Research project

Adelbert von Chamisso - Poet Naturalist or Naturalist Poet

Chamisso has recently received more attention as a naturalist. The fact that he traversed the natural history of his time and in his own way with seven-league boots, as it were, is shown in the article "Naturkunde mit den Augen des Dichters. Mit Siebenmeilenstiefeln zum Artkonzept bei Adelbert von Chamisso" by Matthias Glaubrecht in the recently published anthology "Korrespondenzen und Transformationen. New Perspectives on Adelbert von Chamisso", edited by Marie-Theres Federhofer and Jutta Weber (published in Dec. 2012 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen; pages 51-84).

The naturalist Chamisso also comes into focus in the recently published new edition of Adelbert von Chamisso's "Journey Around the World". It contains an essayistic afterword by Matthias Glaubrecht together with editorial notes and, for the first time, the compilation of a complete list of the 150 lithographs by Ludwig Choris, which were created during the Russian "Rurik" expedition of 1815-1818 and which here illustrate Chamisso's travelogue of 1836 for the first time:
"Through the Eyes of the Poet. The Naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso on a World Tour".
Die Andere Bibliothek, Berlin 2012; afterword, pages 445-487.

(http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/studiozeit-ks/1897089/)

Literary criticism on the 175th anniversary of Chamisso's death - review:
http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=18219

How far Chamisso often got ahead of his time and his contemporaries is also shown by the detailed study just published on a zoological phenomenon first discovered by him during his world voyage - the generational change in the life cycle of marine animals, the so-called salps within the tunicates (Tunicata). The Berlin zoologists Matthias Glaubrecht and Wolfgang Dohle re-evaluate and appreciate Chamisso's observations and insights and also examine the reception of Chamisso's account by his contemporaries in the first half of the 19th century. In doing so, they examine not only the original manuscript of Chamisso's dissertation "De Salpa" from 1819, but also handwritten documents on the creation of this writing in Chamisso's estate at the Staatsbibliothek Berlin:

Matthias Glaubrecht & Wolfgang Dohle 2012. Discovering the alternation of generations in salps (Tunicata, Thaliacea): Adelbert von Chamisso's dissertation "De Salpa" 1819 - its material, origin and reception in the early nineteenth century. - Zoosystematics and Evolution 88(2): 317-363.

Another article in the recently published yearbook "Editio" examines the extent to which the naturalist Chamisso, who had begun studying at the University of Berlin in autumn 1810, had already incorporated natural history knowledge and his knowledge into the fairy-tale poetry of his "Peter Schlemihl", written in 1813:

Nikolas Immer & Matthias Glaubrecht 2012. Peter Schlemihl as Naturalist. The Tenth Chapter of Chamisso's Fairy Tale Narrative in an Editionsphilological and History of Science Perspective. - In: Nutt-Kofoth, R., Plachta, B. & Woesler, W. (eds.), Editio - Internationales Jahrbuch für Editionswissenschaft, vol. 26, pp. 123-144. DeGruyter, Berlin.

The Chamisso Project at the Museum for Natural History

We are preparing, supported by interns and volunteers (currently Anne McKinney, a history student at HU-Berlin), a compilation of all zoological objects collected by Adelbert von Chamisso during the Russian "Rurik Expedition" 1815-1818 and handed over to the Berlin Museum.

A further publication is planned and in preparation.

Chamisso's skull recovered

"Most people, like our northerners, bury their dead and keep the graves sacred. The traveller and collector can only by a rare happy chance come into possession of skulls which are of the highest importance for the history of the races of men."
Adelbert von Chamisso, "Journey Around the World" (1836: 137)

At first, it was worth little more than a passing marginal note to him. At the end of his "Remarks and Views" from 1821, which appeared as the third volume to Otto von Kotzebue's "Voyage of Discovery to the South Seas and to the Bering Strait for the Exploration of the North-Eastern Passage", Adelbert von Chamisso noted on the occasion of the visit of the Russian brig "Rurik" to the inhabitants of Saint Laurence Island located in the Bering Strait: "They do not seem to burn their dead ... . We have met skulls on the plateau of the island and in the rocky debris at the foot of the heights, but have not noticed the monuments made of driftwood, which on the American coast mark the resting-place of the dead over the frozen ground of the hills, and protect them from the wild beasts" (Chamisso 1821: 178).
In his so-called diary of the "Journey Around the World", written two decades later, Chamisso is much clearer on this point when he reports how the expedition visited Saint Lawrence Island, Kotzebue Sound on the west coast of Alaska to the north of it, and finally the chain of Aleutian Islands during the summer campaign of 1816. Here he notes on the finds of human skulls: "I have had the good fortune to present the rich skull collection of the Berlin Anatomical Museum with three specimens, not easy to obtain: this one from Saint Laurence Island, an Aleut from an old tomb on Unalashka, and an Eskimo from the graves of the Bay of Good Hope in Kotzebue Sound. Of the three, only the latter was defective" (Chamisso 1836: 137). The painter of the "Rurik" expedition, Ludwig Choris, also depicted the skull of an Eskimo from Kotzebue Sound and that of an Aleut in his illustrated travel work in 1822.

