Johann Wilhelm Meigen

Johann Wilhelm Meigen (3 May 1764 – 11 July 1845) was a German entomologist famous for his pioneering work on Diptera.

Meigen was born in Solingen, the fifth of eight children of Johann Clemens Meigen and Sibylla Margaretha Bick. His parents, though not poor, were not wealthy either. They ran a small shop in Solingen. His paternal grandparents however owned an estate and hamlet with twenty houses. Adding to the rental income, Meigen’s grandfather was a farmer and a guild mastercutler in Solingen.

Two years after Meigen was born his grandparents died and his parents moved to the family estate. This was already heavily indebted by the Seven Years' War, then bad crops and rash speculations forced sale and the family moved back to Solingen.

Meigen attended the town school but only for a short time. Fortunately he had learned to read and write on his grandfather’s estate and he read widely at home as well as taking an interest in natural history. A lodger in the household, a state surveyor named Stamm gave Meigen instruction in mathematics. Another family friend a Reformed Church organist and teacher called Berger, gave him lessons from his 10th year on in piano, orthography, and calligraphy. Later on, in 1776, he also taught him French.

Meigen became Berger's assistant, going to Mülheim, with him. There he saw for the first time a systematic collection of butterflies, and here he also learnt how to collect and prepare insects.

In the Autumn of 1779 he returned to Solingen to help his parents, at first by giving private lessons in French, but in the following year he started a French school that lasted until early in 1784. During his few free hours in this period he studied history from Charles Rollin's 15 volume Roman History and that author's 4 volume Ancient History (both in French). The only entomological work in his possession at this time was Moder's (or Kleemann's) Caterpillar Calendar.

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