Eduard Rüppell

Eduard Rüppell.

Honorary grave of Eduard Rüppell in the Frankfurt main cemetery

Wilhelm Peter Eduard Simon Rüppell (born November 20, 1794 in Frankfurt am Main ; † December 10, 1884 ibid) was a German scientist and Africa explorer .

ancestors

His parents were Simon Rüppell (1759-1812) and his wife Elisabeth Arstenius († 1812), from Hanau. His father had been Chief Postmaster of the Electorate of Hesse since 1780 and co-owner of the "Rüppell und Harnier" bank in Frankfurt since 1798. He became court banker of the Landgrave of Hesse and secret finance councilor. A relative, Wilhelm von Harnier , was also an African explorer.

Life

As the son of a banker, he first learned about banking. Financially independent, he made his first trip to Egypt in 1817 . From 1822 to 1827 he undertook a research trip to the Gulf of Aqaba , the Red Sea and Nubia .

In 1829 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . When the Société Cuvierienne was founded in 1838 , he was one of the 140 founding members of the society.

After viewing and processing the collections, he went on another trip from 1831 to 1834, this time to Abyssinia , from which he brought back a number of manuscripts that are now in the Frankfurt University Library .

In 1841 he became the second director of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society, which he co-founded . From 1849 to 1850 he made his last trip to Africa . The specimens gathered on his travels became the basis for the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt.

Five animal species and 79 animal and plant species are named after him. The plant genus Rueppelia A.Rich. from the legume family (Fabaceae) is named after him. In zoological circles he became known through his first description of the previously unexplored naked mole rat under the scientific name Heterocephalus glaber in 1842 in the Ethiopian province of Shewa .

He was the first foreigner to receive the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society in London in 1839 .

In 1840, Rüppell gave the city of Frankfurt the life-size seated statue of Goethe by Pompeo Marchesi . After falling out with the Senckenberg Natural Research Society, he turned to numismatics . He gave his hometown holdings of Frankfurt medals, coins of the Ptolemies and coins of the Roman emperors in Alexandria. After the annexation of Frankfurt by the Prussians in 1866, he fled to Zurich , but soon returned. After 1870 he lived in seclusion in Frankfurt, highly honored for his services in the fields of zoology , mineralogy , palaeography , geography and numismatics. The Rüppellfuchs , the Rüppell parrot , the Rüppell strangler and the Rüppell tern are reminiscent of him .

Eduard Rüppell is buried in the main cemetery. His grave was magistrate decision to honor grave determined. The Association for Geography and Statistics in Frankfurt am Main (today's Frankfurter Geographische Gesellschaft ) awarded the Eduard Rüppell Medal from 1894 .

Fonts (selection)

Atlas of the journey in northern Africa. Brönner, Frankfurt 1826-1828. doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.53779
Trip to Nubia, Kordofan and Petrean Arabia, excellent in geographical and statistical terms. Friedrich Wilmans, Frankfurt am Main 1829 Digitized
Continuation of the description and illustration of several new fish discovered in the Nile . Brönner, Frankfurt 1829 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.14871
Description and illustration of several new fish discovered in the Nile . Brönner, Frankfurt 1829 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.14870
Journey in Abyssinia. 2 volumes and atlas. Schmerber, Frankfurt 1838-1840.
New vertebrates belonging to the Abyssinian fauna. Schmerber, Frankfurt 1835-1840. doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.53778
Systematic survey of the birds in North-East Africa. together with an illustration and description of fifty species, some unknown, some not yet illustrated . S. Schmerber'sche Buchhandlung, Frankfurt 1845 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.51961
Description and illustration of the show coins, which were made to commemorate the residents of Frankfurt. Adelmann, Frankfurt 1855.

literature

Wilhelm Stricker: Rüppell, Eduard Wilh. In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 29, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1889, pp. 707-714.
Robert Mertens : Eduard Rüppell. Life and work of an explorer. Kramer, Frankfurt 1949.
Wolfgang Klausewitz : Rüppell, Wilhelm Peter Simon Eduard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 226 f. ( Digitized version ).
Frank Berger : wanderlust and love of home. Donations from the explorer Eduard Rüppell (1794–1884). In: Frankfurter Collectors and Donors (= writings of the Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main. Vol. 32). Henrich, Frankfurt 2012, pp. 155–168.

Web links

Wikisource: Eduard Rüppell - Sources and full texts

Eduard Rüppell in the Frankfurt Personal Lexicon
Rüppell, Wilhelm Peter Simon Eduard. Hessian biography. (As of May 9, 2020). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Individual evidence

^ Member entry by Eduard Rüppell at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 23, 2016.
^ Société Cuvierienne: List of the Premiers Fondateurs de La Société Cuvierienne, Association universelle pour l'avancement de la Zoologie, de L'Anatomie comparée et de la Palaeontologie . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 1 , 1838, p. 192 ( digitized version ).
^ Lazarus Goldschmidt : The Abyssinian manuscripts of the city library to Frankfurt am Main (Rüppell'sche collection) . Berlin 1897 ( digitized version ); Bernhard Tönnies: Of Ethiopian manuscripts and outsourced books. The relocation of the Frankfurt libraries during the Second World War and the Rüppell Collection: the loss of some manuscripts and their recovery (Frankfurter Bibliotheksschriften Vol. 8), Frankfurt am Main 2016 ; Valuable manuscripts again in Frankfurt in: FAZ of August 27, 2011, p. 43; Loss and recovery of Ethiopian manuscripts from the Rüppell collection .
↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .

personal data
SURNAME	Rüppell, Eduard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Rüppell, Wilhelm Peter Simon Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German natural scientist and Africa researcher
DATE OF BIRTH	November 20, 1794
PLACE OF BIRTH	Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH	December 10, 1884
Place of death	Frankfurt am Main

[1] Member entry by Eduard Rüppell at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 23, 2016.

[sc191-2] Société Cuvierienne: List of the Premiers Fondateurs de La Société Cuvierienne, Association universelle pour l'avancement de la Zoologie, de L'Anatomie comparée et de la Palaeontologie . In: Revue Zoologique par La Société Cuvierienne . tape 1 , 1838, p. 192 ( digitized version ).

[3] Lazarus Goldschmidt : The Abyssinian manuscripts of the city library to Frankfurt am Main (Rüppell'sche collection) . Berlin 1897 ( digitized version ); Bernhard Tönnies: Of Ethiopian manuscripts and outsourced books. The relocation of the Frankfurt libraries during the Second World War and the Rüppell Collection: the loss of some manuscripts and their recovery (Frankfurter Bibliotheksschriften Vol. 8), Frankfurt am Main 2016 ; Valuable manuscripts again in Frankfurt in: FAZ of August 27, 2011, p. 43; Loss and recovery of Ethiopian manuscripts from the Rüppell collection .

[Burkhardt_2018-4] Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .