Brehms Tierleben

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Fontispiece from a reprint volume of the second edition

Brehms Tierleben (English title: Brehm's Life of Animals) is a reference book, first published in the 1860s, which made its author, Alfred Edmund Brehm (1829–1884), known around the world.

[edit] Publishing history

As a freelance writer, Alfred Brehm furnished popular-scientific magazines with essays and travelogues. Because of his success in doing this, in 1860 he was commissioned to write a 10-volume zoological encyclopedia. Journeys to Abyssinia, Scandinavia and Siberia both interrupted and enriched the work. The first six volumes of the encyclopedia, published under the title Illustrirtes Thierleben, appeared from 1864 to 1869, published by the Bibliographisches Institut under Herrmann Julius Meyer. Illustrated under the direction of Robert Kretschmer (1818–1872), they met with wide approval from the educated bourgeoisie.

As of the second edition, which consisted of ten volumes published from 1876 to 1879, the work was already titled Brehms Thierleben. The work made Brehm famous around the world and its title is still a catchphrase today, even though science has gone far beyond Brehm. Perhaps the greatest change in the second edition was the addition of new illustrations by Gustav Mützel and others, which Charles Darwin said were the best he had ever seen. The second edition was reprinted from 1882 to 1884, and a third edition, published from 1890 to 1893, followed. The work has been translated into various languages. Editions have continued to appear into the 20th century, especially in the form of abridged, one-volume works.

[edit] Selected editions

Illustrirtes Thierleben. Eine allgemeine Kunde des Thierreichs. By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 6 vols. Hildburghausen, Bibliographisches Institut, 1864–1869.

Brehms Thierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Thierreichs. By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 2nd, expanded, ed. 10 vols. Leipzig, Bibliographisches Institut, 1876–1879; reprinted 1882–1884.

Brehms Tierleben. Allgemeine Kunde des Tierreichs. By Alfred Edmund Brehm, Oskar Boettger, Wilhelm Haacke, Eduard Pechuël-Loesche, W. Marshall, Eduard Oskar Schmidt, and Ernst Ludwig Taschenberg. 3rd ed. 10 vols. Leipzig, Wien, Bibliographisches Institut, 1890–1893.

[edit] Editions on line

Wikisource: Brehms Thierleben (German) Partial text of the 2nd German edition.
Djurens lif (Swedish) 2nd ed. of the Swedish translation of Thierleben, 4 vols. (pub. 1882–1888); from Project Runeberg [1].
Project Gutenberg-DE page on Brehm (German) Includes text from Brehms Thierleben and Tiergeschichten.
Page on Brehm (German) Includes text from Brehms Tierleben.