CHAPTER XVII
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.
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.