Moriz Sassi

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Moriz Sassi or Moritz Sassi (born June 13, 1880 in Vienna ; † September 25, 1967 there ) was an Austrian zoologist specializing in ornithology .

Live and act

His father was called Eugen, his mother Ida, his sister Aloisia. He grew up as the son of a wealthy family who owned a palace on Schwindgasse in Vienna and a country estate, the Villa Sassi , in Upper Austria . A family portrait of his ancestors painted by Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller is in the art collection of Belvedere Palace .

First he attended the humanistic grammar school in Hegelgasse. He later served as a volunteer with the Dragoons and was retired there as a lieutenant. He began studying zoology with Professors Karl Grobben and Berthold Hatschek at the University of Vienna . At Grobben he wrote his dissertation on the anatomy of Anomia ephippium , which led to a doctorate in 1903. Financially independent, he initially followed his artistic inclinations. He was considered a talented painter who was also enthusiastic about architecture, music and theater. His interest in ornithology soon developed. When Franz Werner traveled to the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1905 , Sassi accompanied him and earned his first recognition as a hunter and gatherer. He wrote a book about the trip entitled Eine Sudanreise , the holdings of which burned in the publisher's camp shortly after going to press. Therefore only very few specimen copies of the original are known. Despite everything, the trip was not without scientific success, and Sassi examined 20 species of mammals and 101 species of birds. Procavia slatini , a species of hyrax that he described in 1906 and dedicated to his friend Rudolf Slatin , is now considered a synonym for the hyrax . In 1908 he started a traineeship at the Natural History Museum in Vienna under the then director Franz Steindachner . He found an understanding mentor there in the head of the bird and mammal collection, Ludwig von Lorenz-Liburnau . It was not until 1920 that Sassi was properly paid as a research assistant. In the intervening period he served on the Southeast Front in World War I , particularly in the fighting for the Lovćen in Montenegro . Here he was promoted to Rittmeister and was awarded the Military Merit Medal before returning to Austria in 1918.

In the following years he dealt with systematic questions in which he analyzed various collections. First, he dealt with the collection of Emil Weiske (1867–1950), which he had made in British New Guinea and northern Queensland . It was followed by those of Franz Steindachner from Brazil , Viktor Pietschmann and Selim Hassoun in Mesopotamia and finally Rudolf Grauer in East Africa. He himself was on other expeditions in Dalmatia and Costa Rica , about which he also published. In Costa Rica he accompanied the botanist Otto Porsch (1875-1959). From the trip he brought 1150 bird skins with 250 species to the Vienna Museum. Josef von Seilern and Aspang asked him to process his collection results from Rhodes . Together with Franz Zimmer , who lived in the Matengo Hochland , he edited his collections from Songea Urban .

He took part in the International Ornithological Congresses in Berlin in 1910, in Copenhagen in 1926, in Oxford in 1934 and in Uppsala in 1950. He made further trips to Tunis in 1908 and to Constantinople in 1911 . In October 1932 he organized the annual meeting of the German Ornithological Society , which took place for the first time in Vienna. Well-known ornithologists such as Tsar Ferdinand of Bulgaria , Franz Groebbels , Oskar Heinroth , Friedrich Steinbacher (1877–1938) and Erwin Stresemann attended the meeting . As part of the conference they visited Altenburg , where Konrad Lorenz had just started a study on behavioral research. Here he met his friend András Keve . For the International Committee for Bird Protection (ICBP), Sassi organized a meeting in Vienna in 1937 with the aim of preparing an international bird protection convention. Shortly after the war in 1946, he began to revive the severed international relations. So he attended meetings of the British section of the ICBP and subsequent meetings of the British Ornithologists' Union in Edinburgh . He himself took over the chairmanship of the newly founded Austrian section of the ICBP and played a major role in the development of its statutes.

