Sternfeld was the son of a merchant in
Bielefeld,
North Rhine-Westphalia. He was educated in a local
gymnasium and initially entered university in 1903 to study medicine at
Freiburg, but he switched to studying natural science at
Bonn. In 1907 he returned to Freiburg, to obtain his
Dr. Phil., with a dissertation on the biology of
mayflies under the guidance of evolutionary biologist
August Weismann.
During
World War I he was called up for service, serving his country in
Macedonia.[1] After the war, Sternfeld clashed with the Director of the Senckenberg and was fired at the end of 1920 after he attempted to unionize museum staff. His replacement was
Robert Mertens, arguably Germany's greatest 20th Century herpetologist.
Post-museum employment
Sternfeld was unable to conduct research following his departure from the Senckenberg Museum. From 1923 onwards, he worked as a horse race reporter for the German horse racing newspaper Sportwelt. He developed into a leading and accepted expert in thoroughbred breeding in Germany.[2] In March 1937, Sternfeld lost this job because of his Jewish descent. Since March 1941 he was forced to perform hard labour in Berlin, and on 1 March 1943 he was deported by the
Nazis to Auschwitz, where he was murdered later that year.[3]
Contributions to herpetology
Between the years 1908-1925, Sternfeld described 42 species of snakes and lizards and five species of frogs that are still recognized today, although only seven of the reptiles retain their original names. The species list below begins with the currently accepted name, followed by Sternfeld's original name (some were placed in subgenera indicated by parentheses(). Subspecies are indicated by
trinomial names, and one variety is indicated by "var".
1908
Dipsadoboa brevirostris as Dipsadomorphus brevirostris (West African short-snouted treesnake)
Lamprophis erlangeri as Boodon erlangeri (Erlanger's house snake)
In 1912 he published his best known work, a book on Central European herpetofauna titled "Die Reptilien und Amphibien mitteleuropas".[5] Sternfeld include wrote approximately 35 herpetological papers, some quite extensive, during his museum career and immediately afterwards, including:
Die Schlangenfauna Togos, 1908 – Snakes native to
Togoland.
Die Schlangen Deutsch-Ostafrikas, 1910 – Snakes native to
German East Africa.
Zur Herpetologie Südostafrikas, 1911 – Herpetology of southeastern Africa.
Zur Tiergeographie Papuasiens und der pazifischen Inselwelt, 1920 –
Zoogeography involving
Papua New Guinea and islands of the Pacific.
Beiträge zur Herpetologie Inner-Australiens, 1925 – Contribution to the herpetology of
Australia's interior.[2][6]
References
^Adler, Kraig, ed. (2007). Contributions to the History of Herpetology Volume 2. Lawrence, Kansas, USA: Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles.
ISBN978-0-916984-71-7.
^
ab"Richard Sternfeld" (in German). Archived from the original on Aug 19, 2013. Retrieved 26 August 2023.{{
cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (
link)
^Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp.
ISBN978-1-4214-0135-5. ("Sternfeld", p. 253).
^Open Library Die Reptilien und Amphibien mitteleuropas