Robert Hermann Schomburgk
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Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk (born June 5, 1804 in Freyburg (Unstrut) , † March 11, 1865 in Schöneberg ) was a German explorer . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " RHSchomb. "
Live and act
Schomburgk's parents were the Lutheran pastor Johann Friedrich Ludwig Schomburgk and his wife Christiane Juliane Wilhelmine, née Krippendor. After finishing school, Schomburgk was trained as a businessman in Naumburg (Saale) and went to the United States in 1828 . From there he went to the West Indies , where he explored the island of Anegada in particular . In 1835 he started a scientific expedition to Guyana (formerly British Guiana ) with the help of the British Geographical Society , from which he returned in June 1839 after four years of fruitful activity. In 1840 the British government commissioned him to determine the borders between British Guiana and Venezuela . He was occupied with this task for several years, but the boundary line he had established (the so-called Schomburgk Line) was not recognized by Venezuela. In June 1844 he returned to England, where he was raised to the British nobility by Queen Victoria on December 26, 1844 as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir") .
His numerous botanical and zoological finds, particularly the Victoria regia Lindl. he bequeathed to the British Museum .
In August 1848 Schomburgk was consul and chargé d'affaires in the Dominican Republic , where he earned a beneficial England in May 1850 trade agreement was able to conclude peace with the Haitian Emperor Faustin Soulouque mediated. He became English consul general in Bangkok ( Siam ) in 1856 , but returned to Europe ill in April 1864.
He was the brother of the botanist Moritz Richard Schomburgk (1811-1891).
Robert Hermann Schomburgk died on March 11, 1865 at the age of 60 in Schöneberg. He was buried in the Berlin Cemetery III of the Jerusalem and New Churches in front of the Hