Ornithology, Evolution, and Philosophy 123

1
The Family
Childhood and Youth
Ernst Walter Mayr was born on 5 July 1904 in Kempten, at the northern foot of the
Alps, located in southern Germany, and he was the middle of three brothers. His
father, Dr. jur. Otto Mayr (23 July 1867–1 July 1917) was a successful jurist from
a peasant family in Oberegg near Kempten (Fig. 1.1). The family name “Mayr” is
fairly frequent in Bavaria. Ernst’s great-grandfather, Johann Evangelist Mayr, was
born in Westenried near Unterthingau on 16 December 1807 and died in Altusried
(near Kempten) on 28 June 1864. He and a second great-grandfather (Bonifaz
Müller) were the first physicians in the family and established a long medical
tradition that is still alive in the family today. Johann Mayr had two sons, Dr.
med. Otto Mayr (OM 1, born in Altusried on 8 August 1833, died in Lindau on 17
January 1912), Ernst’s grandfather, and Eugen Adolf Mayr (born on 16 December
1839, died in Nürnberg after 1920). Dr. Otto Mayr (OM 1) studied medicine in
Munich. He was at first a physician in Oberstdorf in southwest Germany (where
Ernst’s father was born) and later in Lindau am Bodensee (Lake Constance) where
he became a doctor at the town hospital and served as surgeon for the poor.
He was a naturalist, apiculturist, and hunter, and he participated on a regular
basis in the annual meetings of the German Society of Naturalists and Surgeons.
He married Wilhelmine (“Minna”) Müller, a member of the distinguished Gruber
family, respected landowners in this region. Minna Mayr lived from 3 October 1847
to 22 December 1928. They had two sons, Otto and Hermann, and one daughter
Dora. When a little over 70 years old, the grandfather retired, and built a house
in the outskirts of Lindau, with a large garden, where Ernst and his brothers
spent several summer holidays. They received much attention especially from
their grandmother because they were her only grandchildren. Uncle Hermann in
Heidelberg and Aunt Dora had no children. Like her brother Otto, Aunt Dora was
very interested in philosophy and the family considered her brilliant. Occasionally,
the grandfather or Aunt Dora would take them for a walk and then for a piece of
cake at a cafe. After the grandfather died in 1912, grandmother Minna and Aunt
Dora (who later married August Selle) continued to live in the house in Lindau.
Ernst was in New Guinea, when his grandmother died in December 1928. The
house in Lindau-Reutin (Rennerle 7) still belongs to Dr. Jörg Mayr, one of Ernst’s
nephews. His brother Dr. Otto Mayr (OM 4) maintains a comprehensive family
archive there.
Uncle Hermann Mayr (1873–1914) was a medical doctor and his older brother
Otto Mayr (OM 2, 1867–1917; Ernst’s father) became a jurist in the Bavarian