Carl Hagenbeck (1844 - 1913) is described by some as a noted merchant of animals. This is a huge understatement. He was a pioneering trainer who, like the Lockhart trainers featured in my book "The Legend of Salt and Sauce", was responsible for revolutionizing the animal training methods of his time. He also founded zoos in Germany, ran a circus and has a legacy that exists to this day. Hagenbeck is so famous that even his connection with Britain's most famous pachyderms seems superflous to any writings on his career, however, he was the starting point I had to take - along with the Indian tradition of capturing wild elephants - when I began chronicling the life of Salt and Sauce the elephants. Hagenbeck bought the captured Salt and Sauce along with the other future members of George William Lockhart's Cruet and, in spite of George Jnr's insistance that the elephants arrived in England in a wild state, employed the well known trainer Wilhelm Philadelphia to train them. Late in our research my father even found dated pictorial evidence to prove this fact. Below is a draft I wrote up when I considered putting in an appendix about Hagenbeck in my book. In the end I decided against this tangent. However, I hope it may serve as some source of interest to prospective readers of my book. The information was mainly taken from the 1910 edition of Hagenbeck's autobiography "Beasts and Men" and it ends in 1902, a significant year for Hagenbeck and a significant year for the elephants he had delivered to George Lockhart in Brighton.
CARL HAGENBECK
Hagenbeck was born on 10th June 1844. His father was a fishmonger by trade, who also kept a small menagerie of animals. One day a chance incident inspired him to begin a new venture in animal exhibiting and trading. The venture would eventually result in one of the most successful series of zoological parks and circuses in Europe. In March 1848 Hagenbeck explains that his father found six seals in his fishing net. Using the accident to his advantage he decided to exhibit the seals, for a price, at his house in Spielbudenplatz. The success of the seals urged him to travel to Berlin, where he also made a tidy profit showing them to the citizens of the country’s capital. The seals were sold, but the future was paved for the Hagenbeck family and very soon, in 1857, their animal trading company was set up. For a while this business co-existed with their fish trade. Soon they were dealing back and forth with animals from all over the world. Their suppliers included the famous Lorenzo Cassanova and their clients included the legendary showman Phineas T. Barnum.
It was in 1872 when Carl Hagenbeck, who had, by then, taken the reins of the business, first met and sold a consignment of animals to Barnum. He paid £3,000 for them. During the transaction the larger-than-life Barnum explained to Hagenbeck that he had come to Europe in search of new ideas. Hagenbeck recounted to him, amongst other amazing experiences, tales of elephant races in India and ostriches in Africa being ridden like horses. Barnum was so impressed that he even offered the animal trainer a partnership in his business, where he would own a third of the company’s income. The offer was tempting, but he graciously refused. After all the trade in exotic animals was huge in the 1860’s through to early 70’s and Hagenbeck, now a married man with children, had big plans for his own business.
He had grown up through times when westerners were largely ignorant of transporting and caring for non-domestic animals, yet he and his father had learnt through trial and error the safest methods to move and handle them. To begin with the business had been run on a loss and many of their livestock had died or escaped. Gradually, however, they were educated from their mistakes and their persistence paid off. Now in 1872 it seemed like Hagenbeck’s zoological park would never cease making money. This was not the case. A year or so after Barnum’s proposition it seemed that the enthusiastic Hagenbeck might have been a bit too optimistic about his business’s future.
The menagerie his father had begun in Spielbudplatz had finally become too small to contain the ever-growing amount of livestock he was importing. They moved their premises to Neuer Pferdemarkt in Hamburg in April 1874 - and not before time. The mid 1870’s saw the supply of wild animals exceed the demand and now Hagenbeck had to find a solution to his approaching financial problems or face his business going down hill. He needed to branch out in some way.
Like his father before him, Hagenbeck’s idea came from a chance incident. The animal painter Heinrich Leutemann had made an off-the-cuff suggestion that it would be nice to see some reindeer, Hagenbeck was currently importing, accompanied by their Laplander handlers. The idea proved to be a success and the reindeer and their completely innocent native masters captured the fascination of the public. The Laplanders simply looked after the reindeer and were fed and provided for by the Hagenbecks, who used their presence to enhance the animal attraction. The idea of spectacle and exhibition was starting to expand in Carl Hagenbeck’s mind. Soon he was following the Laplander exhibition with American Indians, Eskimos and various other primitive peoples.
