Karl Asmund Rudolphi

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Karl Asmund Rudolphi lithograph by Adolf Kunike , around 1820

Karl Asmund Rudolphi (born July 14, 1771 in Stockholm , † November 29, 1832 in Berlin ) was a Swedish-born German physician, anatomist and physiologist, botanist and zoologist . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Rudolphi ".

Life

Karl Asmund Rudolphi was the son of the Magdeburg vice principal of the German school in Stockholm and preacher Johann Daniel Bernhard Rudolphi († 1778). His mother, Elenora Katharina Margareta Elisabeth von Thienen († 1802), daughter of a businessman, came from Stralsund .

K. A. Rudolphi visited Stralsund, which at that time belonged to Swedish Pomerania , the Sundisches Gymnasium in Katharinenkloster , one of his classmates was Ernst Moritz Arndt . In 1790 Rudolphi began studying natural sciences and medicine at the then Swedish University of Greifswald . He heard lectures by the surgeon Lorenz Wilhelm von Haselberg (1764–1844) and natural sciences with Christian Ehrenfried Weigel (1748–1831). In 1793 he received his doctorate in philosophy, a prerequisite for obtaining a medical doctorate in Greifswald, subject of the dissertation Observationes circa vermes intestinales . This was followed by study visits to the medical faculties in Jena , where he attended lectures by Christoph Wilhelm Hufeland (1762–1836), and in Berlin. In 1795 he went to Dresden, Karlsbad, Erlangen, Fulda, Göttingen and the Harz Mountains to botanize. From 1794 Rudolphi was a member of the St. John's Masonic Lodge.

He received his doctorate in medicine in 1795, it was the extended dissertation on the first topic Observationes circa vermes intestinales (pars II) . The Venia Legendi for the subjects anatomy, physiology and therapy applied for Rudolphi on April 5, 1796, after he defended his habilitation De ventriculis cerebri before the medical faculty. In 1797 he received the venia legendi at the University of Greifswald .

Karl Asmund Rudolphi married Friederike Eleonore Wilhelmine in 1797, but she died in 1801. With her he had two daughters. In 1802 he again undertook an extensive study trip through Germany, Holland, France, Switzerland and Austria, during which he visited botanical gardens as well as natural history collections and veterinary institutions. His work on the anatomy of plants (1807), in which he detailed the structure and function of the stomata and the cell tissue, was recognized by the Göttingen Society of Sciences.

In 1802 he married again. His second wife Charlotte Wilhelmine was the eldest daughter of the Greifswald mayor Siegfried Joachim Meyer (1751-1833). The marriage resulted in three daughters and one son. The daughters died prematurely, the son Karl Eduard Rudolphi later also worked as a doctor. At the newly founded veterinary institute in Greifswald, K. A. Rudolphi became professor of veterinary medicine in 1801 (from 1808 full professor of anatomy) and was appointed assessor of the health college. He had turned down calls to St. Petersburg and Uppsala , but in 1810 he accepted the chair for anatomy and physiology at the newly founded Berlin University . It was preceded by a recommendation from Wilhelm von Humboldt . K. A. Rudolphi taught anatomy, botany and zoology and at the same time became director of the anatomical-zootomics museum, which he ultimately made a respected research institute. From 1816 he was also a teacher at the medical-surgical Königl. Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institut and at the Military Academy as well as a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences .

In February 1820 he wrote a few letters to the Minister Karl vom Stein zum Altenstein in order to receive the promised “iron advance” for running the expenses that were not fixed according to the budget. But the expected success did not materialize. So K. A. Rudolphi decided to resign from his museum. The letter of March 10, 1820, reproduced in part, also illuminates the amount of his salary:

