The Hagenbeck Dinosaurs

You all know about the Crystal Palace dinosaurs. In my lifetime, these went from the poster children of outdated, stodgy views of ponderous swamp dinosaurs, to being the most celebrated monuments of early dinosaur art around. And they are not alone. I’ve made it my mission to visit as many historic, unique dinosaur models in Europe as I can find, such as Boudewijn Bollee’s dinosaurs of Artis in Amsterdam and the dinosaurs of Chorzów Zoo in Poland. This spring, I visited some dinosaurs I’ve wanted to see for a very long time: the dinosaurs of Tierpark Hagenbeck in Hamburg.

Tierpark Hagenbeck is located in the Stellingen neighborhood, with a dedicated stop on the city’s metro network. Its founder Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913) is recognized as one of the great zoo innovators of the 20th century. He was one of the first to eschew cages and iron bars in favour of moats, rockwork and gullies, giving his animal enclosures a more open, panoramic and naturalistic look. The zoo still proudly bears his name, and displays his statue. The accompanying plaque tells the endearing, Androcles-like story of that time his life was saved by his favourite lion. Hagenbeck was not afraid to get hands-on with his animals, and his rough-and-tumble lifestyle would eventually cost him his life after being bitten by a venomous snake at his own zoo.

The park paints a rather sanitized picture of the man and his legacy, which also includes the practice of “human zoos”. Yes, this is what it sounds like. The practice declined in Hagenbeck’s day not because of any kind of moral outrage, but because it simply wasn’t commercially viable anymore. This was the mixed blessing that drove Hagenbeck to rethink zoo displays to begin with. It’s an uncomfortable dark side of the zoo’s history which the current park never really engages with.

The other character in this story is Josef Pallenberg (1882-1946), wildlife artist, sculptor and fellow exotic pet enthusiast, who was commissioned by Hagenbeck to sculpt animal statues for the zoo’s entrance gate. It was Pallenberg who designed and sculpted the dinosaurs for Hagenbeck between 1907 and 1909. The Hagenbeck Saurier opened with the current location of the zoo in the Stellingen neighborhood, so the dinosaurs were always a part of the experience. Hagenbeck himself, incidentally, was obsessed with dinosaurs. He believed they were still alive, deep in the jungles of Africa, helping fuel belief in dinosaur cryptids like the Mokele-Mbembe.

Now over a hundred years old, Pallenberg’s dinosaurs still brighten up the Northeastern corner of the park, close to the beautiful Thai pavilion gifted to the zoo in 2002. The pavilion gets a lot of attention on promotional material for the zoo. The dinosaurs do not. Is it time to save the Hagenbeck Saurier from obscurity, the same way the Crystal Palace dinosaurs have been?

At least there’s some information signs, and a grainy old photo of the dinosaurs being built. This is much appreciated. Information on the lives and careers of both Pallenberg and Hagenbeck is plentiful, information on these dinosaurs is scarce.

And here they are! In venerability, these are second only to the Crystal Palace dinosaurs themselves. They represent the large leap that dinosaur palaeontology had made in the 50-odd years between Hawkins and Pallenberg. Still, walking around this area makes you realize you are in the presence of a century. Relatively speaking, that is; these sculptures were heavily damaged during the war and have been largely rebuilt after. I don’t know if the current dinosaurs are still accurate to how they were originally, but let’s assume they are still faithful to Pallenberg’s vision. Thirteen species of dinosaurs andotherprehistoricanimals are represented, all gathered in and around this lake. Let’s check them all out!

So here’s the first dinosaurs you run into: a huge Stegosaurus, attacked by Ceratosaurus. What a wonderfully unusual depiction of both these animals! It’s eccentric and comical, yes, but also wondrous and beautiful. Let’s not forget these were still quite fresh discoveries from the Bone Wars. The Stegosaurus has a very tall, round shape, similar to the way Abel would reconstruct it. The plates are arranged in parallel rows, and it has eight tail spikes (though you can’t see them from this angle). Its head is particularly strange, very much the head of an alligator, with those eyes and nostrils high up. A face made for looking out of the water. Pallenberg was an expert at wildlife art, so his knowledge of reptiles is clearly guiding his hand. I don’t know if Pallenberg thought Stegosaurus was semi-aquatic, but we’ll see some wading dinosaurs later.

Ceratosaurus is just throwing itself at it and gorging itself, twisting its body to just get as much Stegosaurus into its mouth as possible. Its eyes are big, red and malicious, and Pallenberg gave it four fingers, including opposable thumbs. The view of theropods was quite humanoid. I love how both the Ceratosaurus and Stegosaurus have wonderfully detailed skin, which the paint job really draws out. Incidentally, the dome in the background is the orangutan enclosure.