In 1880 the animal trade began to show promise again and soon Hagenbeck was back supplying elephants to Barnum and also to his rival Forepaugh in America. Hagenbeck sent his famous travelling agent, the explorer Joseph Menges to begin importing these grey giants, which had now become the most popular attraction in American circus. 1883 saw the Barnum and Forepaugh war claim sixty-seven elephants from Hagenbeck’s. They discovered that their best source for elephants was Ceylon. The Cingalese elephant had, of course, largely escaped the ivory hunter’s bullets because of its lack of tusks and being a sub-species of the Asian elephant, possessed a relatively docile nature. The success of importing elephants from Ceylon gave Hagenback inspiration for a grand display. In 1884 he toured all over Germany and Austria with his Cingalese exhibition, which consisted of twenty-five elephants, a huge variety of cattle and sixty-seven people.
It was not long after this that Hagenbeck revolutionised animal training. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the public had learnt a lot about animals by being in contact with them. Blood sports such as dog fighting, cockfighting, bear and badger baiting were loosing their mainstream interest and it would not be long before they were made illegal. Humans were becoming more sympathetic towards animals, and Hagenbeck was a staunch advocator of this generation’s philosophy. He invented a system he called “gentle training.”
In 1887 Hagenbeck began his own circus and employed a trainer called Deyerling. He explained to his new employee that he wanted him to train a group lions using his new experimental methods. Up until this stage wild animal acts had resembled gladiator battles with trainers entering cages and spending the majority of their time warding off aggressive carnivores such as the big cats. Animal training was fairly basic and the aggressive methods used by some of the trainers resulted in a large number of them becoming injured or killed. The “techniques” being used, as far as Hagenbeck was concerned, were not only barbaric and cruel, but also stupid. Through being in close contact with various animals and being brought up with a father who had a lot of affection for them, he had learned about their under-rated intelligence and feelings. On a basic level he argued cruelty is repaid by hatred and kindness is more than likely to produce a more positive reaction.
Hagenbeck had trained dogs as part of his research, using food rewards for learning various actions. He believed this system could be scaled up to the larger carnivores and insisted that this was the method Deyerling would implement. During this test period Hagenbeck learnt more about identifying correct characters in animals in much the same way as the Indians do when they assess elephants in their Keddahs. Early on he and Deyerling would be able to predict which animals had the correct temperament for training and which would be the safest.
In 1889 Hagenbeck’s innovative “gentle training” produced its first act. Deyerling appeared on the appropriately named Nouveau Cirque in Paris, France with his four lions performing a varied routine that climaxed with three of them pulling him on a chariot. This style of training would become the foundation for modern animal training and what would become known in the successive century as “positive-reinforcement.”
Meanwhile Hagenbeck had big plans for his new methods. Amongst his new generation of trainers was Heinrich Mehrmann, who was his brother-in-law and was beginning to garner a lot of fame presenting animal acts. He intended to take Mehrmann to Chicago, USA, to demonstrate the new humane method of training at a massive exhibition that was being held in 1893. Together Hagenbeck and Mehrmann produced an act consisting of twelve lions, two tigers, several cheetahs and three bears. This troupe premiered at Crystal Palace, England and was such a massive success that Hagenbeck was offered $50,000 by two Americans for the purchase of the act. He turned the money down and may have regretted it for the animals were soon all struck down by a mysterious disease, which seems to have been contracted from bad meat bought in England. Days after their triumphant performance the whole troupe was dead.
On returning to Hamburg, disease struck Hagenbeck’s animals again and soon an epidemic was spreading through the zoo like wild fire. Eventually it was discovered to be cholera, which was going through Germany at the time, and the illnesses were subdued. The act was eventually assembled for the Chicago exhibition, but Hagenbeck’s problems were not over yet. A cablegram arrived towards the end of 1892 from his agent in America, instructing him to send his act to England to be quarantined for the winter. On hearing of the outbreak of cholera, the United States government had insisted that the animals do this to prevent any spreading of the disease in America.
