Christoph Friedrich Hegelmaier

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Christoph Friedrich Hegelmaier

Christoph Friedrich Hegelmaier (born September 4, 1833 in Sülzbach near Heilbronn , † May 26, 1906 in Tübingen ) was a German botanist. His botanical author's abbreviation is “ Hegelm. "

Live and act

Christoph Friedrich Hegelmaier went to school in the seminar in Urach and was interested in the species-rich flora of the Swabian Alb. He studied medicine in Tübingen and not theology, as would be expected from his schooling. After his doctorate as Dr. med. in 1857 Hegelmaier worked as a military doctor in Ulm . In 1862 he studied botany in Berlin with Alexander Braun . In 1864 he completed his habilitation in Tübingen and was appointed associate professor in 1867 and full honorary professor in 1902. Here, in addition to the institute directors Hugo von Mohl , Wilhelm Hofmeister , Simon Schwendener , Wilhelm Pfeffer and Hermann Vöchting , he taught and researched systematic and applied botany, later specifically forest botany.

Based on Braun's comparative-morphological research direction, Hegelmaier has supplemented this with studies of developmental history. In his “Monograph of the genus Callitriche ” (1864) he not only promoted the systematics of the “ water stars”, which are characterized by a strongly reduced flower structure , but also made important contributions with regard to histology , development history and way of life. Among other things, he succeeded in proving the terminal formation of the single stamen of the male flowers. The large monograph on the Lemna , "the Lemnaceae" (1868), in which he laid theoretical views on these plant species, was the occasion lively discussions. Since then, the knowledge of the construction and development of the Lemnaceae as well as the Callitrichaceae has not been significantly expanded since Hegelmaier.

Hegelmaier's investigations into the development of the embryo of the monocotyledons and dicotyledons as well as the structure and history of the development of the endosperm (partial constriction and obliteration of the embryo sac, convolutive cotyledons , polyembryonia and others) were fundamental . The "Comparative Studies on the Development of Dicotyledoner Germs" (1878) belong - according to Adolf Engler's judgment - alongside Eduard Strasburger's textbook on botany to the most important enrichments that embryology was given at the time.

Even in modern textbooks and handbooks one encounters excellent illustrations from Hegelmaier's treatises. His herbarium , which, in addition to the supporting material for his publications, mainly contains mosses , liverworts and plants from the Mediterranean region he has repeatedly visited, forms a valuable part of the Rosenstein Castle Museum in Stuttgart. Hegelmaier had been a member of the Leopoldina since 1873 .

Grave in the Tübingen city cemetery

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. Engelhardt, S. Seybold: The collectors of fern and flowering plants of the herbarium of the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart (STU) . Annual Ges. Naturkunde Württemberg 165/2, Stuttgart 2009. Pages 69–70
  2. ↑ Member entry of Christoph Friedrich Hegelmaier at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on October 17, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Hegelmaier, Christoph Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hegelm. (botanical author abbreviation)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist
DATE OF BIRTH September 4, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Sülzbach
DATE OF DEATH May 26, 1906
Place of death Tübingen