Tierpark Hagenbeck
Encyclopedia
The Tierpark Hagenbeck is a zoo
in Stellingen, now a quarter in Hamburg
, Germany
. The collection began in 1863 with animals that belonged to Carl Hagenbeck Sr. (1810–87), a fishmonger who became an amateur animal collector. The park itself was founded by Carl Hagenbeck
Jr. in 1907. It is known for being the first zoo to use open enclosures surrounded by moats, rather than barred cages, to better approximate animals' natural environments.
s". Hagenbeck decided to exhibit Samoan
and Sami people
(Laplanders) as "purely natural" populations. The Sami were presented with their tent
s, weapons, and sled
s, beside a group of reindeer
.
In 1874, Hagenbeck opened a zoo facility in Hamburg, called Carl Hagenbeck's Thierpark, while he continued exhibiting humans. In 1876, he began exhibiting Nubians
all across Europe. He also dispatched an agent to Labrador
to secure a number of "Esquimaux" (Inuit
) from the settlement of Hopedale
; these Inuit (see Abraham Ulrikab
) were exhibited in the Hamburg Tierpark.
Though initially popular, Hagenbeck's shows gradually began to decline in popularity, especially once the photograph
became more and more common, and Hagenbeck's exhibits began to look less and less real in comparison. After one exhibit, Hagenbeck was left with a large number of elephants and no one to purchase them. Unable to sell, he started a circus. To counter the declining popularity of his human zoo
s, Hagenbeck began working on making his displays more realistic, techniques that would later influence the animal zoo.
In the 1890s Hagenbeck created his first "panorama" exhibit and patented the idea in 1896. The display was the "Northern Panorama", the foreground featured seal
s and walrus
es in a pool. Hidden to the zoos patrons was a moat behind the pool. Beyond the moat were reindeer
, and beyond a second hidden moat were polar bear
s. By hiding the moats, the animals appeared to be together in one landscape.
In 1907, Hagenbeck constructed a new facility outside of Hamburg
which he called Tierpark Hagenbeck (without the 'H' that was in Thierpark) which is still the location of the facility today. Hagenbeck sought to design the entire zoo with his panorama system. He also sought to demonstrate that animals from warmer climates did not need to live in expensive, humid, foreboding buildings. Instead, Hagenbeck again sought to make his displays realistic.
Using data that he had compiled running his circus, Hagenbeck had estimates of how high and far different animals could leap. Using this data, he built moats filled with water or an empty pit that he determined the animals could not cross. Using moats to separate animals that did not swim, one could look across an expanse of the zoo and see many animals at once, as if in the wild. Previously, zoos had 'not' grouped animal by species, but Hagenbeck revolutionized the layout of zoos, grouping his animals by species.
Hagenbeck's design was a popular success. In 1911, Hagenbeck designed the Rome Zoo in the same style. In 1913, he designed the first monkey-rock exhibit, in this case an artificial crag with a 16 feet (4.9 m) moat. The rock was populated by around 200 Hamadryas baboon
s.
Hagenbeck called his design an animal paradise where "animals would live beside each other in harmony and where the fight for survival would be eliminated."
many of the keepers were drafted into the German army. After the war, the zoo closed for two years as Germany entered into a deep depression. Then during the Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
the original zoo was destroyed. After the war the zoo was rebuilt. The private zoo is still run by the Hagenbeck family.
escaped from the zoo and ran wild in Hamburg
. The incident resulted in calls for help from shocked housewives who met monkeys in their bedrooms and bathtubs. Some of the monkeys sat in trees and chattered excitedly, showing each other toothpaste, soap bars and bathroom utensils which they had grabbed. Managers of the Zoo reported that more than two dozen of the long-tailed Indian monkeys had been caught by policemen, firemen, zoo keepers and schoolchildren.
Zoo
A zoological garden, zoological park, menagerie, or zoo is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred....
in Stellingen, now a quarter in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. The collection began in 1863 with animals that belonged to Carl Hagenbeck Sr. (1810–87), a fishmonger who became an amateur animal collector. The park itself was founded by Carl Hagenbeck
Carl Hagenbeck
Carl Hagenbeck 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...
Jr. in 1907. It is known for being the first zoo to use open enclosures surrounded by moats, rather than barred cages, to better approximate animals' natural environments.
Animal trading
In 1863 the elder Hagenbeck began collecting exotic animals that came through the port. By the 1870s, the trade had proved more lucrative than his fish shop, and Hagenbeck had become one of the most prominent exotic animal traders in all of Europe. In 1874, the younger Hagenbeck traveled around the world collecting animals. Among his collections, however, were also human beings which he exhibited in "human zooHuman zoo
Human zoos were 19th- and 20th-century public exhibits of humans, usually in a so-called natural or primitive state. The displays often emphasized the cultural differences between Europeans of Western civilisation and non-European peoples...
s". Hagenbeck decided to exhibit Samoan
Samoans
The Samoan people are a Polynesian ethnic group of the Samoan Islands, sharing genetics, language, history and culture. Due to colonialism, the home islands are politically and geographically divided between the country of Samoa, official name Independent State of Samoa ; and American Samoa, an...
and Sami people
Sami people
The Sami people, also spelled Sámi, or Saami, are the arctic indigenous people inhabiting Sápmi, which today encompasses parts of far northern Sweden, Norway, Finland, the Kola Peninsula of Russia, and the border area between south and middle Sweden and Norway. The Sámi are Europe’s northernmost...
