1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Hagenbeck, Carl

HAGENBECK, CARL (1844–  ), wild-animal collector and dealer, was born at Hamburg in 1844. In 1848 his father purchased some seals and a Polar bear brought to Hamburg by a whaler, and subsequently acquired many other wild animals. At the age of twenty-one Carl Hagenbeck was given the whole collection, and before long had greatly extended the business, so that in 1873 he had to erect large buildings in Hamburg to house his animals. In 1875 he began to exhibit a collection of the representative animals of many countries, accompanied by troupes of the natives of the respective countries, throughout all the large cities of Europe. The educational value of these exhibitions was officially recognized by the French government, which in 1891 awarded Hagenbeck the diploma of the Academy. Most of the wild animals exhibited in music-halls and other popular places of entertainment throughout the world have come from Hagenbeck’s collection at Stellingen, near Hamburg.