However, Chamisso's reference to the human skulls he collected from the Arctic was so clear that they remained unnoticed for almost two centuries. Now Matthias Glaubrecht has succeeded in locating at least one of these three skulls mentioned by Chamisso. That of an approximately 60-year-old male Aleut from the island of Unalaschka was for a long time in the collection of the Anatomical Institute of the Charité in Berlin. The odyssey of this skull with the inventory number AN 3901 could be reconstructed and it could be examined with the most modern anthropological methods:

Glaubrecht, M., Seethaler, N., Teßmann, B. & Koel-Abt, K. 2013. 'The potential of biohistory: Re-discovering Adelbert von Chamisso's skull of an Aleut collected during the "Rurik" Expedition 1815-1818 in Alaska', published in the journal Zoosystematics and Evolution, Volume 89, Issue 2: 317-336.

The skull, which has meanwhile been handed over to the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte der Staatlichen Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin, is not the one drawn by Choris, which confirms what Chamisso further communicated. And as was hardly to be expected of him, he concluded the episode in question in his travelogue of 1836 with a reflection that was as revealing as it was thought-provoking. It shows that Chamisso - incidentally as one of the very few of his time, and thus once again ahead of it - was aware of the outrage and misdemeanour of the crew of the "Rurik" after they plundered the burial place of Eskimos in Kotzebue Sound. "Our avaricious curiosity has ransacked these tombs, the skulls have been stolen from them. What the naturalist collected, the painter wanted, everyone also wanted to collect for himself. ...It was noticed too late what would have been better left undone. I am not accusing us of this, truly, we were all of the most philanthropic spirit, and I do not believe that Europeans can behave more exemplarily towards foreign peoples, towards 'savages' (Herr von Kotzebue also calls the Eskimos 'savages'), than we have done everywhere, especially our sailors fully deserve the praise that the captain also gives them. But had this people taken up arms for the desecrated graves of their dead: Who would bear the guilt of the blood spilt?" (Chamisso 1836: 153-154).

Publications produced

Glaubrecht, M., Seethaler, N., Teßmann, B. & Koel-Abt, K. 2013. The potential of biohistory: Re-
discovering Adelbert von Chamisso’s skull of an Aleut collected during the “Rurik” Expedition 1815-1818 in Alaska. Zoosystematics and Evolution 89 (2): 317-336.

Glaubrecht, M. 2012. Naturkunde mit den Augen des Dichters. Mit Siebenmeilenstiefeln zum Artkonzept bei Adelbert von Chamisso.- In: Federhofer, Marie-Theres und Weber, Jutta (Hrsg.), Korrespondenzen und Transformationen. Neue Perspektiven auf Adelbert von Chamisso, pp. 51-84. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen.

Glaubrecht, M. 2012. Mit den Augen des Poeten. Der Naturforscher Adelbert von Chamisso auf Weltreise. Ein essayistisches Nachwort, editorische Anmerkungen und Verzeichnis der Illustrationen. - In: Chamisso, Adelbert von, Reise um die Welt, mit 150 Lithographien von Ludwig Choris. pp. 445-487. Die Andere Bibliothek, Berlin.

Glaubrecht, M. & Dohle, W. 2012. Discovering the alternation of generations in salps (Tunicata, Thaliacea): Adelbert von Chamisso’s dissertation “De Salpa” 1819 - its material, origin and reception in the early nineteenth century. Zoosystematics and Evolution 88(2): 317-363.

Immer, N. & Glaubrecht, M. 2012. Peter Schlemihl als Naturforscher. Das zehnte Kapitel von Chamissos Märchenerzählung in editionsphilologischer und wissenschaftshistorischer Perspektive. – In: Nutt-Kofoth, R., Plachta, B. & Woesler, W. (eds.), Editio – Internationales Jahrbuch für Editionswissenschaft, Bd. 26, pp. 123-144. DeGruyter, Berlin.