Thünen: Time travel on six legs: Book about historical insect collection

Institute of

HF Wood Research

In 2021, a treasure turned up at the Thünen Institute of Wood Research: a collection of insects from the 19th and 20th centuries. The collection had been stored unnoticed in the cellar for years. Now a book has been published with stories about historical personalities, places and special objects that are listed on the finding labels.

An example of butterfly species from the historical insect collection.

The treasure has been unearthed! For decades, 426 wooden boxes containing prepared beetles, butterflies, bugs and other six-legged and multi-legged creatures from all over the world have been slumbering in the basement of the Thünen Institute of Wood Research in Bergedorf. There are 63,000 crawlers in total, some of them 160 years old. Only a few people knew of the existence of this unique collection. It wasn't until a pending fire protection refurbishment that the showcases came back into the focus of researchers and the press.

The collection was transferred to the Museum der Natur Hamburg - Zoologie, formerly Zoologisches Museum Hamburg, on permanent loan for research purposes in 2021. However, before scientists can begin to identify the species of the animals, an inventory of such collections is necessary. The objects are cleaned, counted and entered into lists. Wiebke Mohr, who has been processing historical insect collections at the museum on a voluntary basis since 2018, took on this task for the "Thünen Collection". The former biology and geography teacher is therefore skilled at using brushes, tweezers and a magnifying glass to remove dirt from the delicate wings of tropical butterflies or the fragile shells of iridescent beetles and, if necessary, attach them to new needles.

Das Buchcover besteht aus einem Waldfoto als Hintergrund und der mittig gesetzten gelben Schrift des Titels "Der Schatz".

What the labels reveal

The hobby researcher soon became even more interested in the small labels attached to the taxidermied animals than in the animals themselves. Deciphering the collectors, locations and owners from the period between 1868 and 1963, she came across historical personalities, places and curious object names such as "Hister hottentota". Her personal interest in the stories grows and prompts her to conduct intensive research. Through her detective work in parallel to the one-and-a-half-year inventory of the collection, she accumulates more and more anecdotes about what the labels reveal. Wiebke Mohr realises that the students helping her with the task are no longer familiar with events and names from the period. She decides to put the stories she has researched on paper.

The result is not an encyclopaedia, a travel guide, a textbook or an explanatory book, but a collection of one- to two-page entertaining overviews of a particular place, animal or person of interest.

Adventure travel, myths and legends

There are chapters about Casablanca, about Napoleon's adjudants or about Eugène Le Moult, one of the biggest insect dealers of his time and seller of the collection. He was born in France in 1882 and grew up in the French overseas department of French Guiana on the north-east coast of South America. He built up a business there by catching butterflies in the tropical rainforests and selling them mainly to Europe.

Via Le Moult, the collection came to the Thünen Institute long before it was given this name. In 1944, the French insect dealer sold the collection to Dr Franz Heske. In 1931, the forest scientist founded the Institute of Foreign and Colonial Forestry in Tharandt, Saxony, which became the Federal Research Centre in 1950 and today's Thünen Institute of Wood Research in 2008. In 1940, the institute was relocated to Reinbek in southern Schleswig-Holstein in Reinbek Castle. The collection found its first home there, which is why a picture of Reinbek Castle adorns the cover of Wiebke Moor's book.

Heske, who also taught zoology at the University of Hamburg in addition to his role as head of the institute, acquired the collection at the time as specimens and study material for insects relevant to forestry science. According to today's value, he paid Le Moult around eight million euros for it when he bought it in 1944. The value of the collection is demonstrated by the fact that many of the insects in it were described scientifically for the first time. The display cases open a window into the diversity of species and the world of that time - for naturalists but also for those interested in history, such as Wiebke Mohr. Prof Dr Andreas Krause, Director of the Thünen Institute of Wood Research, is delighted that the "Thünen Collection" is being researched further and that Wiebke Mohr is sharing stories with readers that are too exciting not to tell.

Anyone who would like to find out more about the stories can order the book now and join Wiebke Mohr on an imaginary journey around the world.

Literature reference: Mohr, Wiebke (2024): Der Schatz - Auf Insektenart im Zick-Zack-Flug durch Zeit und Raum. 14.04.2024, Tredition, softcover, 164 p., in German, ISBN 9783384173546

Link to the book:

shop.tredition.com/booktitle/Der_Schatz/W-386-601-419