Friedrich August Ludwig von Burgsdorff

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Friedrich August Ludwig von Burgsdorff (born March 23, 1747 in Leipzig , † June 16, 1802 in Berlin ) was a German botanist , forest scientist and royal Prussian chief forester of the Kurmark Brandenburg and a secret forest adviser. Its official botanical author's abbreviation is “ Burgsd. ".

Friedrich August Ludwig von Burgsdorff

origin

Burgsdorff was the only son of the Gotha chief hunter in Altenburg Gottlieb von Burgsdorff (* 1691; † May 12, 1754), who died when his son was just 7 years old. His mother was his third wife, Caroline Henriette von Stein (* September 8, 1711, † August 16, 1789), a daughter of Lieutenant Colonel and stable master Heinrich Sebastian von Stein .

Life

The tallest tree in Berlin that von Burgsdorff planted in the Tegeler Forst in 1795 (as of 2012), the Burgsdorff larch (left)

He initially took up the military career, but had to give it up due to an unfortunate incident and entered the Gotha forest service. From 1762 he did a forestry and hunting apprenticeship in Georgenthal and then became a hunting page at the Gotha court. From 1767 he completed his Grand Tour through Germany, Holland, England and France. After his return he visited relatives in Prussia and heard lectures in Berlin with Johann Gottlieb Gleditsch at the newly founded forest school. On June 25, 1773 he married Friederike Sophie von Burgsdorff from the Grünrade house.

Despite some protection, it proved difficult to find a job. In 1777 he took over the Central and Uckermärkische Forstratsstelle (Central and Uckermärkische Forstratsstelle) with a job in the chief forester Tegel . There he set up a softwood seed kiln and began trading tree seeds. He also began to publish forest science essays, which is what attracted attention to him. On June 11, 1782 he was accepted into the Society of Natural Scientists in Berlin . In this company he suggested in 1789 the investigation of the incidents in the Tegel forestry shop (he himself was now living in Berlin), which became known as Spuk von Tegel and even found its way into Goethe's Faust I (“Das Teufelspack, it doesn't ask for any rule. / We are so smart, and yet Tegel is haunted. ”).

In 1786 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . In 1787 he was commissioned by Friedrich Wilhelm II to “teach the ignorant hunting pages in forest science” and to write a forest manual. In addition, he held public lectures as director of the Forest Academy in Berlin. On October 1, 1789, he was accepted into the Berlin Academy of Sciences . In 1797 he was appointed head forest master of the Brandenburg Kurmark and privy councilor. His wife died on August 31, 1784 after giving birth to their eighth child. On January 19, 1785, he married her sister.

His tree seed trade had expanded somewhat. He delivered tree seeds as far as North America. The Burgsdorff boxes , which contained a uniform set of 100 types of tree seeds or cuttings, and instructions on how these should be planted became known.

On January 15, 1801, he suffered a stroke from which he initially recovered. He died on June 18, 1802 after a fever at the age of 55. In the Tegel district, a boulder with an inscription on the Schwarzen Weg near the Reiherwerder peninsula and a plaque next to a larch he planted at the time , which is now the tallest tree in Berlin, commemorate the deserved forest scientist and botanist.

Colored copper engraving of the common horse chestnut from an accompanying booklet in Burgsdorff's forest manual

Works

  • Contributions to the expansion of forest science. 1780, digitized
  • Attempt a complete history of excellent wood species. 2 parts. 1783 u. 1887/1800
  • Instructions for safe upbringing and appropriate planting of the native and foreign species of wood, which thrive in Germany and under a similar climate in Freyen . 2 vols. Berlin 1787, volume 1 , volume 2
  • Treatise on the advantages of unlined, extensive cultivation of some in the Königl. Prussian states still digitized unusual types of wood
  • Forestry manual or general theoretical-practical teaching term for all forestry sciences. 2 vols. 1788/1796, volume 1 , volume 2
  • Illustration of the hundred German wild wood species according to the number directory in the forest manual of FAL Burgsdorf. Colored copper engravings by Johann Daniel Reitter and Gottlieb Friedrich Abel (1750–1822) as a supplement to the forest manual. 5 booklets. Stuttgart 1790–1795, digitized
  • Introduction to dendrology or systematic outline of forest nature and natural history: designed ... to provide an overview and guide for teaching these sciences as a supplement to the first part of the forest handbook. 1800, digitized
  • Treatise on knocking over or clearing forest trees. Szczecin 1801

family

He married Frederike Sophie von Burgsdorff (* November 14, 1752, † August 31, 1784) from the Grünrade house on June 25, 1773 in Grünrade near Königsberg . The couple had several children including:

  • August (May 2, 1774 - October 12, 1780)
  • Wilhelm Karl Friedrich (born May 3, 1775; † February 16, 1849), director of Trakehnen ∞ Amalie von Normann (born June 1, 1780; † October 5, 1848)
  • Ludwig Julius Ferdinand (* December 27, 1777; † in Russia) royal Prussian forestry commissioner
  • Karl Friedrich Wilhelm (born February 15, 1781 - † April 8, 1858), chief forest master
∞ 1810 (divorced 1817) Henriette von Borcke (born April 27, 1788)
∞ 1818 Henriette von Puttkamer (* February 25, 1799; † December 30, 1878)
  • Friedrich Wilhelm Karl (February 15, 1781 - November 14, 1837) ∞ Sophie von Buddenbrock (January 1, 1781 - April 16, 1844)
  • Charlotte Caroline Henriette Louise (7 May 1782 - 23 December 1862)

After the death of his first wife, he married her sister Magarethe Tugendreich von Burgsdorff on January 19, 1785 (* December 1, 1741, † December 14, 1808)

Honors

A genus Burgsdorfia Moench from the mint family (Lamiaceae) was named after him.

literature

  • Yearbook of the German nobility . Volume 1, 1896, p.381
  • Richard Heß:  Burgsdorf, Friedrich August Ludwig von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1876, pp. 613-615.
  • Anonymous: biography of the master forester v. Burgsdorff , p. 413ff. in: The Society of Friends of Natural Science in Berlin, New Writings . 4th vol., 1803, ( online )
  • CL Wildenow, Treatises of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , p.30ff
  • Rolf Straubel : Biographical manual of the Prussian administrative and judicial officials 1740–1806 / 15 . In: Historical Commission to Berlin (Ed.): Individual publications . 85. KG Saur Verlag, Munich 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-23229-9 , pp. 159 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  • Clemens Alexander Wimmer: "Friedrich August Ludwig von Burgsdorf's 'Instructions' as a source for the use of wood in the early landscape garden", in: Zandera 6 (1991), pp. 1-20

Web links

Commons : Friedrich August Ludwig von Burgsdorff  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Faust I, Walpurgis night scene
  2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 54.
  3. ↑ In Jagen 92 of the Tegeler Forest, near Mühlenweg.
  4. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]
personal data
SURNAME Burgsdorff, Friedrich August Ludwig von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burgsdorf, Friedrich August Ludwig von; Burgsdorff, Fréderic A. de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist, forest scientist and Prussian forest official
DATE OF BIRTH March 23, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH June 16, 1802
Place of death Berlin