kb/data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Menges-1.md

title	chunk	source	category	tags	date_saved	instance
Josef Menges	2/2	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Menges	reference	science, encyclopedia	2026-05-05T10:07:33.294691+00:00	kb-cron

In addition to English, French and Italian, Menges learned several African dialects. To obtain information and establish his position, he depended largely on the support of local inhabitants. In a letter of 11 April 1883 to the editors of Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, he wrote:Nor did I fail to ask the accompanying natives, who knew every detail about the land, in order to be able to write down the names of the various localities, so that I believe I have made as accurate a sketch as is at all possible of a hunting expedition that had no scientific purpose.

=== Animal trading === To support his expeditions financially, Menges formed a professional association in 1876 with the Hamburg circus manager and animal trainer Carl Hagenbeck. This included providing Hagenbeck with information about animal populations, possibilities for capture and logistics to transport animals to the coast and further to Europe. Menges played a central role in establishing early contacts between Somali intermediaries and Hagenbeck’s enterprise. Besides Hamburg, the Frankfurt Zoological Garden became the main hub for animal collections imported by Menges to Europe. When Adalbert Seitz became director of the Frankfurt Zoo on 1 April 1893, he provided Menges with temporary storage space, so that large animal imports could first be shown and offered there.

=== Recruiter for human zoos === As Carl Hagenbeck had started recruiting "African natives" for ethnographic shows in Europe, expeditions from the region supplied not only wildlife but also Nubians, Somalis, and others for such "human zoo" exhibits. At least one consignment of animals appears to have reached Hagenbeck before any Somali group was recruited for exhibition. Evidence suggests that Menges initially sought to collaborate independently with Somali partners and establish his own position in the trade. This is indicated by at least two Somali ethnographic exhibitions staged in Switzerland before 1895. One in 1889 was called “Menges’s East African Caravan” and another in 1891 “Menges’s Somali Caravan”.

At first, Menges enlisted the Somali leader Hersi Egeh Gorseh, who would later emerge as the leader of a Somali troupe as well as a trusted associate of Carl Hagenbeck and his family. Hersi, who was based in the port city of Berbera, was engaged to organize the capture and transport of wild animals from the northern Somali coast and the hinterland, assembling teams of trappers from his clan. After several successful shipments had demonstrated his reliability, Menges persuaded him to take his group of Somali people to Europe to participate in ethnographic exhibitions, called Völkerschau in German. The first Somali troupe, led by Hersi Egeh and organized by Hagenbeck in collaboration with Menges, reached Hamburg in 1895. The same year, Hagenbeck and Menges presented this troupe along with animals from different African regions at the 1895 African Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in London. The group of animals included 25 native horses, 20 dromedaries, half a dozen lions, six ostriches, cheetahs, pumas, leopards, sheep, and birds. As The Times commented, "Herr Menges had made so many excursions into the interior since permanent relations had been established with the tribes on the coast that he was in possession of the fullest information about the country, and he experienced little difficulty in obtaining the consent of some 70 Somalis of different tribes to undertake the voyage."

== Reception == In the 1880s, reports by Menges were mentioned in the Scottish Geographical Magazine and the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London. In his 1886 book about the history of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage, English writer William Thomas Arnold reported about two letters Menges had published in the Cologne Gazette about the possibility of taming African elephants as beasts of burden. As the British Army had used Indian elephants under general Gordon in Egyptian Sudan, Menges had suggested that the African species could be tamed as well. In 2017, a biography was published in German, largely based on his extensive personal archive, consisting of his correspondence with the geographers from the Perthes publishing house, travel notebooks, business and private letters. According to the biographer, these documents, archived in the Perthes Collection at the University of Erfurt, allowed her to provide a portrayal that links an individual life story to the broader historical setting. In his 2022 article titled “A Brief History of Staging Somali Ethnographic Performing Troupes in Europe, 1885–1930”, the author focused on the relationship of Menges with Hagenbeck and Hersi Egeh, the leader of a troupe of Somali people. This historical analysis ascertained the role of Menges as Hagenbeck's agent and recruiter who helped supply animals and performers for ethnographic shows in Europe. A 2024 article about the life and work of Menges with special focus on his maps of Northeast Africa assumed that British officials in Aden may have used such maps when shaping policy for what would become the Somaliland protectorate. The maps may also have served local communities, helping them better understand their territory. In addition, regional powers such as Khedival Egypt, where Menges began his career, and Emperor Menelik II’s Ethiopia could have viewed this cartographic information as a strategic asset for territorial expansion. Original maps or digital copies based on travels and sketches by Menges are archived at the Perthes Collection of the Erfurt University research library, the University of Jena, the Digital Library of Chambéry in France and the library of the University of Illinois. Other items collected by Menges are held in the collections of the Ethnological Museum of Berlin as well as in other public collections in Germany.

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