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Animal trading

In 1863 the elder Hagenbeck began collecting exotic animals that came through the port. By the 1870s, the trade had proved more lucrative than his fish shop, and Hagenbeck had become one of the most prominent exotic animal traders in all of Europe. In 1874, the younger Hagenbeck traveled around the world collecting animals. Among his collections, however, were also human beings which he exhibited in "human zoos". Hagenbeck decided to exhibit Samoan and Sami people (Laplanders) as "purely natural" populations. The Sami were presented with their tents, weapons, and sleds, beside a group of reindeer.

In 1874, Hagenbeck opened a zoo facility in Hamburg, called Carl Hagenbeck's Thierpark, while he continued exhibiting humans. In 1876, he began exhibiting Nubians all across Europe. He also dispatched an agent to Labrador to secure a number of "Esquimaux" (Inuit) from the settlement of Hopedale; these Inuit (see Abraham Ulrikab) were exhibited in the Hamburg Tierpark.

Though initially popular, Hagenbeck's shows gradually began to decline in popularity, especially once the photograph became more and more common, and Hagenbeck's exhibits began to look less and less real in comparison. After one exhibit, Hagenbeck was left with a large number of elephants and no one to purchase them. Unable to sell, he started a circus. To counter the declining popularity of his human zoos, Hagenbeck began working on making his displays more realistic, techniques that would later influence the animal zoo.

Panorama exhibits

The Tierpark Hagenbeck was the first zoo to separate its animals from zoo visitors using a moat, instead of bars.

In the 1890s Hagenbeck created his first "panorama" exhibit and patented the idea in 1896. The display was the "Northern Panorama", the foreground featured seal and walruses in a pool. Hidden to the zoos patrons was a moat behind the pool. Beyond the moat were reindeer, and beyond a second hidden moat were polar bears. By hiding the moats, the animals appeared to be together in one landscape.

In 1907, Hagenbeck constructed a new facility outside of Hamburgmarker which he called Tierpark Hagenbeck (without the 'H' that was in Thierpark) which is still the location of the facility today. Hagenbeck sought to design the entire zoo with his panorama system. He also sought to demonstrate that animals from warmer climates did not need to live in expensive, humid, foreboding buildings. Instead, Hagenbeck again sought to make his displays realistic.

Using data that he had compiled running his circus, Hagenbeck had estimates of how high and far different animals could leap. Using this data, he built moats filled with water or an empty pit that he determined the animals could not cross. Using moats to separate animals that did not swim, one could look across an expanse of the zoo and see many animals at once, as if in the wild. Previously, zoos had 'not' grouped animal by species, but Hagenbeck revolutionized the layout of zoos, grouping his animals by species.Hagenbeck's design was a popular success. In 1911, Hagenbeck designed the Rome Zoo in the same style. In 1913, he designed the first monkey-rock exhibit, in this case an artificial crag with a moat. The rock was populated by around 200 Hamadryas baboons.

Hagenbeck called his design an animal paradise where "animals would live beside each other in harmony and where the fight for survival would be eliminated."

World War I and II

Hagenbeck died in 1913, but his zoo remained popular until the political situation in Europe swept the zoo into hard times. During World War I many of the keepers were drafted into the German army. After the war, the zoo closed for two years as Germany entered into a deep depression. Then during the Bombing of Hamburg in World War II the original zoo was destroyed. After the war the zoo was rebuilt. The private zoo is still run by the Hagenbeck family.

Monkey Escape

In July 1956, forty five rhesus monkeys escaped from the zoo and ran wild in Hamburgmarker. The incident resulted in calls for help from shocked housewives who met monkeys in their bedrooms and bathtubs. Some of the monkeys sat in trees and chattered excitedly, showing each other toothpaste, soap bars and bathroom utensils which they had grabbed. Managers of the Zoo reported that more than two dozen of the long-tailed Indian monkeys had been caught by policemen, firemen, zoo keepers and schoolchildren.



  1. Human Zoos, by Nicolas Bancel, Pascal Blanchard and Sandrine Lemaire, in Le Monde diplomatique, August 2000 French - free
  2. Qtd. in
  3. The Irish Times, "Monkeys invade Hamburg homes" Irish Times oddties, May 12, 2008

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