Johannes Gerhardus Hendrikus Burgers (31 January 1870 – 12 June 1943) was in 1913 the founder of ''Burgers' Dierenpark'', nowadays called

Royal Burgers' Zoo Royal Burgers' Zoo () is a zoo in Arnhem, Netherlands, and is one of the biggest zoos in the country. Arnhem is a city that lies partially in the Veluwe, a nature park in the east of the Netherlands. The zoo is popular with both Dutch and Ge ...

. He was the owner and director of it until 1939. His youngest daughter Lucie Burgers was his successor, with her husband Reinier van Hooff. Their son, Antoon van Hooff (1937-2004), further developed the zoo.

Biography

Johan Burgers was born in

's-Heerenberg s-Heerenberg is a city on the Dutch- German border, in the Province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It is located about 5 km north of the German Emmerich, and about south of Doetinchem. It received city rights in 1379. 's-Heerenberg is the lo ...

. After graduating

vocational school A vocational school (alternatively known as a trade school, or technical school), is a type of educational institution, which, depending on the country, may refer to either secondary education#List of tech ed skills, secondary or post-secondar ...

, Burgers became an agricultural expert working in Eastern Europe which provided him a decent salary. He returned to his home town to marry, and started a butchery. In 1895, Burgers bought a

town house A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residen ...

. In the garden, he kept a collection of

pheasants Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera's native range is restricted to Euras ...

and dogs which earned him many prizes, and lead to the purchase of more animals. To accommodate the growing collection, he bought a piece of land nearby and called it ''Buitenlust''. In 1908, he visited the

Tierpark Hagenbeck The Tierpark Hagenbeck is a zoo in Stellingen, Hamburg, Germany. The collection began in 1863 with animals that belonged to Carl Hagenbeck Sr. (1810–1887), a fishmonger who became an amateur animal collector. The park itself was founded by Ca ...

Carl Hagenbeck Carl Hagenbeck (10 June 1844 – 14 April 1913) was a Germans, German merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos, as well as P. T. Barnum. He created the modern zoo with animal enclosures without bars that were closer to their natur ...

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

which really impressed him. In 1913, Burgers opened the site for the public, and added other animals like foxes, wolves and flamingos. Burgers Zoo was the first privately owned public zoo in the Netherlands, because

Natura Artis Magistra Natura Artis Magistra (Latin for "Nature is the teacher of art"), commonly known just as Artis (), is a zoo and botanical garden in the centre of Amsterdam. It is the oldest zoo in the Netherlands and fifth oldest zoo in the world. In addition ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

was originally only for members. In 1916, Burgers wanted to add lions and bears which was resisted by the local government. In 1918, the city of

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

was enthusiastic about his plans, and the zoo was reopened next to the

Open Air Museum An open-air museum is a museum that exhibits collections of buildings and artifacts outdoors. It is also frequently known as a museum of buildings or a folk museum. Definition Open air is "the unconfined atmosphere ... outside buildings". ...

. In 1932, his daughter Johanna married Johan van Glabbeek, and as a wedding present he gave them Dierenpark Tilburg. In 1939, Burgers retired and appointed his daughter Lucie as his successor. In the 1940s, Burgers contracted cancer. Burgers died in

on 12 June 1943.

Family

Burgers was married to Maria Erwig and they had three children together. Jan van Hooff, biologist and professor of

comparative physiology Comparative physiology is a subdiscipline of physiology that studies and exploits the diversity of functional characteristics of various kinds of organisms. It is closely related to evolutionary physiology and environmental physiology. Many ...

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

is one of his grandchildren.

References

1870 births 1943 deaths People from Montferland Dutch business executives Zoo owners {{Netherlands-bio-stub