Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein

Hinrich Lichtenstein

Hinrich Lichtenstein, lithograph by Rudolf Hoffmann, 1857

Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein , also Martin Heinrich or Karl , (born January 10, 1780 in Hamburg , † September 2, 1857 at sea between Korsör and Kiel , buried in Kiel) was a German doctor , researcher , botanist and zoologist , son of the zoologist and librarian Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein . He was the first director of the Berlin zoological garden .

Life

Hinrich Lichtenstein studied in Jena and Helmstedt medicine and graduated in 1802 to Dr. med. before traveling to South Africa between 1802 and 1806 , where he became the personal physician to the governor of the Cape of Good Hope . In 1810 he founded the Zoological Museum in Berlin. In 1811 he was the first professor at the chair for zoology at the University of Berlin , and he was appointed rector in 1820/21, 1826/27 and 1840/41.

Illustration from Lichtenstein's Travels in Southern Africa 1803–1806 : Africans fight with batons

In 1813 he became director of the Zoological Museum in Berlin , was from 1813 to 1857 a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences and 1818-1857 a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina .

Lichtenstein was the initiator and first director of the Berlin Zoological Garden and in 1841 persuaded Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia to not only provide a loan , but also part of the area of his pheasantry at the Berlin Tiergarten for the construction of the zoo free of charge. Lichtenstein wrote a memorandum to the king as early as 1840 . The text of this memorandum has been lost since 1877. What is certain, however, is that Alexander von Humboldt presented it to King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who made the establishment of the zoological garden possible with a “Highest Cabinet Order of January 31, 1841”.

Lichtenstein was musically interested and gifted. "In his earliest youth he received music lessons from Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach , who took the boy on his lap because he was too small to comfortably reach the keys." As a member of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, he was a member of the voting department of the board under the directors Carl Friedrich Zelter and Carl Friedrich Rungenhagen . On April 28, 1812, he was included in the Zelter's song board, which was limited to 24 men and formed from the ranks of the Sing-Akademie. Lichtenstein held the office of table master there from 1813 to 1818. On the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, he wrote a comprehensive commemorative publication in 1841.

He was a close friend of Carl Maria von Weber . After his death in 1826, together with the banker Wilhelm Beer, he arranged for the widow Caroline von Weber to sell the Oberon's score to the Berlin music publisher Adolf Martin Schlesinger . As a guardian together with Carl Theodor Winkler , he participated in the education of Weber's orphaned sons Max Maria and Alexander .

In 1838 he was appointed chairman of the newly founded Musical Expert Association by the Prussian Ministry of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs . This body had an expert function and acted at the request of the Prussian courts. In particular, the experts should decide whether a composition based on an already published work should be allowed as a "peculiar" composition or should be prohibited as a reprint.

In addition, he was a member of the renowned lawless society in Berlin since 1811 . In 1816 he joined the Monday Club in Berlin and was the 10th senior there from 1851 until his death.

Lichtenstein was awarded a Dr. phil. hc and appointed to the “Secret Medical Council”. In his honor the Lichtenstein antelope ( Alcelaphus lichtensteinii ) and in 1867 the Lichtensteinallee leading to the zoological garden (later also the Lichtensteinbrücke ) in Berlin-Tiergarten were named; .

Works

News from Tenerife. A fragment from the diary of Dr. Lichtenstein on the journey from Amsterdam to the promontory of the good hope 1802. Industrie-Comptoirs, Weimar 1806.
About the Beetjuanas. As an addendum and correction to Barrow's excerpt from Trüter's diary of a trip to the Bushvanas. Industrie-Comptoirs, Weimar 1807.
Travels in southern Africa in 1803, 1804, 1805 and 1806. 2 volumes. Salfeld, Berlin 1811. Reprint, with an introduction by Wahrhold Drascher: Brockhaus Antiquarium, Stuttgart 1967.
Representation of new or little-known mammals in illustrations and descriptions of 65 species on 50 colored stone printing plates, based on the originals of the Zoological Museum of the University of Berlin. Lüderitz, Berlin 1827/34.
Official report on the meeting of German naturalists and doctors in Berlin in September 1828: together with a lithographed collection of personal names of the participants . Replaced by the then managing directors A. v. Humboldt and H. Lichtenstein. Trautwein, Berlin 1829. ( digitized version )
The trunk table of the bourgeois family Lichtenstein along with historical news about some members of the same. As a manuscript for the members of the family; together with a tablet in stone printing. Royal Akad. D. Sciences, Berlin 1835. ( digitized version )
On the history of the Sing-Akademie in Berlin. In addition to a message about the feast on the fiftieth anniversary of your foundation and an alphabetical list of all the people who were members of it. Trautwein, Berlin 1843 ( books.google.de ).