After completing their quarantine and being transported successfully to Chicago, illness struck the act yet again. This time it was not the animals who had fallen sick, but their presenter. Just before the beginning of the exhibition, Mehrmann was clearly unable to work the act and it was left to 49-year-old Carl Hagenbeck to take on the task. In spite of being out of contact with the animals for five months previously, the act went well and so began the legacy of Hagenbeck’s international animal displays.
The turn of the century saw Hagenbeck’s business grow into a large commercial industry. His animal trading generated a steady income, his acts were an international success and his zoo continued to prosper. The zoo would, of course, soon became too small once again. In answer to this he acquired a four and half acre land in Stellington near Hamburg. Here, with the help of investors, he built one of his most famous establishments and transferred everything he had from Neuer Pferdemarkt to it. Using his innovative ideas, he once again helped revolutionise the humane treatment of animals by improving their living quarters with more space and areas to exercise. This proved popular with the public as well as more beneficial for the animals in his care. He began extensive breeding programmes and continued to make steps in improving animal husbandry. The zoo opened in October 1902 and his future was looking brighter than ever. Hagenbeck would eventually branch out with zoos all over the world and his circus would become world famous.
Hagenbeck was born on 10th June 1844. His father was a fishmonger by trade, who also kept a small menagerie of animals. One day a chance incident inspired him to begin a new venture in animal exhibiting and trading. The venture would eventually result in one of the most successful series of zoological parks and circuses in Europe. In March 1848 Hagenbeck explains that his father found six seals in his fishing net. Using the accident to his advantage he decided to exhibit the seals, for a price, at his house in Spielbudenplatz. The success of the seals urged him to travel to Berlin, where he also made a tidy profit showing them to the citizens of the country’s capital. The seals were sold, but the future was paved for the Hagenbeck family and very soon, in 1857, their animal trading company was set up. For a while this business co-existed with their fish trade. Soon they were dealing back and forth with animals from all over the world. Their suppliers included the famous Lorenzo Cassanova and their clients included the legendary showman Phineas T. Barnum.
It was in 1872 when Carl Hagenbeck, who had, by then, taken the reins of the business, first met and sold a consignment of animals to Barnum. He paid £3,000 for them. During the transaction the larger-than-life Barnum explained to Hagenbeck that he had come to Europe in search of new ideas. Hagenbeck recounted to him, amongst other amazing experiences, tales of elephant races in India and ostriches in Africa being ridden like horses. Barnum was so impressed that he even offered the animal trainer a partnership in his business, where he would own a third of the company’s income. The offer was tempting, but he graciously refused. After all the trade in exotic animals was huge in the 1860’s through to early 70’s and Hagenbeck, now a married man with children, had big plans for his own business.
He had grown up through times when westerners were largely ignorant of transporting and caring for non-domestic animals, yet he and his father had learnt through trial and error the safest methods to move and handle them. To begin with the business had been run on a loss and many of their livestock had died or escaped. Gradually, however, they were educated from their mistakes and their persistence paid off. Now in 1872 it seemed like Hagenbeck’s zoological park would never cease making money. This was not the case. A year or so after Barnum’s proposition it seemed that the enthusiastic Hagenbeck might have been a bit too optimistic about his business’s future.
The menagerie his father had begun in Spielbudplatz had finally become too small to contain the ever-growing amount of livestock he was importing. They moved their premises to Neuer Pferdemarkt in Hamburg in April 1874 - and not before time. The mid 1870’s saw the supply of wild animals exceed the demand and now Hagenbeck had to find a solution to his approaching financial problems or face his business going down hill. He needed to branch out in some way.
Like his father before him, Hagenbeck’s idea came from a chance incident. The animal painter Heinrich Leutemann had made an off-the-cuff suggestion that it would be nice to see some reindeer, Hagenbeck was currently importing, accompanied by their Laplander handlers. The idea proved to be a success and the reindeer and their completely innocent native masters captured the fascination of the public. The Laplanders simply looked after the reindeer and were fed and provided for by the Hagenbecks, who used their presence to enhance the animal attraction. The idea of spectacle and exhibition was starting to expand in Carl Hagenbeck’s mind. Soon he was following the Laplander exhibition with American Indians, Eskimos and various other primitive peoples.
