Carl Theodor Hilsenberg

Carl Theodor Hilsenberg (born March 11, 1802 in Erfurt ; † September 11, 1824 in Sainte Marie near Madagascar ) was a German naturalist and botanist who carried out botanical and zoological studies in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands in the early 1820s . He often accompanied the botanist Wenceslas Bojer of Bohemian origin on his excursions. Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Hils. "

Life

After graduating from high school, Hilsenberg learned the trade of surgery from his father Z. Casper Hilsenberg . He also attended lectures and courses with Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff , Georg Heinrich Thilow and Johann Jakob Bernhardi . At the age of 17 Hilsenberg went to Vienna, where he initially worked as a surgeon. Here he made the acquaintance of the botanist Leopold Trattinnick , who gave him an assistant position in his botanical cabinet. He was also in the service of Joseph August Schultes , who commissioned him to make copies of large botanical works from the library. At the beginning of 1820 Hilsenberg became secretary to Franz Wilhelm Sieber . Both first went on a trip to Munich, where Sieber wanted to sell his botanical collection from Egypt. In spring 1820 Hilsenberg and Sieber went on a botanical excursion to Tyrol . On the return journey, however, they parted ways in Bolzano , so that Hilsenberg traveled all over Tyrol alone and often at risk of death.

In March 1821 Hilsenberg and the botanist Wenceslas Bojer of Bohemian origin set out for Mauritius , which they reached in July of the same year after a 105-day crossing. Bojer and Hilsenberg discovered numerous new plant taxa on Mauritius and Réunion . Furthermore, on behalf of Robert Townsend Farquhar (1776-1830), the then governor of Mauritius, they went on an expedition to the interior of Madagascar, which was unexplored by Europeans, where Hilsenberg spent 1½ years. His abundant harvest of seeds, plants and animals was sent to the Linnean Society of London . Some of the botanical material was described posthumously by Bojer, naming Hilsenberg as a co-author. In 1822 Hilsenberg wrote the first scientific description of the dark albatross ( Phoebetria fusca ), based on a specimen that was caught in the Strait of Mozambique .

Hilsenberg returned to Mauritius in October 1823. After a short stay there he traveled again to Madagascar, where he fell ill with malaria ("Madagascar fever") in August 1824 and died from it at the age of 22 on September 11, 1824 on the island of Sainte Marie .

Dedication names

After Hilsenberg include Habenaria hilsenbergii , Streptocarpus hilsenbergii , Dombeya hilsenbergii , Cyclosorus hilsenbergii and Scleria hilsenbergii named.

literature

• Friedrich August Schmidt, Bernhard Friedrich Voight: New necrology of the Germans 3rd year, 1825.

Web links

• Author entry and list of the plant names described for Carl Theodor Hilsenberg at the IPNI