Christian Konrad Sprengel

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Christian Conrad Sprengel around 1790

Christian Konrad Sprengel (born September 22, 1750 in Brandenburg an der Havel , † April 7, 1816 in Berlin ) was a Prussian, German theologian, botanist and naturalist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " CKSpreng. "

Live and act

Memorial plaque to Sprengel in the Botanical Garden Berlin
Illustration from The mystery of nature discovered in the construction and fertilization of flowers

Sprengel studied theology and philosophy in Halle and was initially a teacher in Berlin from 1774 and rector of the grammar school in Spandau near Berlin from 1780 to 1794 . He taught German, Latin, Greek, French, religion, mathematics and natural history. But he got into trouble with the church superiors through suggestions to reduce or separate classes and to shorten devotions or prayers. He then fell ill on charges of gross upbringing or mistreatment and even had to quit school in 1794 because of alleged neglect of his duties. After his early retirement, he lived as a private scholar in Berlin. He was now giving private lessons and, on the advice of his doctor Ernst Ludwig Heim , he dealt with nature.

From around 1787, Sprengel researched the pollination of flowers and the interrelationships between plants and insects . In 1790 he discovered, among other things, the narrow-leaved willow herb , the cross-pollination . With his groundbreaking work "The discovered secret of nature in the construction and fertilization of flowers" (Berlin 1793) he was the founder of modern flower ecology . During his lifetime, however, he was denied recognition for his fundamental work. The most prominent opponent of Sprengel's discovery was Goethe , who accused him of subordinating nature to a human understanding. However, Sprengel's work only received real recognition many years after his death by Charles Darwin .

Christian Konrad Sprengel died in Berlin in 1816 at the age of 65. He was buried in the cemetery of the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder parishes . The tomb has not been preserved.

Honors

The Christian-Konrad-Sprengel-Oberschule in Berlin-Spandau, the Konrad-Sprengel-Grundschule and the Sprengelstraße in Brandenburg an der Havel commemorate the important son of the city. Furthermore, the Sprengelstrasse in the Berlin districts of Berlin-Spandau , Wedding and Wilhelmstadt in Spandau are named after him, in the district of Lichterfelde a monument in the botanical garden still commemorates the great botanist.

The plant genus Sprengelia Sm. From the family of the heather plants (Ericaceae) is named after Sprengel .

See also

Works

  • The basic work for the study of the pollination of flowers and insects; The usefulness of bees and the necessity of beekeeping, illustrated from another page , 1811

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Christian Konrad Sprengel  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymic plant names - extended edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
  2. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 . P. 105.
  3. ↑ https://www.landlive.de/blogs/entries/923/
personal data
SURNAME Sprengel, Christian Konrad
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sprengel, Christian Conrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian and naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH September 22, 1750
PLACE OF BIRTH Brandenburg on the Havel
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1816
Place of death Berlin