From this angle, we can see that Ceratosaurus isn’t having it all his own way; his tail has been pierced by Stegosaurus‘ spikes. We can see Pallenberg’s great attention to detail here when sculpting the scales in between the plates on Stegosaurus‘ back. We can also see that some of the paint is peeling off. Superficially, the dinosaurs seem to be in a decent state, but I have no idea in what condition they are underneath.

I could be persuaded to say the Stegosaurus/Ceratosaurus group is my favourite among the Hagenbeck Saurier. Among Pallenberg’s oeuvre, the dinosaurs are unusual in that they are made of brick and cement, whereas his animal sculpts, even the large ones, are mostly bronze. This means the dinosaurs can be coloured, and I imagine that, much like the Crystal Palace dinosaurs, these have had many paint jobs over the years.

There’s also a T. rex! It can be closely observed from this terrace, but unfortunately it is facing away from the viewer, like the Crystal Palace Hylaeosaurus. From the bridge, it can be seen from a better angle, but at a greater distance. We mostly see a grey lump of animal from this side. We can see that Pallenberg, as well as whoever was responsible for this paint job, has paid some attention to the animal’s musculature and ribs. Rather than the scrawny Knight look, Pallenberg has made his Tyrannosaurus satisfyingly bulky. The Knight influence is still there in the posture, similar to what Knight did with his Allosaurus.

Tyrannosaurus is gorging itself on a cadaver, it’s unrecognizable what it’s meant to have been. From this angle, we can see it has a yellow eye and a very tapering snout. Pallenberg loves to give his dinosaurs great big expressive eyes; Stegosaurus is the exception.

Walk further up the bridge still and we can finally see Rexy’s face, though we have to zoom in to see it. Pallenberg gave it distinct teeth and a lizardy face, with prominent eardrums. It also has a long, dragging tail. All of this is quite typical for the time. The discovery of Tyrannosaurus rex was just two years old when Pallenberg sculpted this, so we’re looking at one of its first-ever live reconstructions here, and quite possibly the first-ever life-sized sculpt of it! (But read the comments!) I just wish it was rotated juuuust a little bit to the left (its left), so we could see it better from up close.

Iguanodon similarly suffers from only being seen in the distance, so you’re only getting low-res shots. The fifty years that passed between Crystal Palace and this might as well be an eternity. This one is of course mostly informed by the Belgian Iguanodon and Louis Dollo’s upright reconstructions of it. This look for Iguanodon was known for about 30 years in Pallenberg’s day, so he’s on firm ground here. I can’t quite trace which artist was the first to really cement the Dollo look in the palaeoart canon; Knight never reconstructed Iguanodon, so it might well have been the late Victorian artists such as Smit and Woodward.

Pallenberg brings his own eccentric flair to Iguanodon by giving it an oddly wrinkled face, which I didn’t really notice when I was there but is quite noticeable in my photos. It looks wizened and stern, like an impartial elderly observer who doesn’t want to get involved with what he’s seeing. He holds his enormous spiked hands close to his chest, as if reluctant to use them.

The plesiosaur, on the other hand, is right next to the pathway. As you can see, it’s paying the price for it. Of all the Hagenbeck Saurier, this one is in the worst state, though the damage seems mostly superficial. In addition to the peeling paint around the face and neck where visitors can touch it, its body is showing cracks and is covered with lichen. It does have a monumental character to it, and its stiff neck has aged better than the swan-necks that the plesiosaurs at Crystal Palace have. The German word for “plesiosaur” is still “swan lizard”. This one seems a particularly strong ringer for the reconstructions done by Smit.

Whether or not plesiosaurs could come onto land has been a subject of much discussion until very recently, with the view that they couldn’t now mostly in favour. It’s somewhat ironic that this very much aquatic reptile is portrayed on dry land, while elsewhere some very terrestrial animals are depicted in the water.

Here, in the middle of the lake, are some creatures in the water who actually belong there. You’ll recognize Ichthyosaurus on the right. It retains the curiously visible sclerotic ring that Hawkins also gave it, a strange trope that, for the longest time, refused to die. On the left is Mastodonsaurus, a Triassic amphibian also reconstructed by Hawkins under the name “Labyrinthodon“. Another case of science marching on in the intervening years. The Mastodonsaurus appears to be little more than a head. The real Mastodonsaurus would have been huge, a 6 meter animal.

