Friedrich von Wurmb

The title of this article is ambiguous. Further meanings are listed under Friedrich von Wurmb (disambiguation) .

Christoph Carl Friedrich von Wurmb (born July 2, 1742 in Wolkramshausen , † March 1781 in Batavia ) was a German botanist . He was also known by the name of Frederick van Wurmb . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Wurmb ".

Live and act

Carl Friedrich von Wurmb came from Thuringia , from the noble von Wurmb family . His parents were the electoral Saxon captain Gottfried von Wurmb (1704–1743), who died soon after his birth, and Luise von Wolzüge (1717–1763). His older brother Ludwig von Wurmb (1740-1811) was later governor and major in Rudolstadt, his younger sister Luise Juliane (1743-1823) married the Reschwitz-Rudolstädter Oberlandjägermeister and forest scientist Carl Christoph von Lengefeld (1715-1775) and brought two famous ones Daughters, Caroline (1763-1847) and Charlotte (1766-1822), to the world.

When he and his brother Ludwig fell in love with the same woman, Christiane von Werthern (1750–1778), Carl Friedrich decided to put Frau von Werthern in his brother's hands and leave the country. Accordingly, in the autumn of 1774 he went to Java via Amsterdam as a subcontractor for the Dutch East India Company . His brother married Frau von Werthern in June 1776, and his sister's son-in-law, Friedrich Schiller , wrote his short story A Magnanimous Plot about this episode .

Carl Friedrich von Wurmb resided in Batavia ; his house has been preserved. It is two buildings away from the “Imhoff House”; there are two lion sculptures in front of the entrance. Wurmb was one of the founders of the Royal Batavian Society of Arts and Sciences , acted as the society's secretary and published in its negotiations , for example on the taxonomy of palm trees and a recently killed Bornean orangutan . Its collections form the basis of today's National Museum and the National Library.

Honors

The genus Wurmbea Thunb. from the plant family of the timeless plants (Colchicaceae) has been named in his honor.

Works

• Letters from Herr von Wurmb and Herr Baron von Wollhaben on their travels to Africa and the East Indies between 1774 and 1792 . Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, Gotha 1794 ( digitized ).
  The first section of this work contains letters from Wurmb to his brother and his wife, the second section contains letters from Karl von Wolzüge (1764–1808), a brother of Ludwig von Wolzüge , from the years 1788 to 1792.
• Peculiarities from the East Indies, the country, peoples and natural history; from the papers of Herr von Wurmb, who was in the service of the Dutch company, and other reliable sources published by Major von Wurmb . Carl Wilhelm Ettinger, Gotha 1797.

literature

• Robert Zander : Zander concise dictionary of plant names. Edited by Fritz Encke , Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold . 13th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .

Web links

• Author entry and list of the plant names described for Friedrich von Wurmb at the IPNI

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pier Pernutz: Opening address for the exhibition "The forester Carl Christoph von Lengefeld - a green visionary". In: Specialized prose research - Crossing borders. Volume 10, 2014, p. 305 f.
2. ↑ Order of the Palm Boomers . In: Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Weetenschappen , Volume 1, 1781, p. 335 ff. ( Digitized version )
3. ↑ Beschryving van de groote Borneoosche Orang Outang of de East Indian Pongo . In: Verhandelingen van het Bataviaasch Genootschap der Konsten en Weetenschappen , Volume 2, 1784, p. 245 ff. ( Digitized version )
4. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous 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 .