Friedrich Baedeker (1788 - 1865)

Friedrich Baedeker

Friedrich Baedeker, full name Friedrich Wilhelm Justus Baedeker or F. W. J. Baedeker, was a German pharmacist, bird egg collector and bird illustrator.

In addition to his work as a pharmacist, Baedeker had a passion for ornithology and was a good artist. His 774 watercolors are known, depicting some 386 European birds. In time, Baedeker became widely known as an ornithologist and zoologist, and his huge collection included about 4,000 eggs of various European and exotic birds.

Baedeker joined the Deutsche Ornithologen-Gesellschaft (German Society of Ornithologists) in 1851, shortly after its founding, and published several books on birds. One of these was Die Eier der europaeischen Voegel nach der Natur gemalt ("The Eggs of European Birds Drawn from Nature").