Oscar Rudolph Neumann (3 September 1867 in Berlin – 17 May 1946 in Chicago) was a German

ornithologist Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...

and naturalist who explored and collected specimens in Africa. He fled via Cuba and settled in the United States to escape Nazi persecution of Jews. Neumann's starling (''Onychognathus neumanni'') and several other species are named after him. Neumann map

Neumann was born in wealthy Jewish family, the son of Maximilian and Anna née Meyer. A younger sister of his was Elsa Neumann (1872-1902) who became one of the first physics doctorates from Berlin University. Another sister Alice was a sculptor. He travelled to German East Africa across Tanganyika, Uganda and Kenya in 1892 and collected for the Berlin Museum publishing descriptions. In 1899 he accompanied Baron Carlo von Erlanger through

Somaliland Somaliland,; ar, صوماليلاند ', ' officially the Republic of Somaliland,, ar, جمهورية صوماليلاند, link=no ''Jumhūrīyat Ṣūmālīlānd'' is a ''de facto'' sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, still conside ...

and southern

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the no ...

, collecting birds that went to Lord

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

's bird collection in Tring. In 1915 he went to New Guinea and also made an expedition to Sulawesi in 1938 sponsored by the specimen collector and dealer J. J. Menden. In 1908 he lost much of his money and was hoping to work for Rothschild in Tring but this did not materialize as Rothschild himself ran into financial problems. Neumann then took to stock-broking in Berlin. In 1941, with the help of his friend Julius Riemer he fled Nazi Germany, traveling from Berlin to Cuba, then to Chicago, where he worked the final years of his life as a curator in the Field Museum of Natural History. He was elected to the British Ornithologists' Union in 1897 but resigned in 1910 due to financial reasons. He never married. Parts of his collections are now in the Julius Riemer Museum in Wittenberg.

Eponyms

Numerous zoological species bear his name, a few being: * Neumann's red-winged starling (''Onychognathus neumanni'' ) *

Neumann's warbler Neumann's warbler (''Hemitesia neumanni'') or Neumann's short-tailed warbler, is a species of bird in the family Cettiidae. It is found in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist ...

(''Hemitesia neumanni'' ) *Neumann's orangetail lizard ('' Philochortus neumanni'' )The Reptile Database
''Philochortus neumanni''.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Neumann", p. 189). *Neumann's sand lizard ('' Heliobolus neumanni'' )

Publications associated with Neumann

*''Die Oligochäten Nordost-Afrikas, nach den Ausbeuten der Herren Oscar Neumann und Carlo Freiherr von Erlanger'', W Michaelsen (1903) Zoologische Jahrbuecher (Systematik) 18: 435-556 -

Earthworms An earthworm is a terrestrial invertebrate that belongs to the phylum Annelida. They exhibit a tube-within-a-tube body plan; they are externally segmented with corresponding internal segmentation; and they usually have setae on all segments. ...

from Northeast Africa, according to the collections of Neumann and Erlanger. * ''Scorpione und Solifugen Nordost-Afrikas, gesammelt 1900 und 1901 von Carlo Freiherrn von Erlanger und Oscar Neumann'', Zoologische Jahrbuecher (Systematik) 18: 557-578 (1903) -

Scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...

s and

Solifugae Solifugae is an order of animals in the class Arachnida known variously as camel spiders, wind scorpions, sun spiders, or solifuges. The order includes more than 1,000 described species in about 147 genera. Despite the common names, they are n ...

collected in 1900/01 by Neumann and Erlanger. *''Ueber die von Herrn Dr Neumann in Abessinien gesammelten aulacopoden Nacktschnecken'', (1904) Zoologische Jahrbuecher (Systematik) 19: 673-726 - On data by Dr. Neumann in regards to Abyssinian aulacopod

slug Slug, or land slug, is a common name for any apparently shell-less terrestrial gastropod mollusc. The word ''slug'' is also often used as part of the common name of any gastropod mollusc that has no shell, a very reduced shell, or only a smal ...

s. *''Homopteren aus Nordost-Afrika, gesammelt von Oscar Neumann'', A Jacobi (1904) Zoologische Jahrbuecher 19: 761-782 -

Hemiptera Hemiptera (; ) is an order of insects, commonly called true bugs, comprising over 80,000 species within groups such as the cicadas, aphids, planthoppers, leafhoppers, assassin bugs, bed bugs, and shield bugs. They range in size from to aroun ...

from Northeast Africa collected by Neumann. *''Schildkröten und Eidechsen aus Nord-Ost Afrika und Arabien. Aus Carlo v. Erlanger's und Oscar Neumann's Forschungsreise'', G Tornier (1905) Zool. Jahrb Syst 22: 365-388 - Turtles and lizards from Northeast Africa and Arabia, in regards to Erlanger and Neumann's expedition. *''Über nordost-afrikanische und arabische Kriechtiere'', by Oscar Rudolph Neumann (1905) - On Northeast African and Arabian reptiles.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Neumann, Oscar Rudolph 1867 births 1946 deaths Explorers of Africa German ornithologists People associated with the Field Museum of Natural History Scientists from Berlin Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States