Alfred Edmund Brehm

Biography

Alfred Brehm (called Chalihl Effendi), wire of Pasteur Christian Ludwig Brehm (1787-1864) and of his second Bertha wife, grows in the village of Unterrenthendorf, in Thuringe. His/her father made known himself experts as a ornithologist thanks to his publications and with a vast collection of Oiseau X empaillés. He accumulates in his house more than 9000 specimens, giving an outline of the world of the Oiseau X in Europe. The searchs for his/her father very early arouse the interest of Alfred for the Zoologie, but this last wishes to become Architecte.

In spring 1844, Alfred Brehm enters in training in a building owner to Altenbourg. He learns until in 1846 the Maçonnerie and leaves graduate the École art and craft industry Altenbourg. He goes to Dresden fine 1846 in order to study the Architecture there, but gives up his studies after two six-month periods, because the baron Johann Wilhelm von Müller (1824-1866), ornithologist then celebrates, research somebody to accompany it in a forwarding in Africa. The May 31st 1847, it leaves as a secretary and an assistant the baron for a forwarding five years which takes it along in Egypt, to the Sudan and on the peninsula the the Sinai. The scientific contribution of this forwarding was so important that Brehm became, at the age of only 20 years, member of the Leopoldina.

After its return in 1853, Brehm begins from the studies of natural science to the Université of Iéna. Just like his/her brother Reinhold, he becomes an active member of association coed Corps Saxonia Jena . Because of its scientific voyage through the North Africa, it receives his comrades members the respectful nickname of Pharao. It obtains its doctorate in 1855 after only four six-month periods of studies. In 1856, it carries out with his/her brother a voyage two years in Spain. It settles then with Leipzig as independent writer and writes many texts of scientific Popularization for famous the Die Gartenlaube and other reviews. He undertakes meanwhile in 1860 a forwarding in Norway and Lapland.

In May 1861, Brehm marries his/her cousin Mathilde Reiz, with whom it will have five children. But its thirst for voyage leads it soon to set out again, and in 1862, it accepts an invitation of the duke Ernest II of Saxony-Cobourg and Gotha (1818-1893), who proposes to him to accompany it at the time of a voyage in Abyssinie (current Ethiopia). Thereafter, it still goes several times in Africa, like in Scandinavia and Siberia. During years 1878 - 1879, it undertakes two voyages in Hungary and Spain following the invitation of the crown prince Rodolphe to Austria (1858-1889), amateur of Ornithologie and which will preserve friendly relations with Brehm until its death.

Its tests and reports of voyage on the animal world know one big hit near most of the Bildungsbürgertum , the cultivated middle-class of the time, so that the editor Herrmann Julius Meyer (1826-1909) orders to him in 1860 a vast work in several volumes on the animal world for the bibliographical Institute of Hildburghausen. Published under the name of Illustrirtes Thierleben ( illustrated Life of the animals ) of 1864 with 1869, then Brehms Thierleben ( Life of the animals according to Brehm ) in the later editions, work makes its author famous in the whole world. Although the interpretation which Brehm of the behavior of the animals makes is nowadays regarded as erroneous, work remains nevertheless a reference. The illustrations of the 2nd edition were carried out by Gustav Mützel (1839-1893).

The life of Brehm is rich in written work and journeys of research and conference. Nevertheless, it accepts in 1862 its nomination at the post of first director of the Zoological gardens of Hamburg, station which it preserves until in 1867. It settles then with Berlin and made there build in 1869 a sumptuous aquarium, where it works until the course of the year 1874.

During the winter 1883 - 1884, Brehm undertakes a voyage of conference to the the United States. Little before its departure, his/her four children living with him is reached diphteria. Brehm, widower since 1878, decides despite everything to make the voyage, because he does not manage to find the money necessary to the payment of the expenses of cancellation. At the end of the month of January, he learns death from his son junior. To this mental anguish the Malaria is added then, from which Brehm suffers since its youth passed in Africa. It returns to Berlin the May 11th 1884. In order to find the calm one, it again settles in its native area close to Renthendorf, where it dies the November 11th 1884. At this place the Mémorial Brehm is today. A monument dedicated to Brehm, created by the sculptor Tyrolean Norbert Pfretzschner (1850-1927), was set up with Altenbourg.

German works

Reiseskizzen aus North-Ost-Afrika oder den unter egyptischer Herrschaft stehenden Ländern, Égypten, Nubian, Sennahr, Rosseeres und Kordofahn, gesammelt auf seinen in den Jahren 1847 (a) 1852 unternommenen Reisen (F. Mauke, Iéna, 1855).
Ergebnisse einer Reise nach Habesch, im Gefolge… (O. Meissner, Hamburg, 1863).
Die Thiere of Waldes geschildert von A.E. Brehm und E.A. Rossmässler… (c.f. Winter, Leipzig and Heidelberg, 1864).
Illustrirtes Thierleben. Eine allgemeine Kunde of Thierreichs . by Alfred Edmund Brehm, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 6 volumes. Hildburghausen, Bibliographisches Institute, 1864– 1869.

Works translated into French

Collection: Wonders of nature. The man and the animals , J.B. Baillière and wire, Paris

'' the Mammals '' French edition by Z. Sheaf;
'' the Birds '' French edition by Z. Sheaf;
'' Reptiles and the Batrachians '', 1889 French edition by H. - E. Wild;
'' Poisson and the Shellfish '' French edition: fish, by H. - E. Wild, shellfish, by J. Künckel d' Herculais;
'' Insects, Myriapodes, Arachnida and the Shellfish '', 1882 French edition per J. Künckel d' Herculais;
'' Worms, Molluscs, Echinodermata, Zoophytes, Protozoa and Animals of the great depths '', 1884 French edition by A.T. of Rochebrune.

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