''Brehms Tierleben'' (English title: ''Brehm's Animal Life'') is a scientific reference book, first published in the 1860s by

Alfred Edmund 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 Tierlebe ...

(1829–1884). It was one of the first modern popular zoological treatises. First published in German as a six volume work that was completed in 1869 it was published by the Bibliographisches Institut of

Herrmann Julius Meyer Herrmann Julius Meyer (April 4, 1826 – March 12, 1909) was a German publisher born in Gotha. He was the son of publisher Joseph Meyer (1796-1856). After his father's death in 1856, Herrmann Meyer took charge of ''Bibliographisches Institut'', a ...

with illustration directed by Robert Kretschmer. The second edition, completed in 1879 had ten volumes. It was translated into several European languages.

Publishing history

As a freelance writer, Brehm furnished popular-scientific magazines with

essays An essay is, generally, a piece of writing that gives the author's own argument, but the definition is vague, overlapping with those of a letter, a paper, an article, a pamphlet, and a short story. Essays have been sub-classified as formal ...

and

travelogues Travelogue may refer to: Genres * Travel literature, a record of the experiences of an author travelling * Travel documentary A travel documentary is a documentary film, television program, or online series that describes travel in general or t ...

. Because of his success in doing this, in 1860 he was commissioned to write a six-volume

zoological Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and dis ...

encyclopedia. Journeys to

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...

and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

both interrupted and enriched the work. The first six volumes of the encyclopedia, published under the title ''Illustrirtes Thierleben'', appeared from 1864 to 1869, published by the

Bibliographisches Institut The German publishing company was founded 1826 in Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and wa ...

under

. Illustrated under the direction of Robert Kretschmer (1818–1872), they met with wide approval from the educated

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) is a social class, equivalent to the middle or upper middle class. They are distinguished from, and traditionally contrasted with, the proletariat by their affluence, and their great cultural and financial capital. They ...

. As of the second edition, which consisted of ten volumes published from 1876 to 1879, the work was already titled ''Brehms Tierleben''. The work made Brehm famous around the world and its title is still a catchphrase today, even though science has gone far beyond Brehm. Perhaps the greatest change in the second edition was the addition of new illustrations by

Gustav Mützel Gustav Ludwig Heinrich Mützel (December 7, 1839 – October 29, 1893) was a German artist, famous for his mammal and bird paintings, including the illustrations for the second edition of Alfred Edmund Brehm's ''Thierleben'' and Richard Lydekk ...

, the brothers

August August is the eighth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars, and the fifth of seven months to have a length of 31 days. Its zodiac sign is Leo and was originally named ''Sextilis'' in Latin because it was the 6th month in ...

and Friedrich Specht and others, which

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

said were the best he had ever seen. The second edition was reprinted from 1882 to 1884, and a third edition, published from 1890 to 1893, followed. The work has been translated into various languages and remained very popular for generations. Editions continued to appear into the second half of the 20th century, sometimes in the form of abridged, one-volume works.

Note on the title

The title was at its time written "Brehms Thierleben" (or respectively, "Illustrirtes Thierleben"), and is in Germany usually still cited in that way. The spelling reform of 1901 did away with the exception of writing "Thier" with ''th'', which never means the English ''th'' sound in this context. (Similarly, the adjective in the original title would now be written "illustr''ie''rtes".)

Selected editions

''Illustrirtes Thierleben. Eine allgemeine Kunde des Thierreichs''.
By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 6 vols.

Hildburghausen Hildburghausen (IPA adapted from: ) is a town in Thuringia in central Germany, capital of the district Hildburghausen. Geography It is situated in the Franconian part of Thuringia south of the Thuringian Forest, in the valley of the Werra river ...

, 1864–1869. * ''Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs''. By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 2nd, expanded, ed. 10 vols.

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

, 1876–1879; reprinted 1882–1884. * ''Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs''. By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Oskar Boettger, Wilhelm Haacke, Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, W. Marshall, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 3rd ed. 10 vols.

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, 1890–1893.

References

Editions on line

Biodiversity Heritage Library (2nd edition)
* Wikisource: Brehms Thierleben (German) Partial text of the 2nd German edition.
Brehms Thierleben, 1. German edition digitized
in the

Virtual Laboratory The online project Virtual Laboratory. Essays and Resources on the Experimentalization of Life, 1830-1930, located at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, is dedicated to research in the history of the experimentalization of life. T ...

of the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte
Djurens lif
(Swedish) 2nd ed. of the Swedish translation of ''Thierleben'', 4 vols. (pub. 1882–1888); from

Project Runeberg Project Runeberg ( sv, Projekt Runeberg) is a digital cultural archive initiative that publishes free electronic versions of books significant to the culture and history of the Nordic countries. Patterned after Project Gutenberg, it was founded ...

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Project Gutenberg-DE page on Brehm
(German) Includes text from ''Brehms Thierleben'' and ''Tiergeschichten''.
Page on Brehm
(German) Includes text from ''Brehms Tierleben''. {{Authority control Zoology books Encyclopedias of science German encyclopedias German-language encyclopedias 1864 non-fiction books 1876 non-fiction books 1890 non-fiction books 19th-century encyclopedias