Wilhelm Blasius

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August Wilhelm Heinrich Blasius

Wilhelm August Heinrich Blasius (born July 5, 1845 in Braunschweig ; † May 31, 1912 there ) was a German ornithologist .

Life

Wilhelm Blasius was born as the second son of the zoologist Johann Heinrich Blasius in Braunschweig. He completed medical studies in Braunschweig , Göttingen and Zurich , which he completed in 1868. In 1871 he took over the director of the Natural History Museum and the Botanical Garden in Braunschweig from his father . In 1872 he became professor for zoology and botany at the Technical University of Braunschweig . During his work, Blasius devoted himself to animal and homeland protection as well as the prehistoric research of Lower Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt ( large stone graves in the Haldensleber forest ). From 1873 to 1875 he was secretary of the German Ornithological Society . In addition, Blasius endeavored to give the Natural History Museum Braunschweig an international reputation by buying and selling animal hides and bird eggs. These included the bird collections of Adolph Nehrkorn , Friedrich Grabowsky , Carl Constantin Platen and Hugo Storm. The most valuable exhibits for the museum came mainly from the Philippines , Sulawesi , the Moluccas and Bolivia .

In 1907 Wilhelm Blasius traveled as a delegate to the 7th International Zoological Congress in Boston .

Gravestone of Wilhelm Blasius
Gravestone of his wife Margarethe Blasius, b. Uhde

His first marriage lasted from 1875 until the death of his first wife three years later. From this came a daughter and a son who died young. After that, Blasius was married to Margarethe Uhde, a daughter of the Braunschweig surgeon Karl Uhde , from September 28, 1886 . She also died before him. From this marriage there are two daughters and one son. He died on May 31, 1912 after a long illness. His grave is next to that of his wife in the cemetery of the Reformed Congregation in Juliusstraße in Braunschweig.

One of Blasius best-known works is a monograph on the giant alk , which was published in Naumann's Natural History of Birds in Central Europe in 1903 . In addition, Blasius described some taxa.

Taxa

The following bird species have been described by Wilhelm Blasius:

There were also the following subspecies:

With his friend Adolph Nehrkorn he described a subspecies of the shimmering cuckoo ( Phaenicophaeus curvirostris borneensis , Blasius, W & Nehrkorn, 1881)

Honors

Works

  • 1883: Birds of Borneo. (together with Friedrich Grabowsky) - digitized
  • 1884: On the history of the remains of Alca impennis Linn. - digitized
  • 1891: The faunistic literature of Braunschweig and the neighboring areas including the entire Harz.
  • 1900: The anthropological literature of Braunschweig and the neighboring areas including the entire Harz.
  • 1903: Der Riesenalk, Alca impennis L. In: “Naumann, Natural History of the Birds of Central Europe ... Reprint from Vol. XII. of the anniversary edition ”.

See also

literature

  • Otto Finsch: Obituary for Wilhelm Blasius. In: Ibis Vol 9 (6). 1912: p. 660-661.
  • Ludwig Gebhardt: The ornithologists of Central Europe. AULA-Verlag, Wiebelsheim 2006, ISBN 3-89104-680-4 .
  • Horst-Rüdiger Jarck, Günter Scheel (Ed.): Braunschweigisches Biographisches Lexikon. 19th and 20th centuries. Hanover 1996, p. 67.
  • Adolph Nehrkorn: Obituary for Wilhelm Blasius. In: Journal of Ornithology. Issue 60, 1912. pp. 619–620 doi : 10.1007 / BF02091750 .
  • Unnamed author: Notes and News - Wilhelm August Heinrich Blasius (Obituary). In: The Auk. Vol 29: p. 571.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Erwin Blasius: Go. Councilor Prof. Dr. Wilhelm Blasius, Ornithological Monthly Journal, vol. 38, year 1913, p. 103ff
  2. ^ Wilhelm Blasius: Der Riesenalk, Alca Impennis L. In: Naumann , Natural History of the Birds of Central Europe. , Gera-Untermhaus, 1903. online, with 5 plates
  3. Bernd-A. Kahe, Alfred Priemeier, Ernst Battmer, Nils Höpken: Corps lists of the Braunschweig Seniors' Convent in the WSC , Hercynia, No. 145. Braunschweig, 1990