''Brehms Tierleben'' (English title: ''Brehm's Animal Life'') is a scientific reference book, first published in the 1860s by Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829–1884). It was one of the first modern popular zoological treatises. First published in German as a six volume work that was completed in 1869 it was published by the Bibliographisches Institut of

Herrmann Julius Meyer Herrmann Julius Meyer (April 4, 1826 – March 12, 1909) was a German publisher born in Gotha. He was the son of publisher Joseph Meyer (1796-1856). After his father's death in 1856, Herrmann Meyer took charge of ''Bibliographisches Institut'', a ...

with illustration directed by

Robert Kretschmer Robert Kretschmer (1812–1872) was a German illustrator, known for his illustrations in ''Brehms Tierleben ''Brehms Tierleben'' (English title: ''Brehm's Animal Life'') is a scientific reference book, first published in the 1860s by Alfred Ed ...

. The second edition, completed in 1879 had ten volumes. It was translated into several European languages.

Publishing history

As a freelance writer, Brehm furnished popular-scientific magazines with

essays An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as forma ...

and travelogues. Because of his success in doing this, in 1860 he was commissioned to write a six-volume zoological encyclopedia. Journeys to

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historical ...

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part o ...

both interrupted and enriched the work. The first six volumes of the encyclopedia, published under the title ''Illustrirtes Thierleben'', appeared from 1864 to 1869, published by the Bibliographisches Institut under

. Illustrated under the direction of

(1818–1872), they met with wide approval from the educated bourgeoisie. As of the second edition, which consisted of ten volumes published from 1876 to 1879, the work was already titled ''Brehms Tierleben''. The work made Brehm famous around the world and its title is still a catchphrase today, even though science has gone far beyond Brehm. Perhaps the greatest change in the second edition was the addition of new illustrations by Gustav Mützel, the brothers

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named '' Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in t ...

and

Friedrich Specht Friedrich Specht (6 May 1839, in Lauffen am Neckar – 12 June 1909, in Stuttgart), was a German painter and natural history illustrator. He held his first exhibition at the Stuttgart Art Academy. He provided illustrations of animals and lands ...

and others, which

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

said were the best he had ever seen. The second edition was reprinted from 1882 to 1884, and a third edition, published from 1890 to 1893, followed. The work has been translated into various languages and remained very popular for generations. Editions continued to appear into the second half of the 20th century, sometimes in the form of abridged, one-volume works.

Note on the title

The title was at its time written "Brehms Thierleben" (or respectively, "Illustrirtes Thierleben"), and is in Germany usually still cited in that way. The spelling reform of 1901 did away with the exception of writing "Thier" with ''th'', which never means the English ''th'' sound in this context. (Similarly, the adjective in the original title would now be written "illustr''ie''rtes".)

Selected editions

''Illustrirtes Thierleben. Eine allgemeine Kunde des Thierreichs''.
By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and

Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg (10 January 1818 Naumburg – 19 January 1898 Halle) was a German entomologist. Life After 1836 Taschenberg studied mathematics and natural sciences in Leipzig and Berlin. He went, then, as an auxiliary teacher to the Fra ...

. 6 vols.

Hildburghausen Hildburghausen (IPA adapted from: ) is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the district Hildburghausen. Geography It is situated in the Franconian part of Thuringia south of the Thuringian Forest, in the valley of the Werra rive ...

, Bibliographisches Institut, 1864–1869. * ''Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs''. By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 2nd, expanded, ed. 10 vols.

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

, Bibliographisches Institut, 1876–1879; reprinted 1882–1884. * ''Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs''. By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Oskar Boettger, Wilhelm Haacke, Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, W. Marshall, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 3rd ed. 10 vols.

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, Bibliographisches Institut, 1890–1893.

References

Editions on line

Biodiversity Heritage Library (2nd edition)
* Wikisource: Brehms Thierleben (German) Partial text of the 2nd German edition.
Brehms Thierleben, 1. German edition digitized
in the

Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. Th ...

of the

Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (German: Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte) is a scientific research institute founded in March 1994. It is dedicated to addressing fundamental questions of the history of knowledg ...

Djurens lif
(Swedish) 2nd ed. of the Swedish translation of ''Thierleben'', 4 vols. (pub. 1882–1888); from

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

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Project Gutenberg-DE page on Brehm
(German) Includes text from ''Brehms Thierleben'' and ''Tiergeschichten''.
Page on Brehm
(German) Includes text from ''Brehms Tierleben''. {{Authority control Zoology books Encyclopedias of science German encyclopedias German-language encyclopedias 1864 non-fiction books 1876 non-fiction books 1890 non-fiction books 19th-century encyclopedias