CHAPTER XVI
THE WESTPHALIAN ZOOLOGICAL GARDEN, MÜNSTER: DIRECTOR, DR. LANDOIS
The so-called ‘island’ upon which this Garden now stands was originally laid out by the Abbot Bernard von Galen. A fortress which stood on the island was destroyed and replaced by a public park, a coffee-house, and a summer theatre.
On December 10, 1873, Professor Landois and Sanitary Inspector Nübel took a lease of the island and everything standing upon it until February 14, 1874, when they bought it right out and set to work to form a Zoological Garden upon it.
In order to improve the appearance of the place, they induced Herr Carl Koller to sell them a neighbouring meadow for 2,000 thalers. With extraordinary activity they worked until June 26, 1875, when the Garden was formally opened to the public. In 1881 the pillar-hall—a large entrance-hall—was built; this, however, was subsequently destroyed by fire. In 1894 it was replaced by a new building in the modern style, approached by a bridge over the river.
The entrance-hall bears over its gate the inscription: ‘Omne tulit punctum qui miscuit utile dulci’ (Everyone hits the right nail on the head who combines the useful with the beautiful).
The restaurant was completed for the opening of the Garden in 1875. The great hall, with its ante-rooms, was originally destined for a scientific and artistic museum; but the people, as of old, hungered more for pleasure than for science, so that the whole of the scientific collection had to be removed to the lumber-room above, and a theatre and stage took its place.
According to the opinion of Carl Hagenbeck, the monkey house at Münster is the best erection of its kind in the world. The monkeys can be outside or inside as they please all the year round. In consequence of this the house has been copied by many other Gardens. The wolves’ grotto was built in 1883. The bear pit carries the following peculiar inscription:
‘Cette belle et gracieuse villa
L’on doit et l’ours au gorilla—1881.’
This is explained when we are told that in 1881 Professor Landois travelled round the towns of Westphalia with the skeleton of a gorilla, and held popular scientific lectures upon it; the money obtained he presented for the building of the bear pit. Many have been born here. There is a female polar bear with a male brown bear, and hopes are expressed that some day there may be a piebald bear-cub.
The aquarium is a present from the Evening Society, and was built out of the profits of the play called ‘King Belle’ in 1886.
The owl tower was built from the profits of another play.
A pretty walk through an avenue of trees brings us to the Zoological Garden (entrance fee fifty pfennig). The first cage is found to contain small rodents, and this is followed by a bird-of-prey aviary. We next come to the Kindersport Spielplatz (children’s playground). A man in uniform came and unlocked the swings, when there was a perfect rush of children to circular swings, horizontal swings, vaulting-horses, and horizontal bars galore. How well they cater for children’s amusement in Germany! In a Chinese pagoda, painted red, were a pair of Bactrian camels and their baby, and close by a duck-pond was a large aviary containing pigeons, pheasants, turkeys, fowls, and gulls in separate pens. In the next enclosure were some moufflon, two rams having enormous horns. Opposite a large museum of natural history specimens is an owl house, with a picturesque tower above it. The next house is strikingly built in the Moorish style, with dome and minarets, and contains, besides a tapir and two striped hyænas, an amusing couple in the shape of an elephant and a black pony, which caress and play with one another. It was a very pretty sight to see the two together, evidently very fond of each other. On the keeper appearing and giving him the order, the elephant knelt down and saluted with his trunk.
A lion house had the walls of the outside cages hand-painted to represent Eastern scenery; this had a pretty effect in conjunction with the living animals within. The house contained a pair of lions from Somaliland (the male in magnificent coat), a pair of tigers, an ocelot, and some parrots.
The Garden contained several medallions in bronze, with portraits of benefactors struck upon them. These medallions were framed in brick towers covered with ivy, and each was surmounted by one large bird. In a corner of the Garden is a museum of antiquities connected with the Anabaptist rising in 1534-35, when John of Leyden called himself King of Münster. Here also, hanging upon a wall, are iron cages with effigies within them of John of Leyden and his two friends, who were executed within them; below are a set of iron torture instruments. Opposite a large concert-hall is a den containing two polar bears and two brown bears, the latter in very good coat. There is a quaint dark aquarium, the walls covered with imitation rock and stalactites, containing a variety of fishes. Altogether this Garden is well worth a visit, as there are some very striking and uncommon objects to be seen in it.