Elephants_just_arrived_1907_Billboard_ad_Louis_Ruhe_Grand_Street_New_York

Firma Ruhe or Louis Ruhe (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

: ''Tierhandelsfirma L. Ruhe''; "pet trade company of L. Ruhe") was a multinational, multigenerational family business dealing in wild animals for zoos and circuses. According to Bernard Ruhe of Long Island in 1927, the firm was founded by Louis Ruhe in Germany in 1780. According to another account, Ludwig Ruhe started the firm in 1830. It may have originally dealt in birds sold at local markets and carnivals. The German operation may have been located in

Alfeld Alfeld (Leine) () is a town in the state of Lower Saxony, Germany. Located on the Leine river and situated approximately 20 km southwest of Hildesheim, it is the second biggest city in the district of Hildesheim (district), Hildesheim in sou ...

with port access at

Hanover Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-l ...

. The company also had a 1,500-acre farm in

Arusha Arusha is a city in Tanzania. The city is the Capital city, capital of the Arusha Region. It has a population of 617,631 people.

Tanganyika Territory Tanganyika was a colonial territory in East Africa which was administered by the United Kingdom in various forms from 1916 until 1961. It was initially administered under military occupation. From 20 July 1922, it was formalised into a League o ...

(now

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

) for "collecting new stock." Overseas, an American outlet was established in New York in 1869. There was also a London office. According to one 1940 news report, Firma Ruhe sold 75 percent of the wild animals imported into the United States; pandas cost $10,000, baby gorillas were $4,000, and pythons were sold by the foot ($5 per). Circa 1946, ''Time'' magazine described it as a $3 million a year business. Before World II, the firm had 20 "agents abroad," after the war they were starting back with six. (The firm had a veteran collector in India named Meems.) A 1959 fire at the firm's

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, New York holding facility killed five

Galápagos tortoise The Galápagos tortoise or Galápagos giant tortoise (''Chelonoidis niger'') is a very large species of tortoise in the genus ''Chelonoidis'' (which also contains three smaller species from mainland South America). The species comprises 15 subsp ...

s, seven

mandrill The mandrill (''Mandrillus sphinx'') is a large Old World monkey native to west central Africa. It is one of the most colorful mammals in the world, with red and blue skin on its face and posterior. The species is Sexual dimorphism, sexually ...

s, and 28 Guenon monkeys. Two baby

Western lowland gorilla The western lowland gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla gorilla'') is one of two Critically Endangered subspecies of the western gorilla (''Gorilla gorilla'') that lives in Montane ecosystems#Montane forests, montane, Old-growth forest, primary and sec ...

s survived. Firma Ruhe was involved in operating and maintaining Hanover Municipal Zoo. Another Ruhe-operated zoo, Ruhr-Zoo (now ''

ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen ZOOM Erlebniswelt Gelsenkirchen, founded on April 14, 1949, as "Ruhr-Zoo", is one of the most modern zoological gardens in Germany. It was founded on a heavily shelled area in Gelsenkirchen adjacent to a port on the Rhine–Herne Canal. It init ...

'') was located at

Gelsenkirchen Gelsenkirchen (, , ; ) is the List of cities in Germany by population, 25th-most populous city of Germany and the 11th-most populous in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia with 262,528 (2016) inhabitants. On the Emscher, Emscher River (a tribu ...

in the

Ruhr area The Ruhr ( ; , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr Area, sometimes Ruhr District, Ruhr Region, or Ruhr Valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 1,160/km2 and a populati ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

References

External links

Firma Ruhe by Dan Koehl at Elephant Encyclopedia
Animal traders {{Germany-company-stub