The Collection of Carl Theodor von Siebold (1804-1855)

Section Ichthyology

The material collected by SIEBOLD originates mainly from Germany, with a special focus on Bavarian freshwater fishes and the fishes from the pre-alpine Lakes in Bavaria. SIEBOLD collected his specimens starting from 3rd May 1854 on and gives in his introduction of his “Süßwasserfische Mitteleuropas” (1863) a brief report where he collected or purchased the specimens he used in his work. He obtained specimens from the Danube drainage from the following fishmarkets: “Ulm, Regensburg, Passau, Linz und [and] Wien”. However, his main source was the Munich market, where he also purchased “Bodensee-Fische, Teichfische aus Mittelfranken, Schwaben von der Oberpfalz und von Böhmen, Lachsarten vom Niederrhein und der Elbe … [fishes from Lake Konstanz, pond fishes from Middle Franconia, Swabia, Upper Palatinate and Bohemia, salmon-species from the Lower Rhine and Elbe]”.

Additional material was purchased at (quoted from SIEBOLD, 1863: 5):

Rhine drainage: Basel, Freiburg, Strassburg, Speyer, Mainz, Heidelberg, Mannheim, Nürnberg, Bamberg, Würzburg and Frankfurt (Main).

Weser drainage: Meinigen, Eisenach, Kassel, Münden and Göttingen.

Elbe drainage: Prag, Dresden, Magdeburg, Hamburg, Wunsiedel, Leipzig, Hof, Naumburg, Halle and Berlin.

Oder drainage: Breslau, Stettin and Swinemünde.

Weichsel drainage. Danzig [Gdansk], Elbing [ Elblag] and Thorn [Toruń].

Pregel drainage: Königsberg [Kaliningrad] and Heilsberg [ Lidzbark Warminski].

Lake Konstanz: Lindau, Bregenz, Konstanz, Überlingen and Langenargen.

Further material from the former East Prussia: Rivers Memel, Russ and Tilsit [Sowetsk], Kurisches Haff, Frisches Haff at Braunsberg [ Braniewo], Frauenberg [ Frombork] and Tolkemit [Tolkmicko].

Switzerland: Genfersee [Lake Geneva].

Etsch drainage (Italy): Brixen, Botzen, Meran and Mals.

SIEBOLD received further material from Italy from the following persons: Pirona, Udine; Jan, Milano; De Filippi, Turin (all Italy); Coinde, Lyon; Gervais, Montpellier (both France).

In an annotation (page IV, 1) ) in the preface of his book “Süsswasserfische Mitteleuropas”, SIEBOLD (1863) clearly states that he deposited his complete material of freshwater fishes which he obtained from 1854 on in the Zoological Cabinet of the Bavarian State: “Sämmtliche von mir gesammelten oder durch Schenkung an mich gelangten Süsswasserfische werden in dem hiesigen zoologischen Cabinete des Staates aufbewahrt. … München, den 20ten Juni 1863 [All freshwater fishes collected by myself or received by me as donation are stored in the local zoological cabinet of the State … Munich, 20 th June 1863]”. In his chronicle BALSS (1926) confirmes the storage of the SIEBOLD Collection of Bavarian and European freshwater fishes in the early ZSM collection. Even if nearly the complete collection was lost in World War II, single specimens are still traceable in ZSM. Of these, only two can be unabiguously identified as SIEBOLD specimens: ZSM 2 (1), Abramidopsis leukartii, Danube at Regensburg; v. Siebold; ZSM 302 (1), Platessa flesus, Helgoland; v. Siebold. Two more lots have been re-discovered in the ZPLMU collection: ZSM 30549 (1) ex ZPLMU 1768, Spinachia spinachia, Kieler Bucht, Ostsee [Kiel Bay, Baltic Sea], v. Siebold; ZSM 30610 (1) ex ZPLMU 1662, Blicca bjoerkna, Chiemsee [Lake Chiem].

Literature

Siebold, C. T. E. von. 1863. Die Süsswasserfische Mitteleuropas. Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig.