Geier

Geier is a German word for vulture. Some authorities suggest there is some uncertainty whether the Geier is a vulture or an eagle, but the former is the predominating view. Geier is also a notable surname. The usages and meanings attributed to the word in poetry, and literature and biblical scholarship, as well as among English-speaking writers of dictionary and encyclopedia entries, have led to a variety of misunderstandings and literary controversies. The word or name Geier therefore has etymological and ornithological connotations which would be considered unusual for more mundane or common surnames.

Ornithological Meanings of "Geier"

The modern German term Geier generally is recognized as referring to two distinct families of carrion-eating bird whose range includes the whole of Europe and the western part of Asia. The term Geier refers both to birds from the genus Old World vulture (Aegypiinae) and the family New World vulture (Cathartidae).

The word Geier has been associated with both the Gyrfalcon and the Lammergeier although neither is synonymous with “Geier”. This has led to taxonomic confusion. Some authorities actually proclaimed uncertainty whether the Geier is a vulture or an eagle, and older dictionaries used the terms “Geier”, “Gyrfalcon” and “Lammergeier”, almost interchangeably, e.g. Webster's 1913 Dictionary, *[1]). “Gyrfalcon” is also sometimes rendered as "Geir eagle", as in *[2]), although in modern usage a Gyrfalcon is a member of the falcon family and is not an eagle.

The earlier inaccurate and misleading conflations of disparate terms resulted from reliance on imprecise Biblical translations rather than on direct anatomical or behavioral observations of the bird species themselves. In Biblical usage (see Leviticus xi, 13; Deuteronomy xiv, 17), the term "Gyrfalcon" referred to an unclean bird, most likely an Egyptian vulture, rather than to the modern Gyrfalcon, and did not refer to a falcon or an eagle. The Biblical references to "Gyrfalcon" (or sometimes "Gierfalcon") probably were a misinterpretation of a Hebrew term more properly translated either as Egyptian vulture or Lammergeier, the latter also known as the "lamb-vulture" or the "bone-breaker vulture", or historically as the "bone crusher" or Ossifrage). See *[3] and *[4].

Taxonomic confusion also resulted from the physical appearance of the Lammergeier. Because the head of the Lammergeier, unlike most other vultures, is feathered rather than naked, it bears a resemblance to the eagle or condor. These qualities led some to poets to assume that the term Geier refers to a form of eagle or falcon, rather than a vulture, a matter that was commented upon in the article by Harriet C. Stanton, Poets and Birds: a Criticism, The Atlantic monthly. / Volume 52, Issue 311, September 1883. *[5] Nonetheless, some modern authorities continue the view that the Lammergeier "is more closely allied with the eagles than with the vultures". *[6] The Indian Vulture, another true vulture species recently recategorized as critically endangered, also is described as having a distinctly "eagle-like bearing" in contrast to most other vulture species. *[7]

The modern taxonomic distinction between the families of eagles or falcons and the families of vultures should eliminate any uncertainty over the respective meanings of the term Geier. The Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) and the Lammergeier (Gypaetus barbatus) are true carrion-eating vultures. The modern Gyrfalcon (Falco rusticolus) is a distinct species of falcon (the largest of the falcon family), and is not a vulture. The modifier, "Gyr", “Gier” or "Geier" preceding the word "falcon" is a reference to the large size of the bird rather than to its genus or family. *[8]

"Geier" as a Surname

Geier is a common surname in Germany and somewhat less common among German-American people. The surname Geier is often considered to be interchangeable with Geyer, although some sources ascribe a different origin and meaning to the two surnames. The surname "Geyer" and its normal German spelling "Geier" are primarily associated with the word "vulture", sometimes in a pejorative sense (as in "nickname for a greedy or rapacious person, from Middle High and Middle Low German gir(e) ‘large bird of prey’, ‘vulture’ "). When affixed to a Jewish family, the surname "Geier" is thought by some to have a different meaning. The Yiddish word "Geyer" means "peddler", and it is assumed that when last names became mandatory in Europe, the surname Geier was imposed upon Jewish peasants as a deprecatory label connoting a scheming merchant who takes advantage of the cupidity of others, i.e., a "vulture". See *[9]. Ironically, the word "Geier" more more recently has evolved as a "derogatory term for persons from the Middle East." *[10]

The etymological confusion associated with ornithological use of the term "Geier" also has affected family coats of arms and traditions concerning family origins of those bearing the Geier surname. Some oral traditions and family histories associate the Geier surname with the eagle (as in the "Eagle's Nest" coat of arms) and with a peasant legend concerning a baby-stealing bird of prey in a medieval Swabian or Saxonian village. Others associate the surname with the carrion-eating, bone-crushing variety of vulture. *[11]. See also *[12]. In modern times, it is not unusual for the vulture in family coats of arms or logos to be rendered as a comical caricature of a slumping and sad-sack buzzard rather than a lammergeier or gyrfalcon with "the bearing of an eagle." See, e.g., *[13]

Noteable Persons and Usages of “Geier”

Florian Geier

The most notorious historical personage bearing the name Geier was Florian Geier, commonly known as Florian Geyer, a Franconian nobleman who sided with the peasants in the Peasants War in the early 1500s and led the ill-fated Black Company of song and fable. See Friedrich Engels, The Peasant War in Germany, passim.

