Hermann Schlegel (10 June 1804 – 17 January 1884) was a German

ornithologist Ornithology, from Ancient Greek ὄρνις (''órnis''), meaning "bird", and -logy from λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is a branch of zoology dedicated to the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related discip ...

herpetologist Herpetology (from Ancient Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, salamanders, and caecilians (Gymnophiona)) and reptiles (in ...

and

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish (Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 35,800 species of fish had been described as of March 2 ...

Early life and education

Schlegel was born at

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

, the son of a brassfounder. His father collected butterflies, which stimulated Schlegel's interest in

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. The discovery, by chance, of a buzzard's nest led him to the study of birds, and a meeting with

Christian Ludwig Brehm Christian Ludwig Brehm (24 January 1787 – 23 June 1864) was a German pastor and Ornithology, ornithologist. He was the father of the Zoology, zoologist Alfred Brehm. Life Brehm was born in Schönau (Odenwald), Schönau near Gotha on 24 Ja ...

. Schlegel started to work for his father, but soon tired of it. He travelled to

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

in 1824, where, at the university, he attended the lectures of

Leopold Fitzinger Leopold Joseph Franz Johann Fitzinger (13 April 1802 – 20 September 1884) was an Austrian zoologist. Fitzinger was born in Vienna and studied botany at the University of Vienna under Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin. He worked at the Vienna Naturhis ...

and Johann Jacob Heckel. A letter of introduction from Brehm to Joseph Natterer gained him a position at the Naturhistorisches Museum.

Ornithological career

One year after his arrival, the director of this

museum, Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers, recommended him to

Coenraad Jacob Temminck Coenraad Jacob Temminck (; 31 March 1778 – 30 January 1858) was a Dutch people, Dutch patrician, Zoology, zoologist and museum director. Biography Coenraad Jacob Temminck was born on 31 March 1778 in Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic. Fro ...

, director of the natural history museum of Leiden, who was seeking an assistant. At first Schlegel worked mainly on the

reptile Reptiles, as commonly defined, are a group of tetrapods with an ectothermic metabolism and Amniotic egg, amniotic development. Living traditional reptiles comprise four Order (biology), orders: Testudines, Crocodilia, Squamata, and Rhynchocepha ...

collection and wrote ''Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens'' (1837), but soon his field of activity extended to other zoological groups. It had been intended that Schlegel be sent to

Java Java is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea (a part of Pacific Ocean) to the north. With a population of 156.9 million people (including Madura) in mid 2024, proje ...

to join the Natural History Commission, but the untimely death of Temminck's intended successor, Heinrich Boie, prevented the realization of this project. It was at this time that Schlegel met

Philipp Franz von Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveller. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora (plants), flora and fauna (animals), fauna and the introduction of ...

. They became firm friends and collaborated on ''Fauna Japonica'' (1845-1850). In 1847 he became correspondent of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands, when that became the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (, KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed in the Trippenhuis in Amsterdam. In addition to various advisory a ...

in 1851 he became member. Schlegel considered

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

as fixed, and consequently from the publication of ''

On the Origin of Species ''On the Origin of Species'' (or, more completely, ''On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life'')The book's full original title was ''On the Origin of Species by M ...

'' until his death was strongly opposed to Darwin's theory. The English

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

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 ...

knew of Schlegel's opinions on species and evolution from remarks by his close friend, the British

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Ro ...

: ‘I talked much with Schlegel, he is strongly in favour of a multiple creation & against migration’.Hooker, J .D. 1845. Letter to C.R. Darwin, 23 March 1845. Darwin Correspondence Project, Letter no. 844.
/ref>

Director of the natural history museum

When Temminck died at the beginning of 1858, Schlegel succeeded him as director of the natural history museum, after having spent 33 years under his direction. Schlegel was particularly interested in Southeast Asia, and in 1857 sent his son Gustav to collect birds in China. Gustav arrived to find that Robert Swinhoe had gotten there first. In 1859, Schlegel sent Heinrich Agathon Bernstein to collect birds in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...

. After the death of Bernstein in 1865, he was succeeded by Hermann von Rosenberg. Schlegel took on a young assistant, Otto Finsch. At the same time, he started to publish a scientific magazine, ''Notes from the Leyden Museum'', as well as a vast work of 14 volumes, '' Muséum d'histoire naturelle des Pays-Bas'' (1862-1880). He employed three talented illustrators:

John Gerrard Keulemans Johannes Gerardus Keulemans (8 June 1842 – 29 March 1912) was a Dutch bird illustrator. For most of his life he lived and worked in England, illustrating many of the best-known ornithology books of the nineteenth century. Biography Keulemans ...

Joseph Smit Joseph Smit (18 July 1836 – 4 November 1929) was a Dutch zoological illustrator. L.B. Holthuis, Leiden, (1958, 1995) ''Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, 1820 - 1958''. page 47reprint manuscript, PDF Background Smit was born in Lisse. He ...

and Joseph Wolf. The end of Schlegel's life was difficult: his wife died in 1864, Finsch moved to the natural history museum at

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

, and the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

started to eclipse those of Leiden. Schlegel died on 17 January 1884 in Leiden. His sons are the

sinologist Sinology, also referred to as China studies, is a subfield of area studies or East Asian studies involved in social sciences and humanities research on China. It is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of the Chinese civilizatio ...

and field

Gustaaf Schlegel (1840-1903) and the

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Leander Schlegel (1844-1913).

Animal species named for Schlegel

In alphabetical order by common name: * Eyelash viper ''(Bothriechis schlegelii)'', a pit viperBeolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Schlegel", p. 235). *

False gharial The false gharial (''Tomistoma schlegelii''), also known by the names Malayan gharial, Sunda gharial and tomistoma is a freshwater crocodilian of the Family (biology), family Gavialidae native to Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sumatra and Java. It ...

''(Tomistoma schlegelii)'' , a crocodilian * The Giant sharkminnow ''(Osteochilus schlegelii)'', a fish * Red-headed reed snake ''( Calamaria schlegeli)'', a nonvenomous snake * Royal Penguin ''( Eudyptes schlegeli)'', a crested penguin * Schlegel's adder ''( Aspidomorphus schlegelii)'', a venomous

elapid Elapidae (, commonly known as elapids , from , variant of "sea-fish") is a family (biology), family of snakes characterized by their permanently erect fangs at the front of the mouth. Most elapids are venomous, with the exception of the genus ...

snake * Schlegel's beaked blind snake ''(

Afrotyphlops schlegelii ''Afrotyphlops schlegelii'', commonly known as Schlegel's beaked blind snake:fr:William Roy Branch, Branch, Bill (2004). ''Field Guide to Snakes and other Reptiles of Southern Africa''. Third Revised edition, Second impression. Sanibel Island, Fl ...

)'', a nonvenomous burrowing snake * Schlegel's forest skink ''( Sphenomorphus schlegeli)'', a lizard * Schlegel's green tree frog ''( Rhacophorus schlegelii)'', a shrub frog

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Schlegel, Hermann 19th-century German zoologists 1804 births 1884 deaths German herpetologists German ornithologists German ichthyologists German taxonomists Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences People from Altenburg People from Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg