Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg

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Johann Centurius, Count of Hoffmannsegg
Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg's grave in the Old Catholic Cemetery in Dresden

Johann Centurius Graf von Hoffmannsegg (born August 23, 1766 in Rammenau , † December 13, 1849 in Dresden ) was a Saxon botanist , entomologist and ornithologist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is “ Hoffmanns. "

origin

Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg was the son of the Electoral Saxon Privy Councilor Johann Albericius von Hoffmann, who was raised to the rank of imperial count as von Hoffmannsegg in 1778 . His mother was his wife, Amalie Elisabeth von Miltitz (1731–1780), daughter of the Reich Chamber Court Assessor Heinrich Gottlob von Miltitz (1687–1757) and Friederike Christine von Heynitz . His uncle Johann Georg von Hoffmann (1715–1769) was the monastery dean of Aschaffenburg.

Live and act

He studied history , geography , natural sciences and new languages in Leipzig and Göttingen . During this time his enthusiasm for botany and entomology grew and he resolved to become an explorer.

First, however, after the early death of his parents in 1788, he inherited his parents' houses in Dresden and his father's family estate in Rammenau , which he initially took over management. In 1794 he sold it to his brother-in-law Friedrich von Kleist from the Zützen family .

His first major trip took him to Hungary , Austria and Italy in 1793/94 . After that he concentrated mainly on Portugal , which he visited by ship in 1795/1796 together with the Leipzig Wilhelm Gottlieb Tilesius von Tilenau . He undertook the longer and more intensive research and collecting trips from 1797 to 1801 together with Heinrich Friedrich Link . For example, on a trip through France , Spain and Portugal, they collected over 2100 plants. Both published the Flore Portugaise , an overview of the flora of Portugal with over 100 color copper plates.

Hoffmannsegg had his large insect collection systematized by Johann Illiger (1775–1813) in Braunschweig . With over 16,000 copies, it was by far the largest collection to date.

Hoffmannsegg worked in Berlin from 1804 to 1816 , where he was elected a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1815 . In 1809 he founded the Zoological Museum in Berlin and suggested his friend Illiger for the post of curator . All of Hoffmannsegg's collections were then brought to Berlin, for which he and Wilhelm Friedrich Adolph Gerresheim were awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, Third Class, on November 2, 1810 .

In 1820 he bought the Rammenau estate back to spend his old age here and in Dresden. He now devoted himself to horticulture and plant breeding . At the age of 59 he married the 19-year-old Fanny Louise Johanna von Warnery. She was the daughter of the Prussian Rittmeister Christian Heinrich von Warnery and Charlotte Friederike Auguste von der Groeben, a daughter of Major General Karl Ernst August von der Groeben .

The marriage had son Conradin (* June 28, 1827, † 1898). Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg died in Dresden in 1849 and found his final resting place in the old Catholic cemetery there . His grave adjoins that of Carl Maria von Weber on the right.

Taxonomic honor

In his honor the genera Hoffmannseggia Cav. the legume family (Fabaceae) and Hoffmannseggella H.G. Jones from the orchid family (Orchidaceae).

literature

  • Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the count's houses 1874, Volume 47, S.368f
  • Carsten Eckert: Blossoms, Kerfe and Brazil's Treasures - Count von Hoffmannsegg as the museum's founder . In: Class, Order, Art - 200 Years of the Museum of Natural History . Berlin 2010, p. 112-117 .
  • Roswitha Förster: Baroque Rammenau Castle . Edition Leipzig, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-361-00551-5 , pp. 28–32.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Matthias Kade: Johannes Centurius von Hoffmannsegg (1766-1849) . In: Institute for Saxon History and Folklore (Ed.): Saxon Biography .
  2. ^ Ernst Heinrich Kneschke : New general German Adels-Lexicon , Volume 4, Leipzig 1863, p. 414.
  3. ↑ Order list of the knights and owners of the royal. Prussian Order in 1810, Berlin 1811, p. 44.
  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 Hoffmannsegg, Johann Centurius von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hoffmannsegg, Johann Centurius Graf von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist, entomologist and ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 23, 1766
PLACE OF BIRTH Rammenau
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1849
Place of death Dresden