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Hagenbeck’s Ceylon Tee Tigermarke German Tea grown in Ceylon on John Hagenbeck’s plantations and distributed in Germany by his brother, Carl Hagenbeck, the founder of the Hamburg Zoological Garden. |
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A Tale of Two Brothers John Hagenbeck (1866–1940) was 22 years younger than his half-brother Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913). John visited Ceylon for the first time in 1886 at the age of 20. He was active in many business fields. He was a ship chandler and acquired plantations in Ceylon. He grew tea, coffee and coco. He caught wild animals and was an animal trader. The brothers collaborated in many fields. Among others, John supplied his brother, Carl, with animals. Carl Hagenbeck is famous for the foundation of the Zoological Garden in Hamburg, Germany in 1907. This was pioneering work, because for the first time an attempt was made to show animals not in cages behind iron bars, but in a landscape set up in Europe, but closely resembling their natural habitat. The names and affiliations of John and Carl Hagenbeck are shown on the Tigermarke tea tins: Here are some pictures illustrating his life when John Hagenbeck was in Ceylon. They are taken from his book “Fünfundzwanzig Jahre Ceylon” (“Twenty-five Years Ceylon”), edited by Victor Ottmann, Verlag Deutsche Buchwerkstätten, Dresden 1922. |
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John H. (left) on his coco plantation |
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gate (right side, upper) and entrance view of John H.‘s bungalow in Colombo, Ceylon |
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tea time in John H.‘s bungalow |
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A group of Hagenbeck’s tins The huge canister (41 cm high) was for coffee or tea. The smallest tin here, in white, was for 50 g Tigermarke tea (6.6 cm high). |
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Most of Hagenbeck‘s tea tins show this picture, most frequently on the front side of the tin. You see here rocks and wild animals. This is not a scenery from Ceylon! The scene shows the Africa vivarium in the Hagenbeck Zoological Garden in Hamburg, Germany. Check it out here: http://www.hagenbeck.de/stiftung/ Homepage of Hagenbeck‘s (multilingual): |
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John Hagenbeck‘s property in Ceylon was repossessed in the First World War. He left Ceylon and returned to Colombo after the war and founded the National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka in Colombo (homepage of Dehiwela Zoo). John died in an internment camp shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War. |
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This is the Africa vivarium in the Zoo in Hamburg, as shown on an old postcard (1909): |
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Entrance gate Hagenbeck Zoological Garden, Hamburg (postcard, 1915) |