Johannes Fleischer the Younger

Johannes Fleischer (the younger, born October 11, ^jul. / 21st October  1582 ^greg. In Breslau , † 1608 in Jamestown (Virginia) ) was among the first that reached from Germany North America, and was the first physician and academically trained botanist in New England .

Life

Fleischer was the eldest son of the Breslau pastor of the same name, Johannes Fleischer . His mother died when he was five years old and his father when he was eleven.

He first studied at the Brandenburg University of Frankfurt and then went to the University of Basel , where he studied with the doctor and botanist Caspar Bauhin . Bauhin later mentions him among the collaborators in his book Prodromos theatri botanici , published in 1620 (preliminary work on the botanical encyclopedia). In 1606 he received his doctorate in medicine.

He was the only non-British among the 105 men who sailed in 1607 with the three ships Susan Constant , Godspeed and Discovery on behalf and for the account of the Virginia Company of London in the Chesapeake Bay , where they sailed on May 14th in the James River Jamestown (Virginia) founded the first permanently settled English colony in North America (13 years before the Pilgrim Fathers ). It was Fleischer's interest and task to research the plants of the new colony and to check them for their usefulness as medicinal plants .

Due to the harsh conditions in Jamestown, Fleischer was unable to take the desired first botanical steps in North America. By January 1608, fewer than 40 of the 105 men survived. The main causes of death were diarrhea, typhoid, and salt water poisoning. Fleischer also died in the summer of 1608.

literature

• Gary Carl Grassl: The First Germans in America. Global Printing, Alexandria 2008

Web links

• Fleischer, Johann. In: Johann Heinrich Zedler : Large complete universal lexicon of all sciences and arts . Volume 9, Leipzig 1735, column 1211.
• Article in: FAZ