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Friedrich Hermann Otto Finsch (8 August 1839, Warmbrunn – 31 January 1917,
Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...
) was a German ethnographer, naturalist and colonial
explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...
. He is known for a two-volume monograph on the parrots of the world which earned him a doctorate. He also wrote on the people of New Guinea and was involved in plans for German colonization in Southeast Asia. Several species of bird (such as '' Oenanthe finschii'', '' Alophoixus finschii'', '' Psittacula finschii'') are named after him as also the town of Finschhafen in Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea and a crater on the moon.


Biography

Finsch was born at Bad Warmbrunn in
Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...
to Mortiz Finsch and Mathilde née Leder. His father was in the glass trade and he too trained as a glass painter. An interest in birds led him to use his artistic skills for the purpose. Finsch went to Budapest in 1857 and studied at the Royal Hungarian University, earning money by preparing natural history specimens. He then spent two years in Russe, Bulgaria on an invitation from the Austrian Consul and gave private tutoring in German while exploring the birdlife of the region. He published his first paper in the ''Journal fur Ornithologie'' on the birds of Bulgaria. This experience helped him obtain a curatorial position at the
Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie The Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie (National Museum of Natural History) was a museum on the Rapenburg in Leiden, the Netherlands. It was founded in 1820 by Royal Decree from a merger of several existing collections. This happened on the initi ...
in
Leiden Leiden (; in English and archaic Dutch also Leyden) is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. The municipality of Leiden has a population of 119,713, but the city forms one densely connected agglomeration wit ...
(1862–1865) assisting Herman Schlegel. In 1864 he returned to Germany on the suggestion of Gustav Hartlaub to become curator of the museum in
Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (german: Stadtgemeinde Bremen, ), is the capital of the German state Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (''Freie Hansestadt Bremen''), a two-city-state consis ...
and became its director in 1876. After publishing the two volume monographs on the parrots of the world, ''Die Papageien, monographisch bearbeitet'' (1867–68), he obtained an honorary doctorate from the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Bonn. Apart from ornithology he also took an interest in ethnology. In 1876 he accompanied the zoologist
Alfred Brehm Alfred Edmund Brehm (; 2 February 1829 – 11 November 1884) was a German zoologist, writer, director of zoological gardens and the son of Christian Ludwig Brehm, a famous pastor and ornithologist. Through the book title ''Brehms Tierleb ...
on an expedition to
Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turke ...
and northwest
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Finsch resigned as curator of the museum in 1878 in order that he could resume his travels, sponsored by the Humboldt Foundation. Between spring 1879 and 1885 he made several visits to the
Polynesian Islands Polynesia () "many" and νῆσος () "island"), to, Polinisia; mi, Porinihia; haw, Polenekia; fj, Polinisia; sm, Polenisia; rar, Porinetia; ty, Pōrīnetia; tvl, Polenisia; tkl, Polenihia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
,
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...
. His proposal was to obtain as many artefacts as possible with the claim that native cultures, fauna and flora were fast vanishing. Finsch was shocked by the punitive actions of the English Methodist missionary George Brown (1835-1917) and was concerned by the violent conflicts between the natives and westerners. He also found no support for contemporary ideas on race with neat categories and found instead a continuum of variations in the human form. After witnessing a cannibal feast at Matupit he commented that the people were still not classifiable as "savages" as they maintained neat agriculture, had their own song, dance and followed commerce. He returned to Germany in 1882 and began to promote the creation of German colonies in the Pacific along with the ''South Sea Plotters'', an influential group led by a banker
Adolph von Hansemann Adolph von Hansemann (27 July 1826 – 9 December 1903) was an Imperial German businessman and banker. Life Born in Aachen in 1826 to German banker and railroad entrepreneur David Hansemann, Adolph Hansemann developed an early interest in busin ...
. In 1884 he returned aboard the steamer ''Samoa'' to New Guinea as Bismarck's Imperial Commissioner to explore potential harbours under the guise of scientists and negotiated for the north-eastern portion of that island, together with
New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...
and New Ireland, to become a German protectorate. It was renamed
Kaiser-Wilhelmsland Kaiser-Wilhelmsland ("Emperor William's Land") formed part of German New Guinea (german: Deutsch-Neuguinea), the South Pacific protectorate of the German Empire. Named in honour of Wilhelm I, who reigned as German Emperor () from 1871 to 1888, ...
and the
Bismarck Archipelago The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about 50,000 square km. History The first inhabitants o ...
. The capital of the colony was named
Finschhafen Finschhafen is a town east of Lae on the Huon Peninsula in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea. The town is commonly misspelt as Finschafen or Finschaven. During World War II, the town was also referred to as Fitch Haven in the logs of some U.S ...
in his honour. In 1885 he was the first European to discover the
Sepik The Sepik () is the longest river on the island of New Guinea, and the second largest in Oceania by discharge volume after the Fly River. The majority of the river flows through the Papua New Guinea (PNG) provinces of Sandaun (formerly West Se ...
river, and he named it after Kaiserin Augusta, the German Empress. Newspapers of the period speculated that he would be appointed as an administrator to the new territories but this never happened. He was instead offered a position as station director which involved menial administrative tasks that would come in the way of his plans to explore and study the region. He returned to Germany and spent much of the subsequent period without formal employment. Finsch had been married to Josephine Wychodil from around 1873 but they divorced around 1880. In 1886 he married Elisabeth née Hoffman (1860–1925). Elisabeth was a talented artist and she illustrated many of his catalogues. Finsch was briefly an advisor to the Neuguinea-Kompagnie. In 1898 he abandoned his dreams in ethnology and returned to ornithology, becoming curator of the bird collections at the Rijksmuseum in Leiden. He did not enjoy this period, noting that life for him, his wife and daughter Esther, felt like living in exile. He also wrote several articles on his past work ''Wie ich Kaiser-Wilhelmsland erwarb'' (How I acquired Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land, 1902) and ''Kaiser-Wilhelmsland. Eine friedliche Kolonialerwerbung'' (Kaiser Wilhelm’s Land: A peaceful colonial acquisition, 1905). Seeking return to Germany, he finally joined the ethnographical department of the Municipal Museum in Brunswick in 1904 and worked the remainder of his life there. In 1909 he was titled professor by the Duke of Braunschweig and honoured with a 'medal for distinguished services for art and science' in silver. One of his major works was on the parrots of the world. This was not without its critics, since he often tried to rename genera apparently to gain taxonomic authorship. Some species of parrot bear his name, including the
lilac-crowned parrot The lilac-crowned amazon (''Amazona finschi'') is a parrot endemic to the Pacific slopes of Mexico. Also known as Finsch's amazon, it is characterised by green plumage, a maroon forehead, and a violet-blue crown and neck. The binomial of this b ...
, ''Amazona finschi'', '' Oenanthe finschii'', '' Alophoixus finschii'', and the
grey-headed parakeet The grey-headed parakeet (''Psittacula finschii'') is closely related to the slaty-headed parakeet which together form a super-species. It is found in Southeast Asia from north-eastern India to Vietnam. The binomial of this bird commemorates the ...
, ''Psittacula finschii''. A species of monitor lizard, '' Varanus finschi'', is named after him, as he collected what would become the holotype for this species. The crater Finsch on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
is also named in his honor. In 2008, following international treaties, some of the human remains that he had collected from Cape York and the Torres Straits that were held in the Charité Medical University in Berlin were repatriated. Additional remains have also been repatriated.


