Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Theodor Löbbecke (March 4, 1821,

Hückeswagen Hückeswagen () is a town in the north of Oberbergischen Kreis, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is part of the governmental district of Cologne. Geography Hückeswagen is situated on the river Wupper. Two dams, Bevertal dam and Wupperta ...

— January 18, 1901,

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

) was a German

pharmacist A pharmacist, also known as a chemist in English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, is a healthcare professional who is knowledgeable about preparation, mechanism of action, clinical usage and legislation of medications in ...

malacologist Malacology, from Ancient Greek μαλακός (''malakós''), meaning "soft", and λόγος (''lógos''), meaning "study", is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (molluscs or mollusks), the second-largest ...

and the founder of the collections of the Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum in Düsseldorf. Jochen Reiter (Ed.) ''Aquazoo Löbbecke Museum: Düsseldorfs exotische Perle'', Droste-Verlag, 192 pages, 2018, His collection is still preserved by the institution and rich in type material of several mollusc species, such as the Chicoreus loebbeckei but also contains many template individuals depicted in early malacological literature.

Life

Löbbecke left the school in Elberfeld in 1837 and spent the next six years training as a pharmacist. In 1843 he studied for a year at the

University of Berlin The Humboldt University of Berlin (, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin, Germany. The university was established by Frederick William III on the initiative of Wilhelm von Humbol ...

, after which he was licensed to become a first-class pharmacist. Around 1846, Löbbecke took over the Einhorn pharmacy in

Duisburg Duisburg (; , ) is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine (Lower Rhine) and the Ruhr (river), Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruh ...

, at which time he also began to build up his collection. The physician, natural scientist and natural history collector Wilhelm Ludwig Döring was his uncle and possible influence on his own ambitions to collect sea shells. By traveling through Europe, the Near East and Africa, as well as by buying up other researchers' collections, he was able to steadily increase his collection, which is why he was soon after not only jokingly referred to as the "Mussel King", because around 1880 he had the largest conchyliacollection in Europe. After giving up his pharmacy in 1873, he set up a private museum at Schadowstraße 51 in Düsseldorf. During the following years he also worked on the second edition of the "Systematische Conchylia-Cabinet", a work on identification of snails and mussels. In 1883 he married Caroline Biesterfeld, with whom he retired from 1886 and gave up his scientific activities completely. Löbbecke died in 1901 at his home in Düsseldorf. Theodor Löbbecke is buried in the Nordfriedhof in Düsseldorf. Posthumously a street was named after him in his native town of Hückeswagen. Moreover, several mollusc species bear his name, such as the Chicoreus loebbeckei and the

Angaria loebbeckei ''Angaria loebbeckei'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Angariidae. It was discovered and described in 2022 based on only four specimens, which are part of both private and museum collections. In honour of the ...

.Henniges, Hermann, und Hermann Voges. Chronik der Familie Löbbecke. Braunschweig: Westermann, 1911. Print.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Löbbecke, Carl Heinrich Wilhelm Theodor 1812 births 1901 deaths Humboldt University of Berlin alumni German pharmacists 19th-century German chemists German malacologists 19th-century German biologists People from Oberbergischer Kreis