Moriz Sassi or Moritz Sassi (13 June 1880 – 25 September 1967) was an Austrian ornithologist who worked at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. In 1933 he was made a government councilor and given the title of ''hofrat''.

Life and work

Sassi was born in Vienna to Eugen and Ida who owned the Schwindgasse palace in Vienna and Villa Sassi in northern Italy. Sassi went to school at Hegelgasse and volunteered with the Dragoons. He then studied zoology at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

under

Karl Grobben Karl Grobben (27 August 1854, in Brno – 13 April 1945, in Salzburg) was an Austrian zoologist. He graduated from, and later worked at, the University of Vienna, chiefly on molluscs and crustaceans. He was also the editor of a new edition of Ca ...

and

Berthold Hatschek Berthold Hatschek (3 April 1854 in Skrbeň – 18 January 1941 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist remembered for embryology, embryological and morphology (biology), morphological studies of invertebrates. Life Berthold Hatschek studied zoology ...

writing a dissertation on the anatomy of ''Anomia ephippium'' for which he received a doctorate in 1903. He then followed an interest in art. In 1905 he joined an expedition into Anglo-Egyptian Sudan led by

Franz Werner Franz Josef Maria Werner (15 August 1867 in Vienna – 28 February 1939 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist and explorer. Specializing as a herpetologist and entomologist, Werner described numerous species and other taxa of frogs, snakes, inse ...

and collected numerous specimens of birds and mammals, and describing several as new to science including ''Procavia slatini'' (now merely a synonym for the

rock hyrax The rock hyrax (; ''Procavia capensis''), also called dassie, Cape hyrax, rock rabbit, and (from some interpretations of a word used in the King James Bible) coney, is a medium-sized terrestrial mammal native to Africa and the Middle East. Common ...

) dedicated to his friend Rudolf Slatin. In 1908 he joined the Natural History Museum in Vienna under

Franz Steindachner Franz Steindachner (11 November 1834 in Vienna – 10 December 1919 in Vienna) was an Austrian zoologist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist. He published over 200 papers on fishes and over 50 papers on reptiles and amphibians. Steindachner des ...

and trained under

Ludwig Lorenz von Liburnau Ludwig Lorenz von Liburnau (26 August 1856 in Fiume – 9 December 1943 in St. Gilgen) was an Austrian zoologist. He was the son of naturalist Josef Roman Lorenz von Liburnau (1825–1911). In 1879 he obtained his PhD from the University of Vienn ...

. During World War I, he was sent to the South East Front and saw action in the battle for Lovćen River in Montenegro. In 1920 he became a paid scientific assistant and began to work on the collection of Emil Weiske (1867-1950). This was followed by examination of the collections made by Steindachner in Brazil,

Viktor Pietschmann Viktor Pietschmann (27 October 1881 – 11 November 1956) was an Austrian ichthyologist at the Vienna Museum of Natural History. He was the curator of the fish collection from 1919 to 1946 and made collecting trips to the Barents Sea, Greenland, ...

and Selim Hassoun in Mesopotamia, and those by Rudolf Grauer in East Africa. He also joined some expedition including to Dalmatia and Costa Rica. He organized a meeting of the German Ornithological Society in Vienna in 1932. During the war years, he ensured that the bird collections were safely stored at the

Schönbrunn Palace Schönbrunn Palace (Austrian German, German: Schloss Schönbrunn ) was the main summer residence of the House of Habsburg, Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, the 13th district of Vienna. The name ''Schönbrunn'' (meaning "beautiful spring") ha ...

. He became a government councillor in 1933 and a court councillor in 1948. Sassi retired in 1949. Several taxa were named in his honour by his fellow ornithologists including ''Serinus flavivertex sassii'' by Oscar Neumann and ''Accipiter minullus sassii'' by

Erwin Stresemann Erwin Friedrich Theodor Stresemann (22 November 1889, in Dresden – 20 November 1972, in East Berlin) was a German naturalist and ornithologist. Stresemann was an ornithologist of extensive breadth who compiled one of the first and most comprehe ...

. A genus ''Sassius'' was created by

Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild, Baron de Rothschild, (8 February 1868 – 27 August 1937) was a British banker, politician, zoology, zoologist, and soldier, who was a member of the Rothschild family. As a Zionist leader, he wa ...

and

Ernst Hartert Ernst Johann Otto Hartert (29 October 1859 – 11 November 1933) was a widely published German ornithologist. Life and career Hartert was born in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg on 29 October 1859. In July 1891, he married the illustrat ...

in 1926 for a purported Hawaiian honeycreeper '' Sassius simplex'' which was later identified to be based on a fake composite specimen.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sassi, Moriz 1880 births 1967 deaths Austrian ornithologists