Hermann Steudner

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Hermann Steudner monument in the city ​​park of Görlitz

Hermann Steudner (born September 1, 1832 in Greiffenberg in Silesia , † April 10, 1863 in Waw in Sudan ) was a Silesian-Prussian , German naturalist and African explorer .

Live and act

Steudner was born in Greiffenberg, Silesia, the son of a canvas merchant, went to school in Görlitz and studied botany, mineralogy and medicine in Berlin and Würzburg . In Berlin, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg , Heinrich Wilhelm Dove and Carl Ritter were among his teachers. In Würzburg he was friends with Ernst Haeckel , with whom he attended lectures given by Rudolf Virchow and August Schenk .

After he returned to Berlin, he made friends with Karl Heinrich Koch , became a member of the Society of Friends of Natural Sciences in Berlin, and was then persuaded by Heinrich Barth to take part in a German expedition to the Nile countries under Theodor von Heughlin . The expedition was tasked with clearing up the fate of the missing Africa explorer Eduard Vogel .

Africa trip map

Coming from Alexandria , Steudner accompanied Heughlin in 1861 via Suez and on the ship across the Red Sea to Massaua . During the voyage they carried out marine biological studies and observed birds on the Dahlak archipelago . The further journey led through the highlands of Abyssinia via Keren (in the land of the Bogos ) to Adua , where they met the botanist Wilhelm Schimper . From here they turned to Gonder and south of it over Magdala to the war camp of the Abyssinian emperor Theodoros II (Twodoros) at Edschebet to ask for safe conduct. The return trip was from Lake Tana in a north-westerly direction to the Blue Nile and Khartoum , which they reached in July 1862.

Heughlin had been withdrawn from leading the expedition because of the deviation from the planned route. He used the compulsory break together with Steudner for a three-week trip through Kurdufan . In 1863 they accompanied the Dutch adventurer Alexandrine Tinné's expedition from Khartoum to Bar el Ghasal and Lake Rek . Further action to the west over the Djurfluss succumbed Steudner in the village of Wau in 1863 a malaria disease .

Honors

Steudner's careful reports in the journal for general geography 1862–1864 were of great importance, since long stretches he traveled had not been explored by any botanist before. A memorial was erected in Görlitz in honor of Eduard Lürssen . The dwarf desert gecko bears his name as do some plant species. Karl Koch named the plant genus Steudnera K. Koch from the Araceae family after him .

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Hermann Steudner ( memento from July 18, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) in the Upper Lusatia Biographical Lexicon
  2. ↑ 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 .
personal data
SURNAME Steudner, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naturalist and African explorer
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Greiffenberg , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1863
Place of death Waw