Carlos Berg
Carlos Berg , originally Friedrich Wilhelm Karl Berg , (born March 21, 1843 in Sillen , Tukums District , Courland Governorate , † January 19, 1902 in Buenos Aires ) was a German-Baltic- Argentine entomologist , botanist , paleontologist and museum director.
Life
Berg was the son of a carpenter and was tutored by his father and a private tutor on the estate of the Prince von Lieven in Senten before he attended the district school in Tuckum and in 1859 began an apprenticeship as a businessman in Mitau and Riga . At the same time he completed a teacher training with the exam as a private tutor in 1871 (but without being able to finance a study), where he had particularly good grades in languages and biology. He was then a private teacher in Riga, but also collected insects in the Baltic States and traded with them and was active in the Natural Scientists Association of Riga from 1865, on whose board of directors he was from 1868. From 1871 he also taught physics and chemistry at the preparatory school of the Riga Polytechnic.
He attracted attention beyond Riga through the breeding of the Japanese oak silk moth . In 1873 he went to Argentina at the invitation of Hermann Burmeister and collected for the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales Bernardino Rivadavia , where he was curator and lecturer. In 1874 he became a professor in Buenos Aires and at the national academy in Córdoba (at the same time he received a PhD in Germany, although he did not have a high school diploma) and was on a collecting trip to Patagonia . He made many collecting trips in Argentina, Chile and Uruguay .
Berg was until the time from 1890 to 1892, when he was director of the Museum of Montevideo and his close colleague Eduardo L. Holmberg (1852-1937) represented him in Buenos Aires, at the Natural History Museum in Buenos Aires and was there in 1892 successor Burmeister as director. He modernized the exhibitions and founded the museum's magazine (Comunicaciones del Museo Nacional de Buenos Aires). In 1897 he was a delegate of the University of Buenos Aires at the International Zoological Congress in Kiel, where he also visited Riga and Courland again.
In addition to entomology, he dealt with vertebrate paleontology. As an entomologist, he was particularly concerned with butterflies and bees and their symbiotic relationship with different plant species. He also collected plants.
He was an honorary citizen of the Republic of Argentina and a member of the Kurland Society for Science and Art (1876).
A street in Montevideo is named after him.
In Buenos Aires, Argentina, in the Villa Soldati sector , a street and metro bus station is named Carlos Berg.
A district of General Pico , city in La Pampa (Province of Argentina) also bears his name. On August 27, 1907, a station of the Ferrocarril al Pacífico railway company in Argentina, La Pampa province, was inaugurated as Estacion Carlos Berg. The station building is now a branch of General Pico's town hall.
Fonts
- Patagonian lepidoptera observed on a voyage in 1874, Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscou 49 (4), 1875, pp. 191-247
- Enumeración de las plantas européas que se hallan como silvestres en la provincia de Buenos Aires y en Patagonia, Buenos Aires: Coni 1877, Biodiversity Library
- Hemiptera argentina enumeravit speciesque novas descripsit Carolus Berg, Buenos Aires 1879
- Contribución al estudio de la fauna entomológica de Patagonia, to. Soc. Client. Argent. 4 (2), 1877, pp. 87-102, pp. 199-211
- Contributions to the Lepidoptors of Patagonia, Bull. Soc. imp. Nat. Moscou 52 (3), 1877, pp. 1-22
- Estudios Lepidopterológicus acerce de la fauna Argentina y oriental. Soc. cient. Argent. 3, 1877, pp. 228-242.
- Tratado elemental de zoologia, Montevideo 1893
literature
- EL Holmberg : En Honor del Dr. Carlos Berg. In: Boletin del Instituto Geografico Argentino. 18, 1897, pp. 372-378.
Web links
- Baltic Historical Commission (ed.): Entry on Carlos Berg. In: BBLD - Baltic Biographical Lexicon digital
- Biography at Global Plants, Natural History Museum London
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Berg, Carlos |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Berg, Friedrich Wilhelm Karl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German-Baltic-Argentine entomologist, botanist, paleontologist and museum director |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 21, 1843 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Sillen , Tukums District , Courland Governorate |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 19, 1902 |
| Place of death | Buenos Aires |