Johann Casimir Benicken

Johann Casimir Benicken (1 August 1782 – 1 December 1838) was a German jurist and judge from Schleswig-Holstein who also took an interest in the birds and natural history of the region. He was also a city secretary for Schleswig.

An 1836 oil painting by Friedrich Bernhard Westphal (1803-1844) titled Der Möwenpreis [the seagull prize] in the Schleswig museum shows a seagull bounty hunt on Seagull Island in Schlei. Towards the right, in front of a post with white cloth tied to it are the musician Friedrich Adolph Mackrott holding a black-headed gull held raised in his left hand and to his right and right, the city secretary, Benicken wearing a bowler hat

Life and work

Benicken was born in Schleswig, son of high court councillor Johann Hinrich Oswald (1746–1787) and Helene Christina née Clausen (a great aunt of the poet Thedor Storm). He was educated at the Cathedral School in Schleswig and then at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität at Kiel from 1799. He continued studies at the University of Göttingen and passed the legal exam in 1803 at Gottorf. He became a lower court lawyer in Schleswig and from 1808 to 1837 he was city secretary. In 1825 he became judge for the estates of Buckhagen, Roest, Karlsburg and Windeby.[1]

Benicken took an interest in birds and published on the gulls in 1812. He became a specialist on the gulls and documented ivory gulls in the Schleswig region. He collected specimens and corresponded with Frederik Faber, J.F. Mecklenburg, Friedrich Boie, Heinrich Boie, Johann Philipp Achilles Leisler and Christian Ludwig Brehm. His friends included Bernhard Christian Schleep and they received collections from Greenland and Iceland including a specimen of the great auk from Disko Island (the specimen is now in Copenhagen[2]). His collection was partly donated to the University of Kiel and some were bought by Emil Hage.[3][4]

Benicken was married twice, first to Friedericke Henriette Meckelburg and then to Elsabe Eleonore née Müller with a daughter from his second marriage.[5]

References
  1. Neuer Nekrolog der Deutschen. Volume 16. 1838 (in German). Weimar: B. F. Voigt. 1840. pp. 934–935.
  2. Jansen, Justin J.F.J. (2011). "The Leverian Great Auk Alca impennis, its known history". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 131 (1): 72.
  3. Müller, Hans-Peter (1995). "Die Vogelsammlung des Stadtsekretärs Johann Casimir Benicken". Die Heimat. Zeitschrift für Natur- und Landeskunde von Schleswig-Holstein und Hamburg. 102.1995: 28–30.
  4. Benicken, J.C. (1824). "Beyträge zur nordischen Ornithologie". Isis von Oken (in German): 877–891.
  5. Müller, Hans-Peter (1974). "Benicken, Johann Casimir". Schleswig-Holsteinisches Biographisches Lexikon. Bd. 3. Neumünster: Karl Wachholtz Verlag. p. 36.
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