Bernhard Adolph Hantzsch (12 January 1875 – June 1911) was a German ornithologist, Arctic researcher, and writer, notable for his discovery of two Icelandic bird subspecies.

He later became an assistant teacher in Grillenburg [de], a village within the forest, giving him the opportunity to study bird life and developing an ornithological career.

[5] He developed two avifaunal lists of important regions in Europe, such as his 1905 Contribution to Knowledge of the Avifauna of Iceland.

In 1906, Hantzsch conducted research in Canada on the avifauna of the northeastern Labrador Peninsula, working in Killinek (Port Burwell) for several months, and then proceeding southward.

[7] He set off in 1909, and encountered disaster when his ship, the Janthina Agatha, hit ice in Cumberland Sound and sank, losing most of its cargo.

Suffering from the hardship of his travels, and having eaten polar bear, Hantzsch died of trichinosis[8] on Baffin Island in 1911.

[9] In 1913, his family established the Bernhard Hantzsch Foundation to assist North Polar region exploration.