In 1880 the animal trade began to show promise again and soon Hagenbeck was back supplying elephants to Barnum and also to his rival Forepaugh in America. Hagenbeck sent his famous travelling agent, the explorer Joseph Menges to begin importing these grey giants, which had now become the most popular attraction in American circus. 1883 saw the Barnum and Forepaugh war claim sixty-seven elephants from Hagenbeck’s. They discovered that their best source for elephants was Ceylon. The Cingalese elephant had, of course, largely escaped the ivory hunter’s bullets because of its lack of tusks and being a sub-species of the Asian elephant, possessed a relatively docile nature. The success of importing elephants from Ceylon gave Hagenback inspiration for a grand display. In 1884 he toured all over Germany and Austria with his Cingalese exhibition, which consisted of twenty-five elephants, a huge variety of cattle and sixty-seven people.
It was not long after this that Hagenbeck revolutionised animal training. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the public had learnt a lot about animals by being in contact with them. Blood sports such as dog fighting, cockfighting, bear and badger baiting were loosing their mainstream interest and it would not be long before they were made illegal. Humans were becoming more sympathetic towards animals, and Hagenbeck was a staunch advocator of this generation’s philosophy. He invented a system he called “gentle training.”
In 1887 Hagenbeck began his own circus and employed a trainer called Deyerling. He explained to his new employee that he wanted him to train a group lions using his new experimental methods. Up until this stage wild animal acts had resembled gladiator battles with trainers entering cages and spending the majority of their time warding off aggressive carnivores such as the big cats. Animal training was fairly basic and the aggressive methods used by some of the trainers resulted in a large number of them becoming injured or killed. The “techniques” being used, as far as Hagenbeck was concerned, were not only barbaric and cruel, but also stupid. Through being in close contact with various animals and being brought up with a father who had a lot of affection for them, he had learned about their under-rated intelligence and feelings. On a basic level he argued cruelty is repaid by hatred and kindness is more than likely to produce a more positive reaction.
Hagenbeck had trained dogs as part of his research, using food rewards for learning various actions. He believed this system could be scaled up to the larger carnivores and insisted that this was the method Deyerling would implement. During this test period Hagenbeck learnt more about identifying correct characters in animals in much the same way as the Indians do when they assess elephants in their Keddahs. Early on he and Deyerling would be able to predict which animals had the correct temperament for training and which would be the safest.
In 1889 Hagenbeck’s innovative “gentle training” produced its first act. Deyerling appeared on the appropriately named Nouveau Cirque in Paris, France with his four lions performing a varied routine that climaxed with three of them pulling him on a chariot. This style of training would become the foundation for modern animal training and what would become known in the successive century as “positive-reinforcement.”
Meanwhile Hagenbeck had big plans for his new methods. Amongst his new generation of trainers was Heinrich Mehrmann, who was his brother-in-law and was beginning to garner a lot of fame presenting animal acts. He intended to take Mehrmann to Chicago, USA, to demonstrate the new humane method of training at a massive exhibition that was being held in 1893. Together Hagenbeck and Mehrmann produced an act consisting of twelve lions, two tigers, several cheetahs and three bears. This troupe premiered at Crystal Palace, England and was such a massive success that Hagenbeck was offered $50,000 by two Americans for the purchase of the act. He turned the money down and may have regretted it for the animals were soon all struck down by a mysterious disease, which seems to have been contracted from bad meat bought in England. Days after their triumphant performance the whole troupe was dead.
On returning to Hamburg, disease struck Hagenbeck’s animals again and soon an epidemic was spreading through the zoo like wild fire. Eventually it was discovered to be cholera, which was going through Germany at the time, and the illnesses were subdued. The act was eventually assembled for the Chicago exhibition, but Hagenbeck’s problems were not over yet. A cablegram arrived towards the end of 1892 from his agent in America, instructing him to send his act to England to be quarantined for the winter. On hearing of the outbreak of cholera, the United States government had insisted that the animals do this to prevent any spreading of the disease in America.
