Kurt Dinter

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Kurt Moritz Albin Dinter , also Curt Dinter (born June 10, 1868 in Bautzen , † December 16, 1945 in Neukirch / Lausitz ) was a German botanist and explorer . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Dinter ". He was best known for his work in the colony of German South West Africa , today's Namibia .

Life

Kurt Dinter attended secondary school in Bautzen. Even as a child he showed an interest in plants, which led him to become a gardener and botanist after his military service . He worked temporarily in the Botanical Gardens of Dresden and Strasbourg . Among other things, he worked as an assistant to Professor Oscar Drude .

Due to his extraordinary zeal, Sir Thomas Hanbury entrusted him with the care of the Hanbury Botanical Garden near Ventimiglia , Italy , which is still known today and which has a number of South African plants. From 1894 to 1897 he was curator of the Botanical Garden. Dinter also spent six months at the Royal Botanic Gardens (Kew) .

In the middle of 1897 Kurt Dinter traveled on the ship Melitta Bohlen to German South West Africa and reached Lüderitz Bay in June. From his base in Salem am Swakop he began collecting plants on behalf of the German Colonial Society . In 1899 he gave up his work for the colonial society and went on foot to Windhoek with two Herero , constantly collecting plants. He sent his collections to Erfurt , Zurich and Berlin .

From May 1900 Dinter was employed as a forest clerk in the Imperial Gouvernement and the first official botanist in German South West Africa, a position he held until the outbreak of the First World War .

During a visit to Bautzen, he met his future wife Jutta Schilde (1871–1949), who from then on accompanied him on his travels and also set up her own collection of plants.

Dinter covered the enormous distance of over 40,000 kilometers on his research trips. His collection of pressed plants was over 8,400.

Honors

In honor of the plant genera

named.

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, the botany magazine Dintera, named after him, appeared for the first time.

After his wife, the genus Juttadinteria is Schwant. the plant family of the ice plant family (Aizoaceae).

Publications

  • Alphabetical catalog of plants growing in the open air in the garden of Thomas Hanbury, Palazzo Orengo, La Mortola, near Ventimiglia, Italy , Genoa 1897
  • German-Southwest Africa: Flora, forest and agricultural fragments , Leipzig 1909, new edition by inktank publishing 2018, ISBN / EAN 9783747725696
  • The Vegetable Veldkost German Southwest Africa , Okahandja 1912
  • New and little known plants of German Southwest Africa. With special reference to the succulent , Okahandja 1914
  • Botanical journeys in German Southwest Africa , Posen 1918
  • South West African lithops , Perleberg 1928
  • Succulent research in South West Africa 1st: Experiences and results of my trip in 1922 , Berlin 1923
  • Succulent research in South West Africa 2nd: Experiences and results of my trip in the years 1923 to 1925 , Berlin 1928

literature

  • Mary Gunn, LE Codd: Botanical Exploration of southern Africa. An illustrated history of early botanical literature on the Cape flora. Biographical accounts of the leading plant collectors and their activities in southern Africa from the days of the East India Company until modern times . Balkema, Rotterdam 1981, ISBN 0-86961-129-1 , (introductory volume to: The Flora of Southern Africa ).
  • Walter Pfützner: Great Sons of Upper Lusatia - Moritz Kurt Dinter (1868–1945) , in: Oberlausitzer Familien-Kalenderbuch (OFKB), Ed. Frank Nürnberger, year 21/2013 (2012), Oberlausitzer Verlag Spitzkunnersdorf 2014, pp. 154–155 , ISBN 978-3-941908-37-6
  • Walter Pfützner: The Africa researcher Prof. Kurt Dinter lived in Neukirch. South West Africa was his second home. Valuable results for the work of the farmers and the botanical gardens . In: Sächsische Zeitung (SZ), year 46, issue no.116 from May 22, 1991
  • Alwin Schade: Kurt Dinter in memory . In: Contributions to the study of the nature of the Lausitz (Saxony), Issue 3/1956, Ed .: Stadtmuseum Bautzen, Naturwissensch. Dept., pp. 5-16

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names . Extended Edition. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin, Free University Berlin Berlin 2018. [1]

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Dinter, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dinter, Kurt Moritz Albin (full name); Dinter, Curt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist and explorer
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1868
PLACE OF BIRTH Bautzen
DATE OF DEATH December 16, 1945
Place of death Neukirch / Lausitz