ZOOLOGISCHER GARTEN, HANOVER: DIRECTOR, DR. SCHÄFF
The origin and the flourishing continuance of Zoological Gardens in
other great towns inspired the wish for a similar institution in
Hanover, and ever since 1850 people were endeavouring to bring the idea
to realization. Especially active in this respect was Dr. Schlager,
with whom Herr George Schultz heartily collaborated.
In 1866 a company was formed for the laying out of a Zoological Garden,
at the first meeting of which Baron von Munchausen, Herr Rasch, Dr.
Schlager, Professor Gerlach, and Mr. ‘Wine-merchant’ Schultz were
chosen directors.
On a plot of ground given to them by the Town Council in the town
forest sprang up the first buildings, made after the plans of Architect
Lüer, which consisted of aviaries, a bear pit, with ponds, etc. In May,
1865, the Garden was opened to the public, which gave the liveliest
sympathy to the budding undertaking. The Garden did not escape hard
times on account of the wars in 1866, 1870 and 1871, but it finally
overcame all difficulties. Especially after 1870 rapid progress was
made; paths and roads were improved, and an elephant house and a new
concert-hall were erected, gas and water were laid on, the approaches
from the town were brought into use for heavy traffic, and the laying
down of a tramway made it much easier to reach the Garden. Mention
must be made here of a generous present of 15,000 thalers from the
Emperor William I. on the occasion of his visit to Hanover, given
after an inspection of the Garden. This money was spent in building
the lion house. Herr Theodor Ostrogge, for a long while the Chairman
of the Council, and Herr Schluter must also be mentioned as especially
warm supporters and generous friends of the Garden. In the first few
years a change in the direction twice took place. Veterinary-surgeon
Christoph Kuckuck was Director in 1874, and filled this office to the
great benefit of the Garden until his death, after a long illness, in
1893. After the death of Director Kuckuck, Dr. E. Schäff, the present
Director, was appointed.
Yearly season tickets for a family cost 15s. By a family is understood
husband, wife, and children. A necessary servant with little children
enters free. Sons who have left school enter by single tickets at 7s.
6d. a year each. Female companions, nursery governesses, and pensioned
servants are not included in the family ticket; they must pay 3s. extra
a year in addition to the family ticket. A ticket for two persons,
comprising a family, such as a man and wife (without children), two
sisters, mother and daughter, etc., 12s.; for single person, 7s. 6d.;
for high school and military school students, 5s.; for strangers
(fortnightly), 3s.; for strangers (monthly), 5s.
Herr Hilpert’s philharmonic orchestra (wind instruments), under the
Imperial Music Director, Bruno Hilpert, performs in summer (on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Thursdays) in the afternoon from 4 to 8. On Tuesdays,
Fridays, and Sundays there are two concerts, from 4 to 7 p.m. and from
7.30 to 10 p.m. In the winter string-instrument concerts, Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Thursdays, from 3.30 to 7; on Fridays symphony concerts
from 3.30 to 6; on Sunday 3.30 to 6.30, and from 7 to 9.30.
Dogs, parrots, ornamental birds and animals are for sale in the Garden.
* * * * *
How wonderfully well built these German cities are! There is scarcely
a town in England which can compare in beauty and picturesqueness
with such cities as Düsseldorf, Cologne, Hamburg, Berlin, or
Frankfort-on-the-Main, with their great wide streets avenued with
trees, their artistic buildings, the lavish display in public places of
statuary of a high order, and the ease with which one can find one’s
way about.
[Illustration: CHEETAHS OR HUNTING LEOPARDS.
(Photo by Ottomar Anschütz, Berlin.)]
The Zoological Garden in Hanover is well worth a visit. It is situated
in a shady wood, and contains some very quaint houses. The first house
one encounters is devoted to cranes and herons. In the centre of the
Garden is a duck-pond with an island in the middle, upon which are
placed what look like tiny dog-kennels. In these little houses the
water-fowl build their nests. In the monkey house were a hamadrya and a
remarkably fine baboon, both animals comparatively rare in collections.
There is a substantially built bear castle well filled, and close to it
is the concert-hall, in which a fine band was playing when I visited
the Garden. From the top of a high arch of rockwork a view of the whole
Garden can be obtained, but there are so many trees in it that the
view is somewhat disappointing. There is a large and handsome antelope
and camel house, with dome and minarets, containing Shetland ponies,
camels, zebus, white-tailed gnus, an _Oryx leucoryx_, black buck, an
ostrich, a rhea, some donkeys, a zebra, a roan antelope, and a Cape
hartebeest, the last two rarely seen in collections--in fact, the Cape
hartebeest is the first I saw on the Continent. He was very nervous and
restless, and utterly refused to stand still to be photographed. A lion
house contained two remarkably fine lions.
It is curious how wonderfully well lions thrive in captivity and what
fine manes they grow. I have seen several lions in the African jungle,
but not one had a mane to compare with those carried by menagerie
beasts. This is accounted for partly because in a cage there is no
thorn-bush to tear the hair, and partly because the food is better and
more regular, causing less mange in the skin. Besides lions there were
leopards, pumas, cheetahs, a black leopard, and some tiny bear-cubs in
the lion house. In a house built just like a church with a steeple was
a huge Asiatic elephant, a smaller elephant, and a hippopotamus. Pens
of yak and American bison, several deer, dogs, and wolves, and a parrot
house brought a very interesting collection to a close.
Crowds of people watched the animals, listened to the band, or drank
coffee in the restaurant, the extremely pretty uniforms of numbers of
soldiers adding to the picturesqueness of the scene.