Published works

* ''Catalog der Ausstellung ethnographischer und naturwissenschaftlicher Sammlungen'' (Bremen: Diercksen und Wichlein, 1877). * ''Anthropologische Ergebnisse einer Reise in der Südsee und dem malayischen Archipel in den Jahren 1879–1882'' (Berlin: A. Asher & Co., 1884). * ''Otto Finsch, Masks of Faces of Races of Men from the South Sea Islands and the Malay Archipelago, taken from Living Originals in the Years 1879–82 (Rochester, NY: Ward's Natural Sciences Establishment, 1888). * ''Ethnologische Erfahrungen und Belegstücke aus der Südsee: Beschreibender Katalog einer Sammlung im K.K. naturhistorischen Hofmuseum in Wien'' (Wien: A. Holder, 1893).
Die Papageien / monographisch bearbeitet
von Otto Finsch Leiden: Brill, 1867–68. *with
Gustav Hartlaub Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and co ...
, "Die Vögel der Palau-Gruppe. Über neue und weniger gekannte Vögel von den Viti-, Samoa- und Carolinen-Inseln." ''Journal des
Museum Godeffroy The Museum Godeffroy was a museum in Hamburg, Germany, which existed from 1861 to 1885. The collection was founded by Johann Cesar VI. Godeffroy, who became a wealthy shipping magnate a few years after the expansion of the trade towards Austral ...
'', Heft 8, 1875 and Heft 12, 1876.


References


Other sources

* Herbert Abel, Otto Finsch: Ein Lebensbild Zur 50. Wiederkehr des Todestages am 31. Januar 1967. Jahrbuch der Schlesischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau. Band XII. Wuerzburg: Holzner-Verlag. * Howes, Hilary, 2018
« A “Perceptive Observer” in the Pacific: Life and Work of Otto Finsch »
in Bérose - Encyclopédie internationale des histoires de l’anthropologie


External links

* Resources related to research
BEROSE - International Encyclopaedia of the Histories of Anthropology
Paris, 2018. (ISSN 2648-2770)
AMNH anthropology collection

Digitised works by Otto Finsch
at
Biodiversity Heritage Library The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is the world’s largest open access digital library for biodiversity literature and archives. BHL operates as worldwide consortiumof natural history, botanical, research, and national libraries working toge ...
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Finsch, Otto 1839 births 1917 deaths People from Jelenia Góra People from the Province of Silesia 19th-century German biologists German explorers German ornithologists Taxon authorities Explorers of Papua New Guinea