Contributions of Central European ornithology to world ornithology

Abstract

Even with today's rapid communications, scientific advancements develop strikingly differently in various parts of the world so that it is often possible to trace the unfolding of a particular subject in one location and its subsequent spread to the rest of the world. Here I examine a number of important advances in ornithology which began in Central Europe and subsequently influenced the rest pf the world. First is the rise of the German research university early in the 19(th) century on which was based the modern university and graduate studies in North America and eventually the rest of the world. The contribution of L. Agassiz Eo the development of university museums is included. Of specific areas within ornithology that developed in Central Europe, I consider morphology including ecomorphalogy, avian classification and the species concept, dynamic biogeography, ethology comparative behavior), and lastly avian orientation and migration. Within the latter, the origin of the International Ornithological Congresses in Vienna, 1886 is discussed as an idea developed in Central Europe by German workers. Lastly is the rise of the "New Avian Biology" in which I compare Erwin Stresemann with Joseph Grinnell of the University of California, Berkeley, two similar contemporaries. Clearly the "New Avian Biology" must be credited to E. Stresemann with the publication of his Aves volume and appearance in the Journal fur Ornithologie of an important series of diverse studies in biological ornithology including doctoral theses done under Stresemann's direction. Less clear is how these ideas reached the rest of the world. I suggest that this was achieved because the time was ripe for these new ideas and because of the proselytising by Ernst Mayr, the leading student of Stresemann who was fortunately located in New York City since the beginning of 1931. The "New Avian Biology" spread quite rapidly during the mid 1930s, and by 1950 most avian biologists over the entire world embraced this modern approach.