Richard Biedermann-Imhoof

Richard Biedermann-Imhoof , until 1906 Richard Biedermann, (born May 6, 1865 in Winterthur , Switzerland ; † July 6, 1926 in Eutin ) was a Swiss, from 1897 German private scholar , ornithologist and zoologist .

Life

Origin and family

Biedermann-Imhoof was born as the son of the teacher and Winterthur city councilor Wilhelm Gustav Adolf Biedermann (1829–1900) and his wife Emma Imhoof (1839–1897). The Swiss numismatist Friedrich Imhoof-Blumer was his uncle.

The Biedermann family, who immigrated from Constance to Winterthur in 1556 , and the Imhoof family provided several well-known personalities in Winterthur, including manufacturers, politicians, artists and scientists. The families had extensive international connections.

Early years

Biedermann-Imhoof attended high school in Winterthur and graduated from it in 1883 with the Matura . In the autumn of the same year he was enrolled at the University of Zurich , where he first studied philosophy from the winter semester 1883/84 and medicine from the winter semester 1888/89 . In 1889, after passing the medical- propaedeutic examination, he first went to the University of Berlin and in 1890 to the University of Kiel to continue his studies. In Kiel, however, he turned to the natural sciences in 1891 .

In the winter semester of 1893/94 , Biedermann-Imhoof received his doctorate from the Zoological Institute of Kiel University. phil. His doctoral thesis dealt with Tintinnid provided by the German plankton expedition and from the Baltic Sea , the Selenter See , the Ploen Lake and Schwentine came. He then moved to Eutin, at that time royal capital of the Grand Duchy of Oldenburg belonging to the Principality of Luebeck .

On April 10, 1897, after confirmation from the Zurich cantonal government, Biedermann-Imhoof became an Oldenburg citizen or Reich German in the Oldenburg State Association . In the same year he joined the German Ornithological Society and acquired a large area in Eutin, on which he had the Villa Tanneck built from 1900, as well as stables, a garden house and a lookout tower for his extensive research. The remaining areas were turned into a landscape park.

On November 1, 1906, the Oldenburg government approved the name change from Biedermann to Biedermann-Imhoof.

Between 1896 and 1914 Biedermann-Imhoof wrote a large number of ornithological writings, some of which he published in a self-published book or in regular journals. In 1909 a volume of poems written by Biedermann-Imhoof was published.

The Biedermann Collection

By around 1905 at the latest, Biedermann-Imhoof began to put together an extensive collection of stuffed domestic and rare foreign animals, skeletons, skulls, fossils, minerals, corals, antlers and scientific preparations as well as extensive collections of beetles and butterflies. Some of the individual pieces were collected by himself or he acquired them through purchase, for example from participants in scientific expeditions . To expand the collection, Biedermann-Imhoof also equipped expeditions himself, such as the Altai expedition 1907-08 and research trips to India and Rangoon in 1909. However, Biedermann-Imhoof was apparently never a participant in such an expedition and apparently did not participate in it scientific evaluation.

Biedermann-Imhoof initially kept the exhibits in the collection in his Eutin villa. Later, apparently with increasing volume, he donated parts of his collection to museums such as the Natural History Museum Olten (Switzerland), the Heimatmuseum Zofingen (Switzerland), the Zoological Museums in Berlin and Kiel and the Natural History Museum Lübeck . However, Biedermann-Imhoof donated most of his collection to Eutin schools. On the one hand the Lyceum founded in 1910 (today's Carl-Maria-von-Weber-Schule ) and the municipal Friedrich-August-Realschule , also founded in 1910 , which in 1920 became the Gymnasium and Realgymnasium Eutin (today Johann-Heinrich-Voss -School ) was united. Parts of the collection are still in the respective school property and on display in showcases. Due to a lack of space, the Carl-Maria-von-Weber-School later passed on parts of the collection to the Zoological Museum in Kiel.

In 1914, the Grand Duke of Oldenburg, Friedrich August Biedermann-Imhoof , conferred the honorary title of Professor for his services to zoology. In the same year he was accepted into the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences .

From 1917 Biedermann-Imhoof got into financial difficulties and was forced to sell several hectares of his park. In the following years he was dependent on the support of his wealthy brother Robert Biedermann-Mantel , who worked as a successful manufacturer in Winterthur.

Richard Biedermann-Imhoof died in Eutin on July 6, 1926.

