Carl Hagenbeck

Carl Hagenbeck (June 10, 1844 - April 14, 1913) was a merchant of wild animals who supplied many European zoos, as well as P.T. Barnum. He is often considered the father of the modern zoo because he introduced "natural" animal enclosures that included recreations of animals' native habitats without bars. [cite web |url=http://www.zandavisitor.com/forumtopicdetail-411-Hagenbeck_Tierpark_und_Tropen-Aquarium-Zoos |title=Hagenbeck Tierpark und Tropen-Aquarium |accessdate=2008-07-22 |quote=The founder and his idea Carl Hagenbeck built what no other dared dream of. In 1907, the Hamburg man opened the first barless zoo in the world. As early as the end of the eighteenth century, this son of a fishmonger had the idea of showing animals no longer caged up but in open viewing enclosures. In his zoo of the future, nothing more than unseen ditches were to separate wild animals from members of the public. Carl Hagenbeck patented this idea in 1896. Nine years later his dream was to come true in Hamburg-Stellingen. The revolutionary open viewing enclosures and panoramas were in fact ridiculed in professional circles but took the public's breath away. Hagenbeck's zoo is considered to have prepared the way for today's wildlife adventure parks. |publisher=Zoo and Aquarium Visitor ] Hagenbeck founded Germany's most successful privately owned zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck, which moved to its present location in Hamburg-Stellingen in 1907. However, his pioneer role in displaying human beings aside animals, in what has been called "human zoos," is less well known.

Life and work

When Hagenbeck was 14, his father, an amateur animal trainer, gave him some seals and a polar bear. His collection of animals grew until he needed large buildings to keep them in. Hagenbeck left his home in Hamburg to go with hunters and explorers to jungles and snow-clad mountains. He captured animals in nearly every land in the world. In 1874, he decided to exhibit Samoan and Sami people (Laplanders) as "purely natural" populations, with their tents, weapons, sleds, aside a group of reindeer. [http://mondediplo.com/2000/08/07humanzoo Human Zoos] , by Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard and Sandrine Lemaire, in "Le Monde diplomatique", August 2000 [http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2000/08/BANCEL/14145.html French] ] [ [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_16_131/ai_n13463375 Savages and Beasts - The Birth of the Modern Zoo] , Nigel Rothfels, Johns Hopkins University Press ]

In 1875, Hagenbeck began to exhibit his animals in all the large cities of Europe as well as in the United States.

In 1876, he sent a collaborator to the Egyptian Sudan to bring back some wild beasts and Nubians. The Nubian exhibit was very successful in Europe, and toured Paris, London, and Berlin. He also dispatched an agent to Labrador to secure a number of "Esquimaux" (Inuit) from the settlement of Hopedale; these Inuit were exhibited in his Hamburg Tierpark. Hagenbeck's exhibit of human beings, considered as "savages", in a "natural state," was the probable source of inspiration for Geoffroy de Saint-Hilaire's similar "human zoo" exhibition in the Jardin d'acclimatation in Paris. Saint-Hilaire organized in 1877 two "ethnological exhibitions," presenting Nubians and Inuit to the public, thus succeeding to double the entrees of the zoo.

Hagenbeck also trained animals to display and sell to circuses at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois, in 1893, and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. Hagenbeck's circus was one of the most popular attractions. His collection included large animals and reptiles. Many of the animals were trained to do tricks. He crossbred in 1900 a female lion with a Bengal tiger, and sold the hybrid for $2 million to the Portuguese zoologist Bisiano Mazinho. Hagenbeck's trained animals also performed at amusement parks on New York City's Coney Island prior to 1914.

However, Hagenbeck dreamed of a permanent exhibit where animals could live in surroundings much like their natural homes. Despite the presence of the Zoological Garden of Hamburg, Hagenbeck opened his great zoo, the Tierpark Hagenbeck at Stellingen, near Hamburg in 1907. Today his ideas are followed by most large zoos.

In 1905, Hagenbeck used his outstanding skills as an animal collector to capture a thousand camels for the German Empire to use in Africa. He described his adventures and his methods of capturing and training animals in a book, "Beasts and Men", published in 1908.

Death

He died on April 14, 1913 in Hamburg. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Carl Hagenbeck. Famous Animal Dealer and Exhibitor Dies in Hamburg. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E00E5D8103CE633A25756C1A9629C946296D6CF |quote=Carl Hagenbeck, the animal collector and senior partner of the ... menagerie and park at Stellingen, near Hamburg died to-day. |work=New York Times |date=April 14, 1913 |accessdate=2008-07-22 ]

References

Bibliography

*Carl Hagenbeck, "Beasts and men. Being Carl Hagenbeck's experiences for half a century among wild animals." (London & New York: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1912).
*Edward Alexander, “Carl Hagenbeck and His Stellingen Tierpark: The Moated Zoo,” in: Edward Alexander, "Museum Masters: Their Museums and Their Influence". (Nashville: American Association for State and Local History, 1983), pp. 311-340.
*Herman Reichenbach, “A Tale of Two Zoos: The Hamburg Zoological Garden and Carl Hagenbeck’s Tierpark,” in: R. J. Hoage and William A. Deiss, eds. "New Worlds, New Animals". (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996), pp. 51-62.
*Nigel Rothfels, "Savages and Beasts: The Birth of the Modern Zoo". (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002).
*Reptiles of the world by Raymond L. Ditmar talks about him capturing most of the Gavhrials found on exhibit.

See also

*Zoo
*Human zoo
*Salt and Sauce famous UK elephants originally bought and imported by Carl Hagenbeck