Before the war it was Carl Eduard Hellmayr , Otmar Reiser (1861–1936), Ludwig Auber and Gerth Rokitansky (1906–1987) with whom he worked closely, after the war it was mainly Günther Niethammer and András Keve with whom he worked closely cooperated. It is thanks to Sassi that the valuable collection of the Vienna Museum was brought to Schönborn Palace in good time during the turmoil of the war and thus prevented from being destroyed. In addition to the ornithologists already mentioned, he was on friendly terms with James Paul Chapin , Hubert Lynes (1874–1942), Henry Boardman Conover , Adolf von Jordans and Alfred Louis Laubmann (1886–1965).

In 1933 he was awarded the title of government councilor and in 1948 that of court councilor. He retired on May 31, 1949. Sassi acted as a long-time director of the bird collection of the Natural History Museum Vienna.

Memberships and honors

Sassi was a member of the International Ornithological Committee , was on the executive board of the German Ornithological Society and the Zoological-Botanical Society in Vienna, honorary member of the Ornithological Society in Bavaria and the Hungarian Ornithological Institute , corresponding member of the American Ornithologists' Union and the Museum Ferdinandeum as well as the Natural science association for Carinthia and many other associations and institutions.

First descriptions by Moriz Sassi

White-nosed dove
Lorenzbülbül

The new species and subspecies of Sassi include chronological and a .:

species

Subspecies

  • Crescent lazy bird ( Malacoptila striata minor Sassi , 1911)
  • African long-eared owl ( Asio abyssinicus graueri Sassi , 1912)
  • Cameroon thrush ( Geokichla camaronensis graueri ( Sassi , 1914))
  • Maschona hyliota ( Hyliota australis slatini Sassi , 1915)
  • Weeping Weaver ( Ploceus albinucha holomelas Sassi , 1920)
  • Gambian snowball shrike ( Dryoscopus gambensis erwini Sassi , 1923)
  • White- fronted lazy bird ( Notharchus hyperrhynchus paraensis Sassi , 1932)

Dedication names

Oscar Neumann honored him in 1922 in the name of a subspecies of the yellow- fronted girlitz ( Serinus flavivertex sassii ). In 1924 Erwin Stresemann named a subspecies of the dwarf cattle ( Accipiter minullus sassii ), a name that is now considered a synonym for the nominate form . The subspecies described by Rudolf Neunzig under Coliuspasser albonotata sassii is now a synonym for Euplectes albonotatus eques ( Hartlaub , 1863). András Keve honored him in 1943 with Nucifraga caryocatactes sassii for the pine jay ( Nucifraga caryocatactes macrorhynchos Brehm, CL , 1823). With Sticticarbo punctatus sassi described Gregory Mathews 1929 synonymous with the nominate the spotted shag ( Phalacrocorax punctatus ). The genus Sassius , introduced by Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild and Ernst Hartert in 1926 for Sassius simplex , is a synonym for Cinnyris Cuvier , 1816, since the species corresponds to the Lot nectar bird ( Cinnyris lotenius ( Linnaeus ), 1766).

Publications (selection)

