyden and Carl Heinrich Edmund von Berg . On September 15, 1800, Bechstein, nicknamed Oppianus, was elected a member ( matriculation no. 1013 ) of the Leopoldina . In 1806 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Erlangen . In 1808 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . From 1812 he was a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences .

His extensive natural history writings - among other things, he was the first to describe several species of birds - brought Johann Matthäus Bechstein the reputation of the "father of German ornithology" during his lifetime. He was one of the first to campaign for nature conservation . He called for the preservation of animals that were not considered worthy of protection at the time, such as bats . The Bechstein thrush ( Turdus bechsteinii ) and the Bechstein bat ( Myotis bechsteinii ) are named after him. His writings also dealt with the keeping of cage birds and their diseases. He founded terrarium science with his natural history of house animals . In total, his work comprises around 90 monographs with 132 individual volumes as well as numerous journal articles. Bechstein was a member of Meiningen's Masonic Lodge " Charlotte zu den Drei Nelken ".

He was the adoptive father of the writer Ludwig Bechstein . In 1855 Dr. Johann Matthäus Bechstein and the Drei 30acker Forest Academy. A double memorial by Ludwig Bechstein , the first independent biography of a German forester in book form. It was not until 1950, almost a hundred years later, that Albert Richter wrote the second, detailed biography of a forest scientist, that of Heinrich Cotta .

Fonts (selection)

  • Non-profit natural history of Germany after all three kingdoms. 4 volumes. Leipzig 1789-1809.
  • Brief but thorough examination of all animals that the hunter has rightly or wrongly regarded as harmful and killed, together with a list of some really harmful ones that he, according to his profession, does not recognize for it ... Ettinger, Gotha 1792-1805.
  • Natural history of the house birds. Ettinger, Gotha 1795.
  • Conversations in the inn in Klugheim about all sorts of useful and instructive things from nature and economy , Nuremberg 1796
  • Natural history of the house animals. Ettinger, Gotha 1797.
  • Ornithological pocket book by and for Germany or a short description of all birds in Germany for lovers of this part of natural history. Richter, Leipzig 1802.
  • Publisher with Georg Ludwig Scharfenberg : Full natural history of harmful forest insects. A handbook for foresters, cameralists and economists , Leipzig 1804.
  • Natural history of the harmful forest insects. Monath & Kußler, Nuremberg 1798–1800.
  • Diana or corporate font to expand and correct nature, forest and hunting knowledge. Waltershausen 1797-1816.
  • Forest botany or complete natural history of the German woody plants and some foreign ones. Gotha, in the Hennings'schen Buchhandlung, 1809.
  • Forestry and hunting science in all its parts for prospective and practicing foresters and hunters. Gotha, Erfurt 1818-1835 pm

literature

  • Ludwig Bechstein : Dr. Johann Matthäus Bechstein and the Drei 30acker Forest Academy. A double monument by Ludwig Bechstein . Brückner & Renner, Meiningen 1855.
  • Julius Victor Carus :  Bechstein, Johann Matthäus . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1875, pp. 205 f.
  • Wolfgang Heinrich: Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757–1822) and the orchids. AHO circular 58, 2005.
  • Eberhard Mey: Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757-1822). Rudolstadt Naturhistorische Schriften 11, 2003.
  • Rudolf Möller: Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757–1822) - a sketch of his life and work. Number Ver. Door. Orn. 4, 2002.
  • Wolfgang Pfauch: Johann Matthäus Bechstein 1757–1822. Life and work. Kleinhampl, Erfurt 1998, ISBN 3-933956-00-5 .
  • Ulrich Scheidt & Günther Praedicow: Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757–1822) and the beginnings of terrarium science . The Secretary, 2006.
  • Ekkehard Schwartz : Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757–1822) , in ders .: Pioneer of sustainable forest management in Thuringia . Kessel, Remagen 2005, ISBN 3-935638-71-X , pp. 94-108.
  • Erwin Stresemann :  Bechstein, Johann Matthäus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 692 ( digitized version ).
  • Roland Tittel: Johann Matthäus Bechstein's new bird species. Dep. Ber. Mus. Nature Gotha 22, 2002.
  • Johann Matthäus Bechstein (1757–1822) in the professional and private networks of his time - Lectures at the scientific symposium on October 20, 2007 in Meiningen, special publication by the Hennebergisch-Fränkisches Geschichtsverein e. V. No. 26, Ed .: Mötsch, Johannes , Uloth, Walter; Verlag Kessel, ISBN 978-3-941300-07-1 .

Web links

Commons : Johann Matthäus Bechstein  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Johann Matthäus Bechstein  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry by Johann Matthäus Bechstein (with picture) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on February 5, 2016.
  2. ^ Member entry by Johann Matthäus Bechstein at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 5, 2016.
  3. ^ Members of the previous academies. Johannes Matthäus Bechstein. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on February 19, 2015 .


personal data
SURNAME Bechstein, Johann Matthäus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bechstein, Johannes Matthäus; Oppianus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naturalist, forest scientist and ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 11, 1757
PLACE OF BIRTH Waltershausen
DATE OF DEATH February 23, 1822
Place of death 30 acre