Wilhelm von Reichenau (natural scientist)

von Reichenau, in 1876

Wilhelm von Reichenau (born July 28, 1847 in Dillenburg , † February 3, 1925 in Mainz ) was a German naturalist . As an autodidact, he dealt with subjects from botany , zoology , lepidopterology , paleontology and meteorology . In his work as a librarian , he was also briefly director of the Mainz City Library and later first director of the Natural History Museum . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Reichenau ".

Military career

Von Reichenau grew up in what was then the Duchy of Nassau-Dillenburg and began military service after finishing school. There he began training as an officer in the Prussian Army . He fought in the Austro-Prussian War and in 1869 was promoted to lieutenant in the Rhenish Jäger Battalion No. 8 . After being injured in the Franco-Prussian War in 1870/1871, he had to give up his military career with the rank of first lieutenant .

Professional activities

As a private citizen, he ran an estate near Miesbach in Upper Bavaria until 1875 . During this time, von Reichenau carried out natural history studies on plants and animals as an autodidact . Parts of his work on birds were included in the second edition of Alfred Brehms Tierleben in 1874 .

In 1875 he moved from Reichenau to Mainz and took up a position as an assistant librarian in the Mainz city library. At the same time he joined the Rheinische Naturforschende Gesellschaft . In November 1877 von Reichenau received permission to support Wilhelm Nicolaus, the taxidermist of the Rhenish Natural Research Society, in the afternoons. Due to the illness of the head of the Mainz city library, Raimund Külb , von Reichenau was interim librarian and head of the Mainz city library from August / September 1878 to the end of August 1879 until the position was re- filled with Wilhelm Velke .

After the reorganization of the management of the Mainz City Library, von Reichenau was able to devote himself entirely to the natural sciences. In 1879 he became the official taxidermist of the Rheinische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft. He expanded his biological collections, which had only existed since 1878, following the concept, which was not common at the time, of showing animals and their development in their natural environment. This sensational collection was honored in Offenbach as early as 1880 . From 1880, von Reichenau also expanded his studies to include meteorology . For his measurements, he had a climate measuring station installed at the Electoral Palace and sent monthly reports of the measurement results to the Central Office for State Statistics in Darmstadt and Munich

In 1898 he became a curator and thus a municipal official in the collection of the Rheinische Naturforschende Gesellschaft. On October 16, 1910, the Natural History Museum in Mainz was created from this collection , and he was its first director until he retired in 1913 due to illness. In 1907 he received an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the Ludwig University of Giessen . On the occasion of the opening of the Natural History Museum, Grand Duke Ernst Ludwig von Hessen awarded him the title of professor.

Wilhelm von Reichenau died in Gonsenheim near Mainz in 1925 . On the occasion of its 150th anniversary in 1984, the Rheinische Naturforschende Gesellschaft donated the Wilhelm von Reichenau Medal in memory of its famous member.

Research and publication activities

Von Reichenau was a scientist with a wide range of interests. Important studies included the flora of Mainz and the surrounding area and the documentation of the butterfly fauna of the royal administrative district of Wiesbaden in 1904 and 1905. As a paleontologist he researched the Pleistocene Mosbacher Sands , which are considered to be the most important fossil sites in Europe with remains of Ice Age animals. Among other things, he was the first to describe the Mosbacher Löwen (1906).

Works (selection)

• Looking at the nests and eggs of birds in their natural relationships: a contribution to ornithopsychology, ornithophysiology and to the criticism of Darwin's theories. (= Darwinist writings. Issue 9). Ernst Günther, Leipzig 1880. ( Gallica )
• Mainz flora: description of the wild and naturalized flowering plants from Mainz to Bingen and Oppenheim with Wiesbaden and the Rheingau together with the forest of Grossgerau. Quasthoff, Mainz 1900.

• Something about the macrolepidoptera in our area, listing all the species observed so far, at the same time as a supplement to "The Lepidoptera of the Royal Reg. District Wiesbaden and their history of development" by Dr. Adolf Roessler. First part: the butterflies, hawks and spinners. In: Yearbooks of the Nassau Association for Natural History. Volume 57, Wiesbaden 1904, pp. 107-169.
• Something about the macrolepidoptera in our area, listing all the species observed so far, at the same time as a supplement to "The Lepidoptera of the Royal Reg. District Wiesbaden and their history of development" by Dr. Adolf Roessler. Part Two: The Owls and Spanners. In: Yearbooks of the Nassau Association for Natural History. 58, Wiesbaden 1905, pp. 241-294.
• Contributions to a closer knowledge of the carnivores from the sands of Mauer and Mosbach. In: Treatises of the Grand Ducal Hessian State Geological Institute in Darmstadt. Volume IV, Issue 2, Darmstadt 1906.
• Contributions to the closer knowledge of fossil horses from the German Pleistocene, in particular about the development and the chewing stages of the bit of the high terrace horse ( Equus Mosbachensis vR). Grand Ducal State Publishing House, Darmstadt 1915.

literature

• Joachim Wolf: Wilhelm von Reichenau (* 1847- + 1925). Live and act. In: Mainz Natural Science Archive. 47, Mainz 2009, pp. 129-137.
• Markus Würz: 175 years of the Rheinische Naturforschende Gesellschaft and 100 years of the Mainz Natural History Museum. In: Mainz Natural Science Archive. 47, Mainz 2009, pp. 35-88.
• Ernst Probst : The Mosbach Lion. Grin Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-62372-3 , p. 19. (biography of Reichenau)

Web links

• museum-digital - Prof. Dr. Wilhelm von Reichenau
• Wilhelm von Reichenau Medal - Rhenish Natural Research Society