Menagerie van Aken
The Menagerie van Aken (also: van Acken or van Aaken ) was a family business of Dutch origin, which in the first half of the 19th century traveled through Europe in addition to an animal trade with several animal shows and was one of the most famous traveling menageries .
background
In 1791 the poultry trader Anthony van Aken (1753–1826) founded a so-called stationary trading menagerie in Rotterdam , in which he collected and sold exotic animals. It was visited in 1792 and 1793 by Prince William of Orange , who owned menageries in The Hague and Apeldoorn . From 1796, during the time of the Napoleonic occupation of the Netherlands, van Aken toured the Netherlands with his collection. In 1804 he established himself as an animal dealer in Amsterdam . In the following years he profited from the fact that Louis Bonaparte , from 1806 King of Holland , did not participate in the continental block until his abdication in 1810 , so that exotic animals could still be imported into the Dutch ports. The trading relationships that were established there proved to be advantageous for van Aken's children after 1815.
Family menagerie
The five children of Anthony van Akens ran traveling animal shows and they also traded their stocks. Travel routes as well as buying and selling were profitably divided among the siblings. There is evidence that the van Aken family participated in the procurement of animals for the menagerie of Frederick I of Württemberg in Stuttgart 1815.
From 1814, Anton van Aken (1784–1868) traveled through Europe with a menagerie Eintracht . In 1839 he negotiated an animal sale with the Amsterdam Zoo and also offered himself to the zoo as a caretaker for its animals. In 1849 he sold his animal stock to Gottlieb Kreutzberg . His younger brother Wilhelm van Aken († 1858) appeared in 1810 in Amsterdam on the Kermis with an animal show. From 1817 he ran a royal privileged menagerie with his youngest brother Hermann . Wilhelm worked as a buyer and among other things bought animals in England , including two zebras , which Hermann exhibited in 1820. In 1821 he was with the menagerie of the Philippine Tourniaire, the wife of the horseman and menagerist Jacques Tourniaire , in Holland. From 1825 Wilhelm traveled with his animal show mainly through the German-speaking areas and through Russia and appeared as an animal dealer at the Prussian court; on September 1, 1832, King Friedrich Wilhelm III visited. in Berlin his menagerie. In 1837 he gave his son Anton the royal privileged show, sold some of his animals to Kreutzberg and set up shop in Rotterdam for exotic birds and wild fowl. Like his brother Wilhelm, Cornelius van Aken (also: Cornelis ) toured with Madame Tourniaire's menagerie between 1825 and 1828. In 1828 he performed his own animal show. In 1838 he bought his brother-in-law Henri Martin's animals and an elephant in England. In 1839, through the mediation of his brother Wilhelm, he sold his animals to the zoo in Amsterdam and had worked there as a carer for an annual salary of 600 guilders since 1840; He also ran a dog and bird trade.
The youngest brother, Hermann van Aken (1797–1834), ran the family's most prestigious animal show. He first worked for his brother Wilhelm and in 1819, with royal privilege, went independent with his sister Cornelia Wilhelmine Gertrude van Aken , who married the French trainer Henri Martin . Martin became Hermann's partner between 1822 and 1824 and promoted his animal show through his big cat dressage. Hermann van Aken became a consultant for the zoos on Pfaueninsel and in Schönbrunn . In Vienna in 1829 he married Katharina Sidonia Freiin Dubsky von Wittenau, whose father ran a wax museum there . In 1832 Hermann van Aken lost almost all of his big cats in Pilsen to snot ; In 1834 he put together a new collection in London . Hermann van Aken died in Hamburg on December 2, 1834 . His widow continued the animal show for a while and then married Johann Colloredo-Saalfeld, an imperial councilor and envoy.
literature
- Annelore Rieke-Müller, Lothar Dittrich : Out and about with wild animals. Wandering menageries between instruction and commerce 1750–1850 . Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 1999, ISBN 3-925347-52-6
- Hermann von Aken: List of all animals which are in the menagerie of Hermann v. Aken, along with a brief description of the stranger ones and their way of life . Köerdinck, Münster 1831 ( digitized version )