(Laplanders) as "purely natural" populations. The Sami were presented with their tent
Tent
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...
s, weapons, and sled
Sled
A sled, sledge, or sleigh is a land vehicle with a smooth underside or possessing a separate body supported by two or more smooth, relatively narrow, longitudinal runners that travels by sliding across a surface. Most sleds are used on surfaces with low friction, such as snow or ice. In some cases,...
s, beside a group of reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
.
In 1874, Hagenbeck opened a zoo facility in Hamburg, called Carl Hagenbeck's Thierpark, while he continued exhibiting humans. In 1876, he began exhibiting Nubians
Nubians
The Nubians are an ethnic group originally from northern Sudan, and southern Egypt now inhabiting North Africa and some parts of East Africa....
all across Europe. He also dispatched an agent to Labrador
Labrador
Labrador is the distinct, northerly region of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It comprises the mainland portion of the province, separated from the island of Newfoundland by the Strait of Belle Isle...
to secure a number of "Esquimaux" (Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
) from the settlement of Hopedale
Hopedale
Hopedale is the name of several places:*In Canada:**Hopedale, Newfoundland and Labrador*In the United States:**Hopedale, Illinois**Hopedale, Massachusetts***Site of Hopedale Community**Hopedale, Ohio...
; these Inuit (see Abraham Ulrikab
Abraham Ulrikab
Abraham Ulrikab was an Inuk from Hebron, Labrador, in the present day province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, who — along with his family — was to become a zoo exhibit in Europe in 1880 as an attraction at the Hamburg, Germany public zoo.Ulrikab, along with his wife and two...
) were exhibited in the Hamburg Tierpark.
Though initially popular, Hagenbeck's shows gradually began to decline in popularity, especially once the photograph
Photograph
A photograph is an image created by light falling on a light-sensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic imager such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are created using a camera, which uses a lens to focus the scene's visible wavelengths of light into a reproduction of...
became more and more common, and Hagenbeck's exhibits began to look less and less real in comparison. After one exhibit, Hagenbeck was left with a large number of elephants and no one to purchase them. Unable to sell, he started a circus. To counter the declining popularity of his human zoo
Human zoo
Human zoos were 19th- and 20th-century public exhibits of humans, usually in a so-called natural or primitive state. The displays often emphasized the cultural differences between Europeans of Western civilisation and non-European peoples...
s, Hagenbeck began working on making his displays more realistic, techniques that would later influence the animal zoo.
Panorama exhibits
Pinniped
Pinnipeds or fin-footed mammals are a widely distributed and diverse group of semiaquatic marine mammals comprising the families Odobenidae , Otariidae , and Phocidae .-Overview: Pinnipeds are typically sleek-bodied and barrel-shaped...
s and walrus
Walrus
The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...
es in a pool. Hidden to the zoos patrons was a moat behind the pool. Beyond the moat were reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
, and beyond a second hidden moat were polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
s. By hiding the moats, the animals appeared to be together in one landscape.
In 1907, Hagenbeck constructed a new facility outside of Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
which he called Tierpark Hagenbeck (without the 'H' that was in Thierpark) which is still the location of the facility today. Hagenbeck sought to design the entire zoo with his panorama system. He also sought to demonstrate that animals from warmer climates did not need to live in expensive, humid, foreboding buildings. Instead, Hagenbeck again sought to make his displays realistic.
Using data that he had compiled running his circus, Hagenbeck had estimates of how high and far different animals could leap. Using this data, he built moats filled with water or an empty pit that he determined the animals could not cross. Using moats to separate animals that did not swim, one could look across an expanse of the zoo and see many animals at once, as if in the wild. Previously, zoos had 'not' grouped animal by species, but Hagenbeck revolutionized the layout of zoos, grouping his animals by species.
Hagenbeck's design was a popular success. In 1911, Hagenbeck designed the Rome Zoo in the same style. In 1913, he designed the first monkey-rock exhibit, in this case an artificial crag with a 16 feet (4.9 m) moat. The rock was populated by around 200 Hamadryas baboon
Hamadryas Baboon
The Hamadryas baboon is a species of baboon from the Old World monkey family. It is the northernmost of all the baboons; being native to the Horn of Africa and the southwestern tip of the Arabian Peninsula. These regions provide habitats with the advantage for this species of fewer natural...
s.
Hagenbeck called his design an animal paradise where "animals would live beside each other in harmony and where the fight for survival would be eliminated."
World War I and II
Hagenbeck died in 1913, but his zoo remained popular until the political situation in Europe swept the zoo into hard times. During World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
many of the keepers were drafted into the German army. After the war, the zoo closed for two years as Germany entered into a deep depression. Then during the Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
Bombing of Hamburg in World War II
The Allied bombing of Hamburg during World War II included numerous strategic bombing missions and diversion/nuisance raids. As a large port and industrial center, Hamburg's shipyards, U-boat pens, and the Hamburg-Harburg area oil refineries were attacked throughout the war...
the original zoo was destroyed. After the war the zoo was rebuilt. The private zoo is still run by the Hagenbeck family.
Monkey Escape
In July 1956, forty five rhesus monkeysRhesus Macaque
The Rhesus macaque , also called the Rhesus monkey, is one of the best-known species of Old World monkeys. It is listed as Least Concern in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species in view of its wide distribution, presumed large population, and its tolerance of a broad range of habitats...
escaped from the zoo and ran wild in Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
. The incident resulted in calls for help from shocked housewives who met monkeys in their bedrooms and bathtubs. Some of the monkeys sat in trees and chattered excitedly, showing each other toothpaste, soap bars and bathroom utensils which they had grabbed. Managers of the Zoo reported that more than two dozen of the long-tailed Indian monkeys had been caught by policemen, firemen, zoo keepers and schoolchildren.