Karl Semper

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Karl Semper

Karl Gottfried Semper or Carl Semper (* July 6, 1832 in Altona ; † May 29, 1893 in Würzburg ) was a German naturalist, zoologist and explorer. He was the nephew of the famous architect Gottfried Semper .

Life

Karl Semper was a son of the factory owner Johann Karl Semper (born March 14, 1796 in Hamburg ; † February 5, 1881 in Altona) and his first wife Elisabeth, née Heyne (born April 6, 1803 in Altona; † October 2, 1834 there ). The brother Otto Semper came from this marriage . From the second marriage of the father to Louise, née Reincke (born February 1, 1811 in Altona; † April 28, 1877 there) came the stepbrother Georg Semper , the stepsister Johanna Marie (1845–1918), who in 1878 the philosopher Richard Avenarius married, as well as the stepbrother Carl August (1849-1915).

Semper studied at the Technical University in Hanover, where he became a member of the Corps Visurgia in 1852 . As a zoologist and ethnographer, he traveled to the Philippines and the Palau Islands in 1859/64 and returned to Europe via Hong Kong, Saigon and Ceylon in November 1865 . In 1866 he completed his habilitation in zoology at the University of Würzburg , where he also became professor of zoology and comparative anatomy in 1868. He made a name for himself through numerous studies on the lower animals living in the tropics, which he had got to know through his long stay in the South Seas.

Semper married Anna Herrmann from Hamburg on April 13, 1863 in Manila (* October 28, 1826; † August 25, 1909). The marriage remained childless. She made some scientific drawings.

Honors

From 1870, Semper was a corresponding member of the Greek Philological Society in Constantinople . In 1891 he was accepted into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

Fonts (selection)

literature

  • Charles Coulston Gillispie: Dictionary of Scientific Biography , published by Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980
  • Wilhelm Hess :  Semper, Karl . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 54, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1908, p. 315 f.
  • The History of the Collections Contained in the Natural History Departments , edited by the British Museum, 1906
  • August Schuberg: Carl Semper . In: Traveling in the Archipelago of the Philippines . tape 2 , no. 1 . CW Kreidel, 1870, p. VII – XVIII [21–42] ( harvard.edu [accessed on April 7, 2017] Necrology of his (last) assistant at the University of Würzburg; followed by a “directory of Semper's writings”).
  • August Schuhberg: Carl Semper, Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy at the University of Würzburg. Stahel, Würzburg 1893.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Herbert Weidner : Semper, Carl . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 2. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1971, pp. 215-216
  2. ↑ For details on this trip and those that took place on site, see August Schuberg: Carl Semper , pp. VIII – XI.
  3. ^ August Schuberg: Carl Semper , pp. IX and X.
  4. ^ Herbert Weidner: Semper, Carl . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 2. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1971, p. 216
  5. ^ Member entry by Carl Semper at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on November 12, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Semper, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Semper, Carl; Semper, C .; Semper, Carl Gottfried; Semper, Karl Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naturalist and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1832
PLACE OF BIRTH Altona
DATE OF DEATH May 29, 1893
Place of death Wurzburg