Hermann von Ihering

Hermann von Ihering
Hermann von Ihering
Born
Hermann Friedrich Albrecht von Ihering

(1850-10-09)9 October 1850
Kiel, Duchy of Holstein (now Germany)
Died24 February 1930(1930-02-24) (aged 79)
Gießen, Germany
Known forZoology

Hermann Friedrich Albert von Ihering (Kiel, 9 October 1850 – Giessen, 24 February 1930) was a German Brazilian doctor, professor and ornithologist. He was the oldest son of Rudolf von Jhering.

Between 1893 and 1894, Ihering also helped to found the Museu Paulista, in São Paulo, and became its first director.[1]

Biography

Hermann Friedrich Albert von Ihering was born in 1850 in Kiel, Germany, the oldest son of Rudolf von Jhering (1818-1892), a well-known professor in Göttingen.[1]

The 17 years old Hermann moved to Vienna with his family, but entered the Darmstadt Musketeer Regiment after the start of the Franco-Prussian War, in 1870.

Under the advice of Rudolf Leuckart, Ihering studied medicine at the Giessen, Leipzig, Berlin, and Göttingen universities, working as an assistant at the zoological institute in Göttingen. He concluded his doctoral thesis in Göttingen, with the title Ueber das Wesen der Prognathie und ihr Verlhaeltniss zur Schaedelbasis (On the essence of prognathism and its effect on the base of the skull).[1] He later worked as a Privatdozent for zoology at the Erlangen and Leipzig.

Arrival to Brazil

On 26 April 1880, Ihering married a widow, Anna Maria Clara Wolff (born von Bezel), who had a 10-year-old boy, Sebastian Wolff, from her first marriage. The marriage was not approved by Ihering's family and, as a result, he travelled to Brazil soon after.[1] He got his first work at the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro, in Rio de Janeiro. However, as he found the climate of Rio de Janeiro too hot, he eventually moved to the city of Taquara, Rio Grande do Sul, where he started to collect specimens to send to museums in Germany and to the British Museum. At this time he had two children, Clara and Rodolpho. Later, he had two more, Wilhelm and Ida, but the latter died as a child.[1]

In 1883, Ihering was nominated travelling naturalist of the National Museum of Rio de Janeiro and lived in several cities by the Lagoa dos Patos. He eventually bought an island at the delta of the Camaquã River, which started to be called Ilha do Doutor (Doctor's Island) and lived there for some years. He was naturalized Brazilian in 1885.[1]

In 1901, his son Rodolpho was sent to Europe to study in Heidelberg. However, his other son, Wilhelm, died soon after, being only 16 years old, and his wife Anna became too shaken by the event and died later in the same year. Rodolpho then abandoned his studies and returned to Brazil to help his father.[1]

During a trip to Europe to visit some colleagues in 1907, Ihering met again his first love, Meta Buff, from Gießen, and married her that same year. Later, during World War I, he was accused of nepotism and of selling to the state a stone that was donated to the Museu Paulista. This forced him to leave his job as director of the museum in 1916.[1] He returned to southern Brazil and continued his studies in Santa Catarina, and in 1918 he was invited to occupy the chair of zoology at the University of Córdoba, Argentina. However, he refused the offer and remained in Brazil in order to organize a small museum in Florianópolis. One year after the museum opened, the government reduced his wage to one third, and three months later it was announced that he would not be paid anymore for his job.[1]

Encounter with Pedro II

Due to his father's network (and his own), the arrival of Hermann von Ihering at Brazil can be considered atypical, with the scientist being promptly requested to attend an audience with the then Emperor Pedro II of Brazil. About the encounter, the zoologist affirmed: "At the time where the Emperor, one time per week, gave an audience, I went to the palace. A simple anteroom functioned as a waiting room, with the invited ones being prompted to write their name in a book. Two glass doors led to a wooden gallery, one not very pretty, that ran along a courtyard and was protected with glass. (...) When my time arrived, they showed me firstly the gallery where, near a door, I found a gentleman, old and wearing black, that for a hot second I understood him as the master of ceremonies: in reality, he was the Emperor, in the flesh. He greeted me, shaking my hand and asking me to enter a room and sit in a couch, where we talked in French for around 20 minutes. He asked me to speak something about Germany, about my father and about Virchow, for whom he had a great steem, and after started speaking about my plans. He expressed his satisfaction about my permanence in Brazil, for my zoology studies, and offered his help (that is, an armed escort) if I needed to reach more distant territories".[2]

Return to Europe and death

In 1920, Ihering returned to Europe, living first in Naples and later returning to Germany. In 1921, he settled with Meta in Büdingen. Meta died in 1928 and Ihering died in 1930, at Gießen, Germany.

