Leopold von Schrenck

Leopold von Schrenck

Peter Leopold of Schrenck ( Russian Леопольд Иванович фон Шренк ; born April 24, ^jul. / 6. May  1826 ^greg. In Kharkov Governorate , † January 8 ^jul. / 20th January  1894 ^greg. In Saint Petersburg ) was a deutschbaltisch - Russian Zoologist , geographer and ethnographer . He was the brother of Alexander von Schrenk .

Life

Leopold von Schrenck , photo, around 1885

After graduating from the University of Dorpat with a master's degree in zoology, he went to Germany for two years, where he continued his studies in natural sciences at the universities of Berlin and Königsberg . Some time after his return to Russia, he received an offer from the Petersburg Academy of Sciences to undertake a research trip to the Far Eastern regions of the Russian Empire.

In 1853 von Schrenck embarked on the frigate Aurora , with which he sailed on the western sea route to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky . From there he and his expedition team, which also included the botanist Carl Maximowicz , were brought by a corvette to the Bay of De Kastri , which lies opposite the island of Sakhalin. There the group boarded the schooner Vostok and began to explore the coast in a northerly direction with regard to its geological composition, flora and fauna and the local people. In August 1854 von Schrenck and his team reached the Nikolaevsky army base at the mouth of the Amur (today Nikolayevsk am Amur ), where they set up their expedition base. During autumn and winter they explored the area around the base and the shores of Sakhalin Island. In the spring of 1855, the team set out to explore the Amur , which they drove up to the mouth of the Ussuri by boat , which they followed to the confluence of the Chor River . In the autumn they returned to their base camp at the mouth of the Amur. In the following winter, von Schrenck undertook a number of excursions to the island of Sakhalin. In the spring of 1856 the group started their journey home by land to Saint Petersburg, which they did not reach until January 1857. Leopold von Schrenck published the results of the research trip in the work Reisen und Forschungen im Amur-Lande (1858–1900). He was awarded the Constantine Medal by the Russian Geographical Society . He also worked on the publication of the extensive series of articles on the knowledge of the Russian Empire and the neighboring countries of Asia .

In his later years, von Schrenck turned to research into the indigenous peoples of Russia . He was the first to write dictionaries for their languages ​​( Niwchen (Giljaken), Golden (Nanai), Ainu and Ultschen ). Schrenk introduced the term " Paleo-Asian Peoples " for the earliest populations of Northeast Asia .

Since November 10, 1879 he was director of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography in St. Petersburg .

A number of animals were named after von Schrenck, including:

• Notoacmea schrenckii (English Schrenck's Limpet)
• Acipenser schrenckii (German Amur sturgeon )
• Elaphe schrenckii (German Amur snake)
• Ixobrychus eurhythmus ( Eng . Mandschurendommel ; Eng. Schrenck's Bittern)
• Amuriana schrenckii (a species of butterfly)

Fonts (selection)

• About the lynx species of the north and their geographical distribution. A contribution to zoological geography , Dorpat dissertation 1849
• Travel and research in the Amur country in the years 1854–1856 , 4 vols., St. Peterburg 1858–1900 (in several deliveries)
  • Vol. 1 and 2 Zoology
  • Vol. 3 The peoples of the Amurland (the posthumously published Giljak and Goldisch-German dictionaries were edited by Wilhelm Grube )
  • Vol. 4 Meteorological Observations
• The expedition to the New Siberian Islands and the Jana Lands equipped by the Imperial Academy of Sciences: On the prehistory of the expedition , St. Petersburg 1887

literature

• Herbert Scurla (ed.): Beyond the stone gate. Journeys by German researchers in the 18th and 19th centuries through Siberia , 4th edition Berlin 1976
• Barbara and Richard Mearns: Biographies for birdwatchers. The lives of those commemorated in western palearctic bird names , London 1988, ISBN 0-12-487422-3
• Martin Hallink; Olaf-Mihkel Klaasen: Keizerlik Tartu Ülikool (1802–1918) yes Orient. Eesti-Oriendi cultuurisuhete üldisel taustal. [The Imperial University of Tartu and the Orient: in the context of the general background of Estonian-Oriental Cultural relations] , Tartu 2002, pp. 245-251.
• Bernd Brunner: Bears: A Brief History , New Haven and London 2007 (Chapter "An Observer in Eastern Siberia", pp. 117–123)

Name variants

Leopold von Schrenck, Peter Leopold von Schrenck, L. Shrenk, LI Shrenk, Leopold Schrenk, L. von Schrenck, Leopol'd I. Šrenk, Leopol'd Ivanovič Šrenk, Leopol'd Ivanovich Shrenk, Leopold Šrenk

See also

• Schrenck from Notzing

Web links

Commons : Leopold von Schrenck  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Leopold von Schrenck in the catalog of the German National Library
• Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Peter Leopold von Schrenck. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
• Brief biographies of the museum directors of the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnology
• Karl Marx: The Quadruple Treaty - England and the War (details on the frigate Aurora)

swell

• Article in the Internet encyclopedia North Pacific (Russian)
• Website of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography ("Art Camera"), Saint Petersburg (Russian)