Johann Jakob Heckel (1790–1857), der Begründer der systematischen Ichthyologie in Österreich: ein biographischer Überblick

A revised biography (including already published and new data) of the well-known ichthyologist Johann Jakob Heckel (1790–1857) is given. Heckel
was born on 23 January 1790 in Mannheim (Germany) and died on 1 March 1857 in Wien (Vienna/Austria). His family moved to Austria in 1799 and settled at Gumpoldskirchen near Vienna in 1809. Already enthusiastic about nature in his early years, Heckel collected birds and plants and started his career at the “Vereinigte k.k. Naturalien-Cabinete” (the predecessor of today’s Museum of Natural History, Vienna) in 1818 and was later responsible for the ichthyological and ornithological collection of the museum, both of which he built up and greatly enriched. Heckel soon became, altough being scientifically an autodidact,
a well-known and widely respected ichthyologist. A complete list of Johann Jakob
Heckel’s scientific publications is given. For the first time, information on his wives
and children are presented; in addition, supplemented biographical data on his father Johann Jakob Heckel the Elder (1763–1811) as well as his brothers Johann Christoph (1792–1858) and Karl Ferdinand Heckel (1800 –1870) are included.