literature

Alexander von Humboldt : Speech at the erection of the bust of the going. Medicialrathes Professor Dr. Lichtenstein in the Zoological Museum on April 26, 1852. In: Separatum. [Berlin], 1852, pp. 3-6. Digitized and full text in the German text archive
Ernst Rudorff (ed.): Letters from Carl Maria von Weber to Hinrich Lichtenstein . With three portraits, three illustrations and six facsimiles. George Westermann, Braunschweig 1900. VIII pages, 252 pages, with ill.
Wilhelm Bölsche (Ed.): New Worlds. The conquest of the earth portrayed by great naturalists . Anthology with texts by Georg Forster , Hinrich Lichtenstein, Karl von den Steinen , Ferdinand Hochstetter , Alfred Russel Wallace , Adelbert von Chamisso , Alexander von Humboldt and Charles Darwin - each with an introduction by Wilhelm Bölsche. EA. German Library, Berlin 1917. XXIV, 644 p., 1 sheet. With 24 plates.
Wilhelm Hess : Lichtenstein, Martin Heinrich Karl . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1883, p. 556 f.
August Carl Eduard Baldamus : Necrologist: Martin Hinrich Carl Lichtenstein . In: Naumannia . tape 8 , 1858, pp. 87-90 ( biodiversitylibrary.org [accessed October 25, 2011]).
Robert and Clara Schumann's correspondence with correspondents in Berlin 1832 to 1883 , ed. by Klaus Martin Kopitz , Eva Katharina Klein and Thomas Synofzik (= Schumann Letter Edition , Series II, Volume 17), Cologne: Dohr 2015, pp. 163–173, ISBN 978-3-86846-028-5

Web links

Commons : Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Literature by and about Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein in the catalog of the German National Library
Edited letters from and to Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein in the web service correspSearch of the BBAW

Individual evidence

↑ September 8th (year 1841). In: Daily facts of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (at the DHM )
^ Carl von Ledebur: Tonkünstler-Lexikon Berlin's from the oldest times to the present. Ludwig Rauh, Berlin 1861, p. 342.
^ Carl von Ledebur: Tonkünstler-Lexikon Berlin's from the oldest times to the present. Ludwig Rauh, Berlin 1861, p. 342. Georg Schünemann mentions a different entry date : Carl Maria von Weber in Berlin. His first visit in 1812. In: Alfred Morgenroth (Hrsg.): Von deutscher Tonkunst: Festschrift for Peter Raabe's 70th birthday. Peters, Leipzig 1942, pp. 71–87: "Lichtenstein was admitted to the table on May 26".
^ Letter from Caroline von Weber to Hinrich Lichtenstein dated June 21, 1826 .
↑ Councilor Karl Theodor Winkler appointed as guardian .
^ Friedemann Kawohl: Copyright of Music in Prussia 1820–1840. Hans Schneider, Tutzing 2002.
^ Gustav Adolf Sachse, Eduard Droop (ed.): The Monday Club in Berlin 1749–1899: Festive and commemorative publication for its 150th annual celebration. J. Sittenfeld, Berlin 1899, No. 120, pp. 130 f.
↑ Lichtensteinallee. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )

personal data
SURNAME	Lichtenstein, Martin Hinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lichtenstein, Martin Hinrich Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German physicist, researcher and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 10, 1780
PLACE OF BIRTH	Hamburg
DATE OF DEATH	September 2, 1857
Place of death	at sea between Korsör and Kiel

[1] September 8th (year 1841). In: Daily facts of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (at the DHM )

[2] Carl von Ledebur: Tonkünstler-Lexikon Berlin's from the oldest times to the present. Ludwig Rauh, Berlin 1861, p. 342.

[3] Carl von Ledebur: Tonkünstler-Lexikon Berlin's from the oldest times to the present. Ludwig Rauh, Berlin 1861, p. 342. Georg Schünemann mentions a different entry date : Carl Maria von Weber in Berlin. His first visit in 1812. In: Alfred Morgenroth (Hrsg.): Von deutscher Tonkunst: Festschrift for Peter Raabe's 70th birthday. Peters, Leipzig 1942, pp. 71–87: "Lichtenstein was admitted to the table on May 26".

[4] Letter from Caroline von Weber to Hinrich Lichtenstein dated June 21, 1826 .

[5] Councilor Karl Theodor Winkler appointed as guardian .

[6] Friedemann Kawohl: Copyright of Music in Prussia 1820–1840. Hans Schneider, Tutzing 2002.

[7] Gustav Adolf Sachse, Eduard Droop (ed.): The Monday Club in Berlin 1749–1899: Festive and commemorative publication for its 150th annual celebration. J. Sittenfeld, Berlin 1899, No. 120, pp. 130 f.

[8] Lichtensteinallee. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near Kaupert )