Hermann Strebel (malacologist)

Hermann Wilhelm Strebel ( Hamburg, 1 January 1834 – Hamburg, 6 November 1914) was a merchant, ethnologue and a malacologist from Germany and Mexico.

He was born on 1 January 1834 in Hamburg as the youngest of four brothers. Through his school teacher he became interested in the study of snails and their shells On 13 August 1848, he left for Veracruz in Mexico. Under the supervision of his eldest brother he became an apprentice in a factory. He would stay in Mexico for the next twenty years. He survived a shipwreck off the coast of Yucatán. Between 1852 and 1867 he worked as a merchant for German exporters of manufactured goods. During this time he began under the guidance of his friend Carl Hermann Berendt collecting shells of native snails, which would constitute the basis of his collection. At this time, he began a lively exchange with German and American malacologists. He was also introduced by Berendt to zoology and archeology

In 1860 he married Inés Mahn, a merchant's daughter, born in Mexico. In 1861, his first son Richard Strebel was born. In 1867 the family, now consisting of five members, moved to Hamburg. Between 1867 and 1899 Strebel led his business in foreign lumber. During this time he began to exercise his scientific researches with all the activity of his nature. At first he turned his attention to working out his zoological collections. Through contact with other German malacologists he published from 1873 to 1882 his first scientific papers on the Mexican land and freshwater molluscs. His book on the fauna of Mexico was published in 1882, after six years' work and was acclaimed as one of the best and most detailed faunistic monographs of the subject. It provided him the respect of all contemporary authorities as a great scholar.

After the publication of this book, he turned his attention to Mexican archeology. He asked a befriended family in Mexico to perform archaeological excavations at various locations The results became his scientific collection in Hamburg. To finance further excavation activities, he sold some excavation finds to the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin, the Hamburg Senate and to the city of Leipzig. His writings on this subject are comprised in ten treatises, of which two volumes on Old Mexico and some more recent studies of ornaments and earthen vessels.

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