After completing their quarantine and being transported successfully to Chicago, illness struck the act yet again. This time it was not the animals who had fallen sick, but their presenter. Just before the beginning of the exhibition, Mehrmann was clearly unable to work the act and it was left to 49-year-old Carl Hagenbeck to take on the task. In spite of being out of contact with the animals for five months previously, the act went well and so began the legacy of Hagenbeck’s international animal displays.
The turn of the century saw Hagenbeck’s business grow into a large commercial industry. His animal trading generated a steady income, his acts were an international success and his zoo continued to prosper. The zoo would, of course, soon became too small once again. In answer to this he acquired a four and half acre land in Stellington near Hamburg. Here, with the help of investors, he built one of his most famous establishments and transferred everything he had from Neuer Pferdemarkt to it. Using his innovative ideas, he once again helped revolutionise the humane treatment of animals by improving their living quarters with more space and areas to exercise. This proved popular with the public as well as more beneficial for the animals in his care. He began extensive breeding programmes and continued to make steps in improving animal husbandry. The zoo opened in October 1902 and his future was looking brighter than ever. Hagenbeck would eventually branch out with zoos all over the world and his circus would become world famous.
It was in 1872 when Carl Hagenbeck, who had, by then, taken the reins of the business, first met and sold a consignment of animals to Barnum. He paid £3,000 for them. During the transaction the larger-than-life Barnum explained to Hagenbeck that he had come to Europe in search of new ideas. Hagenbeck recounted to him, amongst other amazing experiences, tales of elephant races in India and ostriches in Africa being ridden like horses. Barnum was so impressed that he even offered the animal trainer a partnership in his business, where he would own a third of the company’s income. The offer was tempting, but he graciously refused. After all the trade in exotic animals was huge in the 1860’s through to early 70’s and Hagenbeck, now a married man with children, had big plans for his own business.
He had grown up through times when westerners were largely ignorant of transporting and caring for non-domestic animals, yet he and his father had learnt through trial and error the safest methods to move and handle them. To begin with the business had been run on a loss and many of their livestock had died or escaped. Gradually, however, they were educated from their mistakes and their persistence paid off. Now in 1872 it seemed like Hagenbeck’s zoological park would never cease making money. This was not the case. A year or so after Barnum’s proposition it seemed that the enthusiastic Hagenbeck might have been a bit too optimistic about his business’s future.
The menagerie his father had begun in Spielbudplatz had finally become too small to contain the ever-growing amount of livestock he was importing. They moved their premises to Neuer Pferdemarkt in Hamburg in April 1874 - and not before time. The mid 1870’s saw the supply of wild animals exceed the demand and now Hagenbeck had to find a solution to his approaching financial problems or face his business going down hill. He needed to branch out in some way.
Like his father before him, Hagenbeck’s idea came from a chance incident. The animal painter Heinrich Leutemann had made an off-the-cuff suggestion that it would be nice to see some reindeer, Hagenbeck was currently importing, accompanied by their Laplander handlers. The idea proved to be a success and the reindeer and their completely innocent native masters captured the fascination of the public. The Laplanders simply looked after the reindeer and were fed and provided for by the Hagenbecks, who used their presence to enhance the animal attraction. The idea of spectacle and exhibition was starting to expand in Carl Hagenbeck’s mind. Soon he was following the Laplander exhibition with American Indians, Eskimos and various other primitive peoples.
In 1880 the animal trade began to show promise again and soon Hagenbeck was back supplying elephants to Barnum and also to his rival Forepaugh in America. Hagenbeck sent his famous travelling agent, the explorer Joseph Menges to begin importing these grey giants, which had now become the most popular attraction in American circus. 1883 saw the Barnum and Forepaugh war claim sixty-seven elephants from Hagenbeck’s. They discovered that their best source for elephants was Ceylon. The Cingalese elephant had, of course, largely escaped the ivory hunter’s bullets because of its lack of tusks and being a sub-species of the Asian elephant, possessed a relatively docile nature. The success of importing elephants from Ceylon gave Hagenback inspiration for a grand display. In 1884 he toured all over Germany and Austria with his Cingalese exhibition, which consisted of twenty-five elephants, a huge variety of cattle and sixty-seven people.
