Otto Müller (botanist)

Publishing bookseller and botanist Otto Müller (1837–1917)

Georg Ferdinand Otto Müller (born May 28, 1837 in Berlin ; † March 29, 1917 ) was a German publisher, botanist and phycologist . Its botanical author's abbreviation is " O.Müll ".

Life

Otto Müller was the son of the publisher and bookseller Georg Wilhelm Ferdinand Müller (1805–1875). He attended the Friedrichswerder high school and later the Friedrich-Real-Gymnasium in Berlin and from 1855 embarked on a career in bookselling. In 1863 he initially took over the scientific part of his father's publishing house and finally in 1873 the entire publishing house. In 1901 Otto Müller sold the publishing house to Velhagen & Klasing in Bielefeld.

As an autodidact, Otto Müller worked intensively into the research area of diatoms . He published 41 papers on diatoms (Bacillariophyta) and described about 200 new taxa , including the genera Gomphocymbella O.Müller in 1905 and Rhopalodia O.Müller in 1895. For the genus Melosira described by Carl Adolph Agardh , he was able to show that the larger daughter cell is favored in cell division, while the smaller one skips a cycle and thus the decrease in cell size is delayed. On the question of the movement of diatoms, he came up with a mechanical explanation that met with general acceptance.

Otto Müller became a member of the Society of Friends of Natural Sciences in Berlin in 1861 and a member of the Botanical Association of the Province of Brandenburg in 1881 . From 1882 to 1907 he was a treasurer on the board of the German Botanical Society .

On February 18, 1894, Georg Ferdinand Otto Müller was elected member ( matriculation number 3034 ) of the Leopoldina . In 1897 he was made an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin . In 1907 Otto Müller was awarded the title of professor by the Minister of Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs .

Some of the original material described by Otto Müller is in the Herbarium of the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem (Herbarium Berolinense, B).

literature

Theodor Butterfaß : German-language lover botanist . In: Reports of the Bavarian Botanical Society , 58, 1987, pp. 23–43 ( digitized version )
Regine Jahn: Otto Müller's names of diatoms (Bacillariophyceae) and extant original material at the Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem (B) . In: Willdenowia , 32, 2002, pp. 155–173 - ISSN 0511-9618 ( PDF )
George Karsten : Otto Müller . In: Reports of the German Botanical Society , 35, II. General Assembly Booklet, October 10, 1918, pp. (83) - (92) ( digitized version )

Web links

Member entry of Otto Müller at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
Literature by and about Otto Müller in the catalog of the German National Library
Author entry and list of the plant names described for Otto Müller (botanist) at the IPNI
Literature by and about Otto Müller (botanist) in the bibliographic database WorldCat

References and comments

↑ Carl Hermann Knoblauch (Ed.): Leopoldina . Official organ of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists. 30. Issue. In commission at Wilh. Engelmann in Leipzig, Halle 1894, p. 21 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).

personal data
SURNAME	Müller, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Müller, Georg Ferdinand Otto (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German publisher, botanist and phycologist
DATE OF BIRTH	May 28, 1837
PLACE OF BIRTH	Berlin
DATE OF DEATH	March 29, 1917

[1] Carl Hermann Knoblauch (Ed.): Leopoldina . Official organ of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists. 30. Issue. In commission at Wilh. Engelmann in Leipzig, Halle 1894, p. 21 ( biodiversitylibrary.org ).