The Word "Geier" in Literary History"

Sir Walter Scott

The setting of the romantic novel by Sir Walter Scott, Anne of Geierstein, or The Maiden Of The Mist, *[14]set in Saxony, is more likely the Swiss mountain known as "Geierstein", rather than the Saxonian village Geyer typically associated with the origins of the name Geier or Geyer. See *[15], and for a summary of the novel, see *[16].

Sigmund Freud

A celebrated episode in the history of psychoanalytic theory has been attributed to Sigmund Freud's misreading of the Italian word for "kite" as "vulture", mistranslating it as the German word "Geier" and building upon it a somewhat pornographic interpretation of one of Leonardo Da Vinci's dreams. *[17]. See *[Coco, J.M. (2002). Freud, Leonardo Da Vinci, and The Vulture's Tail: A Refreshing Look At Leonardo's Sexuality. J. Amer. Psychoanal. Assn., 50:1375-1383 [18]. See also Schroter, M., Two Empirical Notes on Freud's Leonardo, Int J Psychoanal. 1994Feb;75 ( Pt 1):87-100.

Florian Geier

The most common references to the word Geier in literary history have been associated with Florian Geyer, also known as Florian Geier, as discussed in the preceding section. Aside from his prominent place in Frederick Engels, The Peasant War in Germany (1850), Florian Geier was also the problemmatic hero of one of Gerhart Hauptmann's major plays, the historical drama entitled Florian Geyer, also known as Florian Geier, published in 1896. *[19]. The German folk anthem, "Wir sind des Geyers schwarzer Haufen" ("We are the Black Band of Geyer") is now a radical union hymn in the United States and Australia. *[20]

William Butler Yeats

The famous opening lines of William Butler Yeats' Poem The Second Coming (1921)

"Turning and turning in the widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world...."

should not be associated with the word Geier, despite the images of falconry included in the verse. In this context, as in his postumously published poem, The Gyres, the term "gyre" refers to Yeats' geometric conception of time and history as represented by concentric vortexes or spirals, such as those inscribed by a circling bird, rather than to the bird itself. See *[[21]

Phil Geier

One professional baseball player bearing the Geier surname is recorded--Phil Geier, aka "Little Phil", who played for several major league teams between 1896 and 1904 and won the American Association batting title in 1903. *[22]; *[23].

Ship Names

Several ships of German registry have borne the name Geier. These included: 1. The Geier, 1916-1917, a captured British freighter named St. Theodore, which was scuttled by the Germans near the end of World War I. *[24]. 2. The SMS Geier, a German sloop which put into the supposedly neutral United States port at Honolulu, Hawaii, at the onset of World War I, but was there taken by the United States cruiser USS St. Louis, and after a protracted international legal dispute, re-commissioned in the United States Navy as the USS Schurz and eventually sunk following a collision off the coast of North Carolina. *[25] 3. The Geier, a German patrol boat carrying a crew of 40, currently in the 7th Fast Patrol Boat (FPB) Squadron and scheduled to be sold to the Tunisian Navy. *[26]

Other Usages

The word Geier is associated with the German card game "Hols der Geier" (literally "Vulture take it!" or "Confound it!" *[27]. It is also associated with a notorious and arguably inhumane method of animal husbandry known as the Geier Hitch. It is thought that the surname Geier may pertain to the Saxonian village of Geyer *[28], although this is speculative.

Other Persons

Well known representatives of the Geier surname include the Geier Glove Company (*[29]) and the Geier Sausage Company (*[30]), neither of which have any necessary connection with each other or any other American bearer of the Geier surname. Another well-known representative of the Geier name was the founder of the Cincinnati Screw and Tap Company, Frederick V. Geier whose company is still controlled by the Geier family (but now known as Cincinnati Milacron, Inc. *[31]). This branch of the Geier family has been prominent in Cincinatti civic and social affairs since the early 1900s, and has endowed the Geier Collections and Research Center of the Museum of Natural History and Science in Cincinnati. *[32]. A number of academics, scholars, musicians and musical groups, businesses and professionals in the United States and Europe also bear the name "Geier".

See also

• Mark Geier
• Florian Geier
• Geier Hitch
• Black Company
• German Wikipedia site about the knight Florian Geyer in German
• German Wikipedia site about the name Geier in German
• Vulture
• Gyrfalcon
• Egyptian vulture
• Lammergeier