Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild

Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild

Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (born February 8, 1868 in London , † August 27, 1937 in Tring , Hertfordshire ) was a British banker and zoologist from the international Rothschild financial dynasty.

Study and Zoology

Rothschild's book " Extinct Birds "

After completing his studies at Magdalene College , Cambridge , he worked from 1889 to 1908 for the investment bank of the NM Rothschild & Sons family in London. An introduction to Albert Günther led to a lifelong interest in zoology , particularly the collecting and taxonomy of birds and butterflies . He financed and took part in expeditions around the world, on which he collected many specimens of previously undescribed bird and butterfly species and described them in scientific treatises.

Near his country home in Tring Park , Hertfordshire , he set up his private zoological museum, which opened to the public in 1892. In 1932 he sold his enormous bird collection to the American Museum of Natural History because of his high financial needs . His collection was one of the largest natural history collections in the world; In 1936 he bequeathed the rest of the collection to the trustees of the British Museum . The Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum in Tring is now a department of the Natural History Museum .

Lionel Walter Rothschild and his zebras

He kept kangaroos in his yard and harnessed a group of zebras to pull his carriage. He also owned several dogs that were allowed to sit at his table at his meals.

Zionism and the Balfour Declaration

Rothschild was a member of the Liberal Party and the Liberal Unionists, as well as a member of the British House of Commons for Aylesbury from 1899 to 1910. As an active Zionist and close friend of Chaim Weizmann , Rothschild worked on the formulation of a founding declaration for a national Jewish homeland in Palestine . On November 2, 1917, the then British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour addressed a letter to Lord Rothschild in which the British government agreed to support the Zionist efforts to establish a "national homeland" for the Jews in Palestine, the so-called Balfour Declaration .

Nobility

In 1915 Rothschild inherited the title of nobility from his father Nathan Rothschild, 1st Baron Rothschild (1840-1915) as 2nd Baron Rothschild and 3rd Baronet , of Grosvenor-place, including the seat in the British House of Lords associated with the barony . Since he remained unmarried and his younger brother died before him, the titles of nobility passed to his nephew Victor Rothschild upon his death .

Works (selection)

• Walter Rothschild: Rough notes on the birds of the Bass Rock and neighboring shores. 1898.
• Walter Rothschild: Extinct Birds . 1907.
• Walter Rothschild, Ernst Hartert: List of the collections of birds made by Albert S. Meek in the lower ranges of the Snow Mountains, on the Eilanden River, and on Mount Goliath during the years 1910 and 1911. in: Novitates Zoologicae. Tring 20.1913, 473-527. ISSN  0950-7655 (Notes on Lepidoptera collected by Albert S. Meek in Irian Jaya during 1910 and 1911, including descriptions of localitie)
• Walter Rothschild: The Avifauna of Laysan and the neighboring islands with a complete history to date of the birds of the Hawaiian possession. RH Porter, London 1893-1900.
• Walter Rothschild, Ernst Hartert: The birds of the Admiralty Islands, north of German New Guinea. In: Novitates Zoologicae. 21.1914, pp. 281–298, see also online editions of Novitates Zoologicae

literature

• Miriam Rothschild : Dear Lord Rothschild , Hutchinson, London 1983, ISBN 0-09-153740-1 .
• Miriam Rothschild: The Walter Rothschild. The Man, the Museum and the Menagerie. The Natural History Museum, London 2008, ISBN 978-0-56509-228-3 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild in the catalog of the German National Library
• Walter Rothschild Zoological Museum
• Biography of Lionel Walter Rothschild ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (English, PDF; 109 kB)
• Robert Hardman: The Butterfly Baron: How an Indiana Jones-style adventurer amassed the greatest collection in history In: Daily Mail March 2, 2009 Online version (Retrieved April 3, 2009)

predecessor	Office	successor
Nathan Rothschild	Baron Rothschild 1915-1937	Victor Rothschild