In the 1880ies two independent collections of birds and a few other vertebrates came to the "Königlich bayerisches humanistisches Gymnasium" at Speyer, Palatinate, which belonged thence to the Kingdom of Bavaria. – One is a bird collection of at least 245 specimens, of which a name list with no additional information was published 1886 by one of the teachers of Natural History (with special emphasis on birds and minerals), Dr. Karl Hammerschmidt (1862-1932). He obviously was a relative of unknown grade of the famous physician and entomologist Dr. Karl Eduard Hammerschmidt (1801-1874), better known as "Dr. Abdullah Bey", the leading founder of the Red Halfmoon. After an odyssey following the revolution of 1848 in Vienna, he became briefly a teacher at the Medical school of Galatasaray (Istanbul), served 1850 in a military hospital at Damascus, participated in the Crimea war. Returned as an "Obrist" he became Professor of the Medical Faculty of Istanbul, where he established a collection of minerals and birds and did research on geology and botany of the Bosphorus region. – The other collection includes at least 145 bird specimens and some 40 other vertebrates, present at the gymnasium also since ca 1886. It is composed of old mounts of mixed origin. Of special interest are some mammals of the inheritance of Andreas Johannes Jäckel (1822-1885), author of the first regional "avifauna" of Bavaria, namely an "armadillo" which in the 16th century belonged to the collection of Paulus II. von Praun (1548-1616) in Nuremberg. Others can be traced back to the Sturm family in Nuremberg, collectors since 1802 up to 1865; to Johann Friedrich Leu (1808-1882) at Augsburg, a famous taxidermist and publisher of bird observations; to Karl Michahelles (1807-1834), one of the fathers of the Dalmatian and Greek ornithology; to Ferdinand von Mueller (1825-1896), the Rostock-born great Australian botanist – to name only the most prominent collectors. Their specimens were part of a collection of more than 10.000 bird specimens of Duke Paul Wilhelm, Prince of Wuerttemberg (1797-1860), intended for his private Natural History Museum in the castle of "Paulsburg" near Carlsruhe in Silesia. After his death the material was scattered, most of it ended in the Naturhistorisches Museum of Stuttgart. Like the vast collections of Sturm, Leu, partly of Michahelles and von Mueller, most of it was burnt in the 2nd World-War. So, the relics, at least 120 specimens, which emerged from the safe-haven of the Speyer Gymnasium, unexpectedly give testimony of the natural and cultural history of a few of the most important bird collections of the 19th century. Some of the surviving specimens served as models for early 19th century watercolours or copper tables.
