John Hagenbeck

John Heinrich August Hagenbeck (15 October 1866, Hamburg —16 December 1940, Colombo) was a German animal dealer, a plantation owner in Ceylon and a writer of books.

John worked for Carl Hagenbeck from 1881, transporting animals and travelling on his behalf.

In 1886 he visited Ceylon and recruited people for Hagenbeck's Völkerschau or "human zoo".

In 1914, at the start of the war, he moved to Indonesia to avoid internment and then fled to Germany.

[1] The Hagenbecks had an animal catching station near Kilimanjaro and John accompanied Baron Axel Blixen for a hunt in the area.