It was not long after this that Hagenbeck revolutionised animal training. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the public had learnt a lot about animals by being in contact with them. Blood sports such as dog fighting, cockfighting, bear and badger baiting were loosing their mainstream interest and it would not be long before they were made illegal. Humans were becoming more sympathetic towards animals, and Hagenbeck was a staunch advocator of this generation’s philosophy. He invented a system he called “gentle training.”
In 1887 Hagenbeck began his own circus and employed a trainer called Deyerling. He explained to his new employee that he wanted him to train a group lions using his new experimental methods. Up until this stage wild animal acts had resembled gladiator battles with trainers entering cages and spending the majority of their time warding off aggressive carnivores such as the big cats. Animal training was fairly basic and the aggressive methods used by some of the trainers resulted in a large number of them becoming injured or killed. The “techniques” being used, as far as Hagenbeck was concerned, were not only barbaric and cruel, but also stupid. Through being in close contact with various animals and being brought up with a father who had a lot of affection for them, he had learned about their under-rated intelligence and feelings. On a basic level he argued cruelty is repaid by hatred and kindness is more than likely to produce a more positive reaction.
Hagenbeck had trained dogs as part of his research, using food rewards for learning various actions. He believed this system could be scaled up to the larger carnivores and insisted that this was the method Deyerling would implement. During this test period Hagenbeck learnt more about identifying correct characters in animals in much the same way as the Indians do when they assess elephants in their Keddahs. Early on he and Deyerling would be able to predict which animals had the correct temperament for training and which would be the safest.
In 1889 Hagenbeck’s innovative “gentle training” produced its first act. Deyerling appeared on the appropriately named Nouveau Cirque in Paris, France with his four lions performing a varied routine that climaxed with three of them pulling him on a chariot. This style of training would become the foundation for modern animal training and what would become known in the successive century as “positive-reinforcement.”
Meanwhile Hagenbeck had big plans for his new methods. Amongst his new generation of trainers was Heinrich Mehrmann, who was his brother-in-law and was beginning to garner a lot of fame presenting animal acts. He intended to take Mehrmann to Chicago, USA, to demonstrate the new humane method of training at a massive exhibition that was being held in 1893. Together Hagenbeck and Mehrmann produced an act consisting of twelve lions, two tigers, several cheetahs and three bears. This troupe premiered at Crystal Palace, England and was such a massive success that Hagenbeck was offered $50,000 by two Americans for the purchase of the act. He turned the money down and may have regretted it for the animals were soon all struck down by a mysterious disease, which seems to have been contracted from bad meat bought in England. Days after their triumphant performance the whole troupe was dead.
On returning to Hamburg, disease struck Hagenbeck’s animals again and soon an epidemic was spreading through the zoo like wild fire. Eventually it was discovered to be cholera, which was going through Germany at the time, and the illnesses were subdued. The act was eventually assembled for the Chicago exhibition, but Hagenbeck’s problems were not over yet. A cablegram arrived towards the end of 1892 from his agent in America, instructing him to send his act to England to be quarantined for the winter. On hearing of the outbreak of cholera, the United States government had insisted that the animals do this to prevent any spreading of the disease in America.
After completing their quarantine and being transported successfully to Chicago, illness struck the act yet again. This time it was not the animals who had fallen sick, but their presenter. Just before the beginning of the exhibition, Mehrmann was clearly unable to work the act and it was left to 49-year-old Carl Hagenbeck to take on the task. In spite of being out of contact with the animals for five months previously, the act went well and so began the legacy of Hagenbeck’s international animal displays.
The turn of the century saw Hagenbeck’s business grow into a large commercial industry. His animal trading generated a steady income, his acts were an international success and his zoo continued to prosper. The zoo would, of course, soon became too small once again. In answer to this he acquired a four and half acre land in Stellington near Hamburg. Here, with the help of investors, he built one of his most famous establishments and transferred everything he had from Neuer Pferdemarkt to it. Using his innovative ideas, he once again helped revolutionise the humane treatment of animals by improving their living quarters with more space and areas to exercise. This proved popular with the public as well as more beneficial for the animals in his care. He began extensive breeding programmes and continued to make steps in improving animal husbandry. The zoo opened in October 1902 and his future was looking brighter than ever. Hagenbeck would eventually branch out with zoos all over the world and his circus would become world famous.