  • On the anatomy of Anomia ephippium . In: Works from the Zoological Institute of the University of Vienna and the Zoological Station in Trieste . tape 15 , no. 1 , 1904, p. 81–96 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • A contribution to the knowledge of the bird life of the White Nile . In: Annals of the KK Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum . tape 21 , 1906, pp. 45-59 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Procavia slatini n. Sp . In: Meeting reports. Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, mathematical and natural science class. Dept. 1, Mineralogy, Crystallography, Botany, Plant Physiology, Zoology, Paleontology, Geology, Physical Geography, and Travel . tape 115 , 1906, pp. 995-1002 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Comments on the bird skins collected by E. Weiske in British New Guinea and North Queensland . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 57 , 1909, pp. 365-389 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Comments on the bird skins collected by E. Weiske in British New Guinea and North Queensland . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 58 , 1910, pp. 182-190 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • A trip to Sudan. Wilhelm Süsserott Verlagbuchhandlung, Berlin 1911.
  • Columba albinucha nov. spec. In: Ornithological monthly reports . tape 19 , 1911, pp. 68-69 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Malacoptila torquata minor nov. subsp . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 59 , 1911, pp. 181 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • List of bird hides from Mesopotamia . In: Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna . tape 26 , 1912, pp. 116–119 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • A new species of the genus Cercococcyx Cercococcyx olivinus nov. spec. In: Annals of the KK Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum . tape 26 , 1912, pp. 341-342 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Contribution to the Ornis of Central Africa. Plate V. In: Annals of the KK Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum . tape 26 , 1912, pp. 347-393 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • A new eared owl from Central Africa (Asio abessinicus graueri nov. Subsp.). In: Anzeiger der Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe . tape 49 , 1912, pp. 122-123 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Some new forms of the inner-African ornis from the Grauer collection . In: Anzeiger der Kaiserliche Akademie der Wissenschaften, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Classe . tape 51 , 1914, pp. 308-312 .
  • Some new forms of the inner-African ornis from the Grauer collection . In: Journal of Ornithology . tape 63 , 1915, pp. 112-118 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Contribution to the Ornis of Central Africa. Part II. Plate VII-VIII. In: Annals of the KK Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum . tape 30 , 1916, pp. 239-306 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Two new weavers from Central Africa . In: Ornithological monthly reports . tape 28 , 1920, p. 81 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Dryoscopus gambensis erwini nov. subsp . In: Ornithological monthly reports . tape 31 , 1923, pp. 109-110 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Contribution to the Ornis of Central Africa. III. Part. In: Annals of the KK Naturhistorisches Hofmuseum . tape 38 , 1925, pp. 20–81 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Name of the para-form from the group of forms Notharchus macrorhynchus Gm. In: Ornithological monthly reports . tape 40 , 1932, pp. 120-121 .
  • with Franz Zimmer: Contributions to the knowledge of the bird life of the Songea district with special consideration of the Matengo highlands (DOA) . In: Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna . tape 51 , 1940, p. 236–346 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).

literature

  • András Keve, Gerth von Rokitansky: Hofrat Dr. Moriz Sassi 1880-1967 (with portrait) . In: Annals of the Natural History Museum in Vienna . tape 73 , 1969, p. 5–10 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • András Keve: Some new bird breeds from Asia . In: Anzeiger der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Vienna. Math and science class . tape 80 , no. 3 , 1943, p. 16-22 .
  • Oscar Neumann: Two new African forms . In: Ornithological monthly reports . tape 30 , 1922, pp. 13-14 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Erwin Stresemann: Accipiter minullus sassii subsp.n . In: Ornithological monthly reports . tape 32 , 1924, pp. 109 .
  • Rudolf Neunzig: Contributions to the Knowledge of the Ploceids VI. New races . In: Zoologischer Anzeiger . tape 78 , no. 5/8 , 1928, pp. 107-118 .
  • Gregory Macalister Mathews: Mr. Gregory M. Mathews sent the following . In: Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club . tape 50 , no. 336 , 1929, pp. 19 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).
  • Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Ernst Hartert: Description of Sassius simplex . In: Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club . tape 46 , no. 302 , 1926, pp. 51-53 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c András Keve u. a., p. 5.
  2. ↑ Moriz Sassi (1906), pp. 995-1002.
  3. ↑ a b András Keve u. a., p. 6.
  4. ↑ a b András Keve u. a., p. 7.
  5. ↑ a b András Keve u. a., p. 8.
  6. ↑ Oscar Neumann, p. 13.
  7. ↑ Erwin Stresemann, p. 109.
  8. ^ Rudolf Neunzig, p. 117.
  9. ^ András Keve, 1943, p. 16.
  10. ^ Gregory Macalister Mathews, p. 19.
  11. ^ Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild a. a., p. 51.
personal data
SURNAME Sassi, Moriz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sassi, Moritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian zoologist and especially ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 13, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH near Vienna
DATE OF DEATH September 25, 1967
Place of death Vienna