Museu Paulista

On 7 April 1891, the Museu do Estado was idealized, answering to the Geological and Geographical Commission under the temporary leadership of Albert Löfgren. Soon after, the director of the Geological and Geographical Commission, Orville A. Derby, requested the creation of a zoological wing inside the administrative organ. The proposal was approved and Hermann von Ihering was appointed as its first director on 1893.[3]

A reorganization of the Museum by the government was prompted by the recurrent low-availability of resources and experienced human resources. Two laws were subsequently issued (no. 192, 26 August 1893[4] and no. 200, 29 August 1893[5]) to with this goal, renaming the Museum to Museu Paulista and moving the facility to the Monument to the Independence of Brazil. The two orders were effected by the next year, with Ihering holding the office of director. The Museu was re-inaugurated at 7 September 1895 by a solemn ceremony.[3]

The Museu Paulista was, during Ihering's administration, primarily destined to Natural History, although a focus on national history was present due to the facility's location. A large collection of natural specimens and historical artifacts is present, with some still lacking precise chronological data.[3]

In the last ten years, numerous theses and monographs were written about Museu Paulista, mainly about Ihering's direction of the institution, that prioritized Natural History, or Afonso d'Escragnolle Taunay's tenure, which included a increasingly historical character in the museum.[3]

Homage

Several species were named in honor of Ihering, including the following.

The peer-reviewed scientific journal Iheringia was also named after him.[10]

Bibliography

His bibliography include 310 works; 20 of these works are about birds.[11]

He was the author of Catálogos da Fauna Brasileira (1907) with his son Rodolpho von Ihering.

See also

  • Category:Taxa named by Hermann von Ihering

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Nomura, Hitoshi (2012). "Hermann von Ihering (1850-1930), o Naturalista". Cadernos de História da Ciência (in Portuguese). 8 (1): 9–60. doi:10.47692/cadhistcienc.2012.v8.35820.
  2. ^ Losano, Mario G. (1992-05-30). "Um precursor da ecologia no Brasil:Hermann von Ihering". Revista USP (in Brazilian Portuguese) (13): 88–99. doi:10.11606/issn.2316-9036.v0i13p88-99. ISSN 2316-9036.
  3. ^ a b c d Moraes, Fábio Rodrigo de (2008). "Uma coleção de história em um museu de ciências naturais: o Museu Paulista de Hermann von Ihering". Anais do Museu Paulista: História e Cultura Material (in Portuguese). 16: 203–233. doi:10.1590/S0101-47142008000100006. ISSN 0101-4714.
  4. ^ "Lei nº 192, de 26/08/1893". www.al.sp.gov.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  5. ^ "Lei nº 192, de 26/08/1893". www.al.sp.gov.br (in Brazilian Portuguese). Retrieved 2026-02-24.
  6. ^ a b Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Ihering, H.F.I.", p. 129).
  7. ^ Christopher Scharpf & Kenneth J. Lazara (17 May 2024). "Family LORICARIIDAE: Subfamily HYPOSTOMINAE Kner 1853 (Suckermouth Catfishes or Plecos)". The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database. Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  8. ^ Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael & Grayson, Michael (2013). The Eponym Dictionary of Amphibians. Pelagic Publishing. p. 109. ISBN 978-1-907807-42-8.
  9. ^ "nominal species Unio iheringi B.H. Wright, 1898". MUSSELpdb.
  10. ^ Sanfelice, Daniela; Bencke, Glayson A.; Azevedo, Marco A.; Rodrigues, Everton N. L.; Moura, Luciano A.; Araujo, Paula A.; Gastal, Hilda A. O.; Verrastro, Laura; Jardim, Márcia M. A.; Schwertner, Cristiano F.; Marques, Maria A. L.; Drehmer, César J. (2010). "Breve histórico da revista Iheringia Série Zoologia e seu impacto sobre o conhecimento da fauna neotropical recente". Iheringia. Série Zoologia (in Portuguese). 100 (4): 363. doi:10.1590/S0073-47212010000400011.
  11. ^ Bent, A. C.; Allen, Glover M.; Friedmann, Herbert (1930). "Obituaries" (PDF). The Auk. 47 (3): 452. doi:10.2307/4075531. JSTOR 4075531.

Further reading

  • Isaia, Antônio. (2008). Os Fascinantes Caminhos da Paleontologia. Pallotti. 60 pp. (in Portuguese).
  • Beltrão, Romeu (1958). Cronologia Histórica de Santa Maria e do extinto município de São Martinho. 1787–1933. Vol I. Pallotti. (in Portuguese).
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