Hagenbeck was born on 10th June 1844. His father was a fishmonger by trade, who also kept a small menagerie of animals. One day a chance incident inspired him to begin a new venture in animal exhibiting and trading. The venture would eventually result in one of the most successful series of zoological parks and circuses in Europe. In March 1848 Hagenbeck explains that his father found six seals in his fishing net. Using the accident to his advantage he decided to exhibit the seals, for a price, at his house in Spielbudenplatz. The success of the seals urged him to travel to Berlin, where he also made a tidy profit showing them to the citizens of the country’s capital. The seals were sold, but the future was paved for the Hagenbeck family and very soon, in 1857, their animal trading company was set up. For a while this business co-existed with their fish trade. Soon they were dealing back and forth with animals from all over the world. Their suppliers included the famous Lorenzo Cassanova and their clients included the legendary showman Phineas T. Barnum.
It was in 1872 when Carl Hagenbeck, who had, by then, taken the reins of the business, first met and sold a consignment of animals to Barnum. He paid £3,000 for them. During the transaction the larger-than-life Barnum explained to Hagenbeck that he had come to Europe in search of new ideas. Hagenbeck recounted to him, amongst other amazing experiences, tales of elephant races in India and ostriches in Africa being ridden like horses. Barnum was so impressed that he even offered the animal trainer a partnership in his business, where he would own a third of the company’s income. The offer was tempting, but he graciously refused. After all the trade in exotic animals was huge in the 1860’s through to early 70’s and Hagenbeck, now a married man with children, had big plans for his own business.
He had grown up through times when westerners were largely ignorant of transporting and caring for non-domestic animals, yet he and his father had learnt through trial and error the safest methods to move and handle them. To begin with the business had been run on a loss and many of their livestock had died or escaped. Gradually, however, they were educated from their mistakes and their persistence paid off. Now in 1872 it seemed like Hagenbeck’s zoological park would never cease making money. This was not the case. A year or so after Barnum’s proposition it seemed that the enthusiastic Hagenbeck might have been a bit too optimistic about his business’s future.
The menagerie his father had begun in Spielbudplatz had finally become too small to contain the ever-growing amount of livestock he was importing. They moved their premises to Neuer Pferdemarkt in Hamburg in April 1874 - and not before time. The mid 1870’s saw the supply of wild animals exceed the demand and now Hagenbeck had to find a solution to his approaching financial problems or face his business going down hill. He needed to branch out in some way.
Like his father before him, Hagenbeck’s idea came from a chance incident. The animal painter Heinrich Leutemann had made an off-the-cuff suggestion that it would be nice to see some reindeer, Hagenbeck was currently importing, accompanied by their Laplander handlers. The idea proved to be a success and the reindeer and their completely innocent native masters captured the fascination of the public. The Laplanders simply looked after the reindeer and were fed and provided for by the Hagenbecks, who used their presence to enhance the animal attraction. The idea of spectacle and exhibition was starting to expand in Carl Hagenbeck’s mind. Soon he was following the Laplander exhibition with American Indians, Eskimos and various other primitive peoples.
In 1880 the animal trade began to show promise again and soon Hagenbeck was back supplying elephants to Barnum and also to his rival Forepaugh in America. Hagenbeck sent his famous travelling agent, the explorer Joseph Menges to begin importing these grey giants, which had now become the most popular attraction in American circus. 1883 saw the Barnum and Forepaugh war claim sixty-seven elephants from Hagenbeck’s. They discovered that their best source for elephants was Ceylon. The Cingalese elephant had, of course, largely escaped the ivory hunter’s bullets because of its lack of tusks and being a sub-species of the Asian elephant, possessed a relatively docile nature. The success of importing elephants from Ceylon gave Hagenback inspiration for a grand display. In 1884 he toured all over Germany and Austria with his Cingalese exhibition, which consisted of twenty-five elephants, a huge variety of cattle and sixty-seven people.
