LETTER
notes from DANIEL KNOP
For many people nowadays, marine snails are synonymous with the sea; beachcomb- ers love to collect their empty shells. But it is not only in present times that these mol- lusk shells have elicited our fascination; hu- man interest in them has existed through- out history. A notable example of this: the nineteenth-century apothecary Theodor Löbbecke, a self-taught expert who assembled the most comprehensive collection of gastropod
and bivalve shells in Europe, published the Systematische
Conchylien-Cabinet, an identification guide to the marine snails and bivalves. After his death, his collection,
which during his lifetime had been exhibited at a private
house in Düsseldorf, formed the basis of the Löbbecke
Museum. To this day, the museum, now known as the
Aquazoo-Löbbecke Museum, houses this educational
and immensely interesting exhibition.
KORALLE editor-in-chief Daniel Knop with malacologist Guido Poppe (left) and
his comprehensive collection of marine gastropod shells in Cebu, Philippines.