Taxonomic honors

Numerous animal species, especially insects and birds, but also mammals and marine animals are named after Biedermann-Imhoof, although there are also double names. Occasionally, when Biedermann-Imhoof gave extensive donations of stuffed animals, it was only discovered later that an exhibit in question represented an as yet unknown species. Some of these finds were then named after him. A nuthatch brought from the Altai expedition , part of a gift from Biedermann-Imhoof to the Zoological Museum in Berlin, was named Sitta Biedermanni according to the report of the February 1907 meeting of the German Ornithological Society after it was discovered that the species was previously unknown . Furthermore, his name is also associated with the financial support of the Nomenclature Commission, which he was still promoting at a time when he had to be financially supported by his brother.

Examples of terms (selection)

• Eurema biedermanni (order: butterfly from the white family )
• Morpho biedermanni (order: butterfly)
• Mustela lutreola biedermanni (family: Wiesel)
• Disparocypha biedermanni (order: flies)
• Scaphinotus petersi stuffy manni (order: Beetle from the family of ground beetles )
• Codonella amphorella Biedermann (order: Tintinnide)
• Pyropteron biedermanni (order: butterfly from the glass winged family )
• Cibyra (Aegyptus) biedermanni (order: butterfly)
• Cinclus bieder Manni (subspecies of the dipper )
• Picus canus biedermanni (gray woodpecker )
• Sitta europaea biedermanni (Nuthatch)
• Alectoris graeca biedermanni

family

Biedermann-Imhoof married Luise Johanna Margaretha von Johnn († 1934) from Wolde on March 27, 1894 in Kiel . Her parents were the forester Johann Wilhelm Theodor von Johnn and Luise Emilie Sophie Meyer. The couple had two children, Friedrich Adolph (1895–1963) and Elisabeth (1902–1982). The children grew up strictly shielded from the outside world.

Publications (selection)

• About the structure of the ink casing. Dissertation. Printing: E. Uebermuth. Kiel. 1893/94.
• About the posture of the birds' feet in flight. Published in Ornithological Yearbook VII, Issue 3, 1896.
• Ornithological studies. Self-published. Eutin. 1908. (Contains five ornithological contributions by Biedermann-Imhoof for the ornithological yearbook and the ornithological annual reports)
• Rhyming thoughts and memories. Struve's printing house. Eutin. 1909.
• A case of delusion of warmth in young birds of prey. Published in the monthly ornithological report 19. 1911.
• An observation about the dark eye stripe in the female tailed tit. Published in the Ornithological Monthly Report 20. 1912.
• Ring sparrow and bank vole at the bird feeding place. Published in the Swiss Ornithological Observer. Issue No. 7. 1912/13.
• Fighting house sparrows. Published in the monthly ornithological report. January 1913.
• Contributions to the manual birds of the Free State and Principality of Lübeck by Werner Hagen. Berlin. 1913.

Published in the ornithological monthly report 21. 1913:

• Late broods of wood pigeons.
• Voices and moods of different birds during a solar eclipse.
• To bird language.
• Winter observations.
• About two particularly cleverly considered attacks and other insidious intentions against humans by strong birds of prey.

• Something about magpie robberies and the like. Published in the hunting publication Diana . Issue No. 7. 1913.
• To the crows question. Ornithological observations. 1913.
• Persistent attacks by a blackbird on a wood shrew. Ornithological observations. 1913/14.
• Some of the sparrowhawk, bird logic and warning calls. Published in the monthly ornithological report 22. 1914.
• To 'shake' the birds of prey against and with the wind. Published in the Ornithological Yearbook 25th 1914.

literature

• Frieder Knüppel: Richard Biedermann, the foundations and memories. Published on the webpage yumpu.com. 2010. online

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Life data according to the obituary in the Ostholsteiner Anzeiger. Issued July 8, 1926.
2. ^ Frieder Knüppel: Richard Biedermann, the foundations and memories . From Winterthur to Eutin. November 18, 2010, p. 8 ( winterthur-glossar.ch [PDF; 4.0 MB ; accessed on June 19, 2018]).
3. ↑ Ernst-Günther Prühs: Inauguration of the municipal secondary school in 1913. In: Festschrift for the ceremonial handover of the extension building for science classes . Eutin 1984, p. 87.
4. ^ Report of the February 1907 meeting of the German Ornithological Society online
5. ↑ Species on Wikispecies online
6. ↑ World Register of Marine Species: Codonella amphorella Biedermann, 1893 online
7. ↑ ^{a b c} Bo Beolens, Michael Watkins, Michael Grayson: `` The Eponym Dictionary of Birds. '' Bloomsbury Publishing. 2014. ISBN 978-1-4729-0573-4 .

Web links

• Article of the Lübecker Nachrichten: Homage to Darwin by Eutin online
• Article in the Ostholsteiner Anzeiger about the Villa Tanneck online