Therese of Bavaria
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Therese Princess of Bavaria (born November 12, 1850 in Munich , † September 19, 1925 in Lindau ) was a German ethnologist , zoologist , botanist and travel writer. She got involved in social charities. Her official botanical author's abbreviation is " Therese ".
Life
Princess Therese Charlotte Marianne Auguste of Bavaria was the only daughter of Prince Regent Luitpold of Bavaria and his wife Auguste Ferdinande of Austria ; on her mother's side she descended from Empress Maria Theresa . Together with her brothers Ludwig (who later became King Ludwig III ), Leopold and Arnulf , she was tutored by her mother. Even as a child, Therese was interested in plants, animals and cultures and showed an extraordinary talent for languages.
Therese's mother died in 1864. In the same year her cousin Ludwig, 18 years old, was crowned King Ludwig II of Bavaria . Therese fell in love with his brother Otto (1848–1916), who became mentally ill and later, like Ludwig II, was found incapable of governing .
Although her father and brothers repeatedly invited various marriage candidates to Munich, Therese remained unmarried. She was not attracted to any of the men and describes herself as unfit for marriage. She was considered headstrong and self-confident and, for a woman in the late 19th century, had unusual interests. She acquired her wide-ranging education in natural and social sciences , geology, botany, zoology and ethnology through self-study because girls and women were not admitted to high schools or universities at the time. The study of women in Bavaria was only introduced in 1903 by Therese's father, Prince Regent Luitpold.
At the age of 21 she began touring Europe and North Africa and learned a total of 12 national languages, both spoken and written. On her expedition-like trips, she lived a Spartan life and always traveled incognito with a maximum of three personal servants. In 1892 Therese von Bayern was made an honorary member of the Geographical Society and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1897 she received an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Munich - a rarity for autodidacts and a woman at the time .
Therese von Bayern brought back an extensive collection of zoological, botanical and ethnological objects from the collecting trip across South America in 1898, which lasted more than half a year. Her research trip took her first to the Caribbean and from there to Colombia . She crossed the Andes and traveled from the Colombian Pacific coast via Ecuador and Peru to Argentina . On October 14, she went ashore in Valparaíso . There was just a week left before she embarked in Buenos Aires . The tour company crossed the 3970 m high Upsallata Pass with a horse and carriage and began the descent from the Andes to Punta de los Vacos on October 17th . Their actual destination, Buenos Aires, was more than 1,000 km away. She arrived in Buenos Aires by train on the morning of October 20th. On October 21, 1898 at 5:00 am, the ship “Portugal” cast off.
The fish yield from the trip alone was 228 fish from 91 species. The Viennese ichthyologist Franz Steindachner described a total of eight new species from their collections in 1900 and 1902. She got to know numerous peoples hitherto unknown in Europe and described them, and she collected “curiosities” and rare plants. In 1893 she traveled through North America , particularly devoting herself to the Indians of the Plains and the Southwest. Their extensive ethnological collections are now in the Museum of Five Continents . The entire zoological estate was transferred to the State Zoological Collection in Munich in a will in 1926 , including the fish collection from the South American trip of 1898 and the specimens from the Mexico trip of 1893, which were probably almost completely destroyed in the Second World War.
After the death of her father, Therese stopped traveling and instead devoted herself to social and political issues in her home country. In particular, she was involved in the Catholic Women's Association and campaigned for the improvement of girls and women.
Therese firmly rejected Germany's entry into the First World War and the enthusiasm for war at that time. In 1914 she retired to her villa on Lake Constance , where she died at the age of 74. She was buried under the main altar of the Theatine Church.
A foundation is named after her, which is committed to the advancement of women in science and is based at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .
Her bust has been in the Hall of Fame in Munich since April 2009 .
The state high school in Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, southeast of Munich, was named after her in 2013 and has been called Therese-von-Bayern-Gymnasium since then. It is designed mathematically, scientifically and musically. Likewise, the FOS State Technical College for Business and Administration in Munich was renamed Therese von Bayern Technical College for Business and Administration.
Works (selection)
- Excursion to Tunis. In: Jugendblätter. 26, 1880, pp. 545-571.
- Travel impressions and sketches from Russia. Stuttgart 1885.
- Over the arctic circle. Leipzig 1889.
- About some species of fish in Mexico and the lakes in which they are found. Vienna 1895.
- My trip in the Brazilian tropics. Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1897. ( digitized version )
- Something about the Pueblo Indians. In: Völkerschau. 2, 1902, pp. 4-6, 38-42.
- Travel studies from western South America. 2 volumes, Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1908.
ancestors
literature
- Manfred Berger: Therese Charlotte Marianne Auguste of Bavaria. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 21, Bautz, Nordhausen 2003, ISBN 3-88309-110-3 , Sp. 1486-1493.
- Hadumod Bußmann , Evi Neukum-Fichtner (ed.): “I remain a being of my own kind”. Princess Therese of Bavaria. Scientist - explorer - patroness (1850–1925). University of Munich, Munich 1997, ISBN 3-922480-17-9 .
- Hadumod Bußmann: I wasn't afraid of anything in life. The unusual story of Therese Princess of Bavaria. 3. Edition. Insel, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-458-35989-0 .
- Hadumod Bußmann (ed.): The princess and her "cavalier". Therese von Bayern and Maximilian Freiherr von Speidel on an expedition to Brazil in 1888. Allitera, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-86906-185-6 .
- Irma Hildebrandt (Ed.): I'm just a tough bitch. 15 portraits of women from Munich. 6th edition. Diederichs, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-424-01035-9 , pp. 43–54, 154–155.
- Marita A. Panzer: Wittelsbach women. Princely daughters of a European dynasty. Pustet, Regensburg 2012, ISBN 978-3-7917-2419-5 , pp. 195-210.
- Margaretha Schweiger-Wilhelm: I remain a being of my own kind - Therese Princess of Bavaria (1850–1925) . In: Aichach-Friedberg district (ed.): Altbayern in Schwaben 2016 . Yearbook of history and culture. Aichach 2016, ISBN 978-3-9813801-4-9 , p. 167-180 .
- Armin Strohmeyr: Adventure of Traveling Women: 15 portraits. (= Piper Taschenbuch. Volume 7431). Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-492-27431-9 .
Movies
- Wolfgang Voelker : Princess Therese of Bavaria - researcher, collector, world traveler. Documentary, 1997.
Web links
- Literature by and about Therese von Bayern in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Therese von Bayern in the German Digital Library
- Works by Therese von Bayern in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Therese von Bayern in the Internet Archive
- Author entry and list of the described plant names for Therese von Bayern at the IPNI
- Therese von Bayern Foundation
- Therese von Bayern professorship, University of Munich
- Part of the estate of Therese von Bayern in the Bavarian State Library
- A digitized collection of travel photos from the estate of Therese von Bayern
- Hadumod Bußmann: Princess Therese of Bavaria: explorer - scientist - writer. 2007, archived from the original ; accessed on October 23, 2016 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ See http://www.zsm.mwn.de/ich/coll_therese.htm
- ↑ See http://www.zsm.mwn.de/
- ↑ Mirjam Zimmer: First World War: Therese von Bayern . In: The time . No. 08/2014 ( online ).
- ↑ Posted to Phoenix on Saturday, February 15, 2003, 9:00 p.m. Princess Therese von Bayern researcher, collector, world traveler ( memento of November 14, 2003 in the Internet Archive ).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Therese of Bavaria |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Bavaria, Princess Therese von (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German ethnologist, zoologist, botanist and anthropologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 12, 1850 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Munich |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 19, 1925 |
| Place of death | Lindau |