"Your High Born, I obediently request that the enclosed letter, in which I ask for a different position as director of the anatomical theater and museum, or for my dismissal as director, to be handed over to a high ministry. (...) All my colleagues are in more pleasant circumstances . Weiss and Lichtenstein live near their museums, which are priceless and cannot be made up for by any location. Mine is only half as much as I give for my apartment. Their calculations are simple, Link, Berend, Grafe don't do any. I have to keep calculating and am always in advance, so that I often have to borrow money myself again. Meckel in Halle receives a sum to maintain his cabinet every year, and of course he has no calculation, and after his death his cabinet is an important asset for his family. (...) I am also at a disadvantage in another way. When I was called here, I went here with a salary of 1,500 thousand dollars without acting in the slightest, although shortly before I had turned down with 3,000 thousand just because I could do little in Upsala, here a lot hoped When I came here, my salary was divided between the university and the academy, which meant that I lost 200 thousand, because all professors who are academics (Boeckh, Rühs, Wilken etc.) got so much extra in addition to their salaries as academics . I, although appointed as a university teacher with 1 500 th [alern], cannot claim it. (...) "

The minister Karl Freiherr vom Stein zum Altenstein did not comply with the request to resign the management of his museum and asked K. A. Rudolphi to take care of the previous issues, but he granted him all possible facilitation of the tour. The ministry also increased the “iron advance” to 400 thaler and indicated the possibility of living in an official apartment on the university campus, although at that time there was no possibility. Converted to 1000 thalers in this period, from 1819 to 1838, can be assumed at around 16,000 €.

His son-in-law was the Bohemian physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkyně . In 1827 he had married Julia Rudolphi (1800-1835), Rudolphi's daughter.

He was rector of the Berlin University in the university years 1813/1814 and 1824/1825. The following memberships existed: Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , Society for Nature and Medicine in Berlin, Member of the Imperial Leopoldine-Carolinian Academy of Natural Scientists , Scientific Deputation for the Medical System. From 1803 he was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg and from 1819 of the Académie des Sciences .

Karl Asmund Rudolphi died in Berlin in 1832 at the age of 61 and was buried in Cemetery I of the Jerusalem and New Church parish in front of Hallesches Tor . The grave has not been preserved.

Scientific achievement

Already in Greifswald he delivered the important work on intestinal worms and the anatomy of plants, which gave him a special reputation .

Later he only dealt with the anatomy of vertebrates . In Berlin he gave the study of comparative anatomy a powerful impetus and founded the Zootomic Museum, from which the Museum of Natural History emerged .

Honors

Rudolphi was awarded the 3rd Class Red Eagle Order in 1821 and the Swedish North Star Order in 1828 . The plant genera Rudolphia Willd were named after him and after a councilor Rudolph from St. Petersburg . and Neorudolphia Britton from the legume family (Fabaceae).

Fonts (selection)

  • Observations on the intestinal worms . In: Archive for Zoology and Zootomy , 2, 1801, pp. 1–65, ub.uni-frankfurt.de
  • New observations on the intestinal worms . In: Archive for Zoology and Zootomy , 3, 1803, pp. 1–32, ub.uni-frankfurt.de
  • Remarks from the Field of Natural History, Medicine, and Thierarzney Studies: Gathered On A Journey Through Part Of Germany, Holland, And France . In the secondary school bookstore, Berlin 1804
  • Entozoorum sive vermium intestinalium historia naturalis (Amsterdam 1808-10, 3 vols.), Of which the synopsis entozoorum (Berlin 1819) is an extract
  • Outline of Physiology (Berlin 1821–1828, 3 volumes; unfinished)
  • Anatomy of Plants (Berlin 1807)
  • Contributions to anthropology and general natural history (Berlin 1812)

editor

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Asmund Rudolphi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Conversion, purchasing power as a measure of the value of money ( memento of the original from January 2, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / fredriks.de
  2. ↑ Portrait of Julia Purkyně, b. Rudolphi
  3. ↑ Karl Asmund Rudolphi. In: History: Rectors and Presidents. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, accessed on September 4, 2018 .
  4. ↑ 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. 207.
  5. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Karl Asmund Rudolphi. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 21, 2015 .
  6. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter R. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 24, 2020 (French).
  7. ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende: Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 216.
  8. ↑ 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 Rudolphi, Karl Asmund
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physician, naturalist, botanist and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 14, 1771
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm
DATE OF DEATH November 29, 1832
Place of death Berlin