Alexander Lehmann (explorer)

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Alexander Lehmann (born May 18 . Jul / the thirtieth May  1814 greg. In Tartu ; † August 30 jul. / 11. September  1842 greg. In Simbirsk ) was a German - Baltic explorer and geologist .

Life

Alexander Lehmann was the third son of the doctor Johann Adolph Lehmann and his wife Wilhelmine, born in Leipzig , from Leipzig . Fiddler. He grew up in Tartu, attended high school there and studied from 1833 to 1838 natural science at the local university . During the holidays he made small trips to Livonia , Finland and the island of Hochland to complete his natural history collection. Recommended by his teachers Friedrich Parrot and Moritz von Engelhardt to the natural scientist Karl Ernst von Baer , he accompanied him on his scientific trip to Novaya Zemlya in 1837 . In the inhospitable climate and under great privation, he contributed to new knowledge of science through his tireless botanical research and his report on the geognostic conditions of that Arctic island. He published his discoveries in the Bulletin scientifique de l'Académie de St. Pétersbourg .

On his return to Dorpat, Lehmann received the request from Orenburg's governor-general , Perowsky, to investigate the southern Urals under favorable conditions . In the spring of 1839 he started his trip to Orenburg and in summer explored the steppes of the Urals, mainly in zoological and botanical terms. Thereupon he joined the expedition to Khiva , but separated from it in the spring of 1840 and went to the east coast of the Caspian Sea , where the flora and fauna, rich in peculiar shapes, brought him a great deal, with whose order he won the winter spent in Orenburg. Here Perowsky obtained permission for Lehmann in Saint Petersburg to join the Russian embassy, ​​which the government sent to the Emir of Bukhara in May 1841 .

This arduous journey, but rich in discoveries, to the carefully irrigated fruit gardens of Bukhara and Samarkand offered many interesting, previously unknown natural products. In Bukhara, Lehmann climbed the summit of Karatau, researched the botanical, zoological and geognostic phenomena of the khanate and presented the results in his work Reise nach Bukhara und Samarkand (Saint Petersburg 1852), which, after Lehmann's death, was published by Gregor von Helmersen and Johann Friedrich von Brandt in the 17th volume of the contributions to the knowledge of the Russian Empire was published.

On his return trip to Orenburg in April 1842, Lehmann filled his portfolio with rare steppe plants, which he described in his work Contribution to the knowledge of the flora of Russia and the steppes of Central Asia (Saint Petersburg 1852, in: Mémoires de savants étrangers , vol. 7) . Nostalgia for Lehmann left Orenburg with his rich collections and rich diaries in July 1842, but fell ill on the way and died on August 30th July. / 11th September  1842 greg. a bilious nerve fever in Simbirsk at the age of only 28 years. The French entomologist and zoologist Édouard Ménétries Lehmann processed his extensive collection of insects ( Mémoires de l'Académie Impériale des Sciences de St. Pétersbourg , Vol. 8, Section Sciences Naturelles , Vol. 6, pp. 17-67, Saint Petersburg 1847) from his scientific estate ).

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personal data
SURNAME Lehmann, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Baltic German explorer and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1814
PLACE OF BIRTH Dorpat
DATE OF DEATH September 11, 1842
Place of death Simbirsk