It was not long after this that Hagenbeck revolutionised animal training. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the public had learnt a lot about animals by being in contact with them. Blood sports such as dog fighting, cockfighting, bear and badger baiting were loosing their mainstream interest and it would not be long before they were made illegal. Humans were becoming more sympathetic towards animals, and Hagenbeck was a staunch advocator of this generation’s philosophy. He invented a system he called “gentle training.”
In 1887 Hagenbeck began his own circus and employed a trainer called Deyerling. He explained to his new employee that he wanted him to train a group lions using his new experimental methods. Up until this stage wild animal acts had resembled gladiator battles with trainers entering cages and spending the majority of their time warding off aggressive carnivores such as the big cats. Animal training was fairly basic and the aggressive methods used by some of the trainers resulted in a large number of them becoming injured or killed. The “techniques” being used, as far as Hagenbeck was concerned, were not only barbaric and cruel, but also stupid. Through being in close contact with various animals and being brought up with a father who had a lot of affection for them, he had learned about their under-rated intelligence and feelings. On a basic level he argued cruelty is repaid by hatred and kindness is more than likely to produce a more positive reaction.
Hagenbeck had trained dogs as part of his research, using food rewards for learning various actions. He believed this system could be scaled up to the larger carnivores and insisted that this was the method Deyerling would implement. During this test period Hagenbeck learnt more about identifying correct characters in animals in much the same way as the Indians do when they assess elephants in their Keddahs. Early on he and Deyerling would be able to predict which animals had the correct temperament for training and which would be the safest.
In 1889 Hagenbeck’s innovative “gentle training” produced its first act. Deyerling appeared on the appropriately named Nouveau Cirque in Paris, France with his four lions performing a varied routine that climaxed with three of them pulling him on a chariot. This style of training would become the foundation for modern animal training and what would become known in the successive century as “positive-reinforcement.”
Meanwhile Hagenbeck had big plans for his new methods. Amongst his new generation of trainers was Heinrich Mehrmann, who was his brother-in-law and was beginning to garner a lot of fame presenting animal acts. He intended to take Mehrmann to Chicago, USA, to demonstrate the new humane method of training at a massive exhibition that was being held in 1893. Together Hagenbeck and Mehrmann produced an act consisting of twelve lions, two tigers, several cheetahs and three bears. This troupe premiered at Crystal Palace, England and was such a massive success that Hagenbeck was offered $50,000 by two Americans for the purchase of the act. He turned the money down and may have regretted it for the animals were soon all struck down by a mysterious disease, which seems to have been contracted from bad meat bought in England. Days after their triumphant performance the whole troupe was dead.
On returning to Hamburg, disease struck Hagenbeck’s animals again and soon an epidemic was spreading through the zoo like wild fire. Eventually it was discovered to be cholera, which was going through Germany at the time, and the illnesses were subdued. The act was eventually assembled for the Chicago exhibition, but Hagenbeck’s problems were not over yet. A cablegram arrived towards the end of 1892 from his agent in America, instructing him to send his act to England to be quarantined for the winter. On hearing of the outbreak of cholera, the United States government had insisted that the animals do this to prevent any spreading of the disease in America.
After completing their quarantine and being transported successfully to Chicago, illness struck the act yet again. This time it was not the animals who had fallen sick, but their presenter. Just before the beginning of the exhibition, Mehrmann was clearly unable to work the act and it was left to 49-year-old Carl Hagenbeck to take on the task. In spite of being out of contact with the animals for five months previously, the act went well and so began the legacy of Hagenbeck’s international animal displays.
The turn of the century saw Hagenbeck’s business grow into a large commercial industry. His animal trading generated a steady income, his acts were an international success and his zoo continued to prosper. The zoo would, of course, soon became too small once again. In answer to this he acquired a four and half acre land in Stellington near Hamburg. Here, with the help of investors, he built one of his most famous establishments and transferred everything he had from Neuer Pferdemarkt to it. Using his innovative ideas, he once again helped revolutionise the humane treatment of animals by improving their living quarters with more space and areas to exercise. This proved popular with the public as well as more beneficial for the animals in his care. He began extensive breeding programmes and continued to make steps in improving animal husbandry. The zoo opened in October 1902 and his future was looking brighter than ever. Hagenbeck would eventually branch out with zoos all over the world and his circus would become world famous.
©Copyright. Jamie Clubb 2007
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