Another highlight is the Triceratops family. Two adults and a young, the only explicitly juvenile animal depicted. One is in the water, and looks somewhat worn compared to the other two. The adult one on the shore looks absolutely magnificent, with Pallenberg once again showing a phenomenal attention to detail. The spikes and bumps on the skin, as well as the row of spikes adorning the frill, are magnificent, as are the impressive horns. These are truly fantastic, and hold up pretty well.

The young looks especially reptilian, with a large mouth and what seems like a big lower jaw. I’m sure it is speculative; I don’t think baby Triceratops were found at this point. Reasonably, Pallenberg has downsized its horns, which were secondary sexual characteristics, though not to the extent of the real thing. Every time I see the skull of a baby Triceratops, I’m struck by how, well, ugly it is. 

You probably know that, before the 1970s, dinosaurs were generally assumed to be more aquatic than they actually were. The extent to which palaeoartists were actually committed to the idea of making them waders or swimmers varies; many still mostly depicted them on land. It was mostly the sauropods and hadrosaurs that were depicted as “semi-aquatic”, rarely the ceratopsians. This one is fairly unique in that sense. We can still interpret this as a depiction of a mostly terrestrial animal that happens to be swimming. Large land animals can still enjoy a good splash, as the elephants in the enclosure next door will happily demonstrate.

Next up we’ve got some crocodiles: Deinosuchus! Actually, Deinosuchus was only described in 1909, at the tail end of Pallenberg’s sculpting project, so either he was extremely well-informed and quick, or these are just crocodiles that the name Deinosuchus was slapped on later. Pallenberg, of course, knew his crocodiles, and especially the top one looks quite lifelike. The slightly ugly green fence is there to mark the border of the giant tortoise enclosure.

Our final true dinosaur is the biggest one: Brontosaurus! This one clearly carries the influence of Charles Knight, who made a small scale sauropod statuette very much like this. Pallenberg’s own touch is mostly in the animal’s face; he likes expressive faces and big, staring eyes. In the foreground, we find Pareiasaurus, the only Permian representative among the saurians. The tortoises are actual real tortoises. It’s cute! Some of the dinosaurs at the Dinobos in Amersfoort are also in the company of tortoises.

The sauropod seems to have two completely different personalities depending on what side of its face you’re looking at. Its left side is alert, while its right side has a goofy smile. Pallenberg really gave his creations lots of character, particularly the bigger dinosaurs. As you can see, he’s also paid attention to the animal’s anatomy. It’s not just a shapeless blob, it has the contours of muscles and ribs, and those are some pretty decent looking sauropod feet, as well. Because he based himself off of Knight, the animal looks undermuscled by modern standards, but it’s a wonderfully impressive dinosaur.

Finally, at the far end of the enclosure, the tortoises have company of an ancient relative: Meiolania. Being an only recently extinct Cenozoic animal, this is more or less the odd one out in a menagerie of mostly Mesozoic animals. Meiolania, a much gianter turtle than the Aldabra giant tortoises that it shares its enclosure with, was a 19th century discovery, so it was probably a mainstay of books on prehistoric life at the time. It’s facing away from the visitor, so we can’t see its face, which does mean Pallenberg can emphasize the spikes and structures on its shell and neck. What is lacking is the large, spiky tail Meiolania seems to have had.

And that’s all of the Hagenbeck Saurier! A wonderful menagerie of vintage dinosaurs, marine reptiles and miscellaneous prehistoric critters. Josef Pallenberg is still remembered in his home country for his animal sculptures in bronze, but let us also remember him for these amazing and unique contributions to classic palaeoart! They are so overlooked. Even Zoe Lescaze, who seems to have searched every nook and cranny of Europe for traces of dinosaurs in public spaces, doesn’t mention them.

I also wanted to see the historic zoo gates Pallenberg sculpted. These are no longer in use, as the zoo’s entrance has since moved, but they are still in place. Alas, they are currently being renovated, so I’ll show you a picture from the Wikipedia archives.

If Carl Hagenbeck could have gotten his hands on a real live dinosaur, as he seems to have believed he could have, he probably would. These sculptures are the next best thing. And so, the people of Hamburg have dinosaurs at the zoo! It’s amazing that the Hagenbeck Saurier are still around, and I’m grateful to have seen them for myself.

They truly are special, and deserve as much love and attention as their more famous forebears in London. I don’t know if the zoo’s management has the upkeep of the dinosaurs high on their priority list, but they appear to be mostly in a decent state still, and I hope they will be for many years to come. If you are ever in Hamburg, I cannot recommend enough that you go out to see them. The zoo has a dedicated stop on the U-Bahn. Who’s gonna help me write a book about these?