Carl Hagenbeck

Hagenbeck was born on 10 June 1844, to Claus Gottfried Carl Hagenbeck (1810–1887), a fishmonger who ran a side business buying, showing, and selling exotic animals. When Hagenbeck was 14, his father gave him some seals and a polar bear.In 1876, he sent a collaborator to the Egyptian Sudan to bring back some wild beasts and Nubians. The Nubian exhibit was a success in Europe, and toured Paris, London, and Berlin. In Beasts and Men Hagenbeck claimed he had received reports of "a huge monster, half elephant, half dragon" inhabiting the interior of Rhodesia. Hagenbeck thought the animal was some kind of dinosaur similar to a Brontosaurus and unsuccessfully searched for it. His claim made headlines in newspapers around the world and helped launch legends of living dinosaurs. Hagenbeck died on 14 April 1913 in Hamburg from a bite by a snake, probably a boomslang. After Hagenbeck's death, his sons Heinrich and Lorenz continued the zoo and circus business; the Nazis banned the Völkerschauen upon coming to power, as they were opposed to the possibility of sexual relationships between the performers and German citizens. The Hamburg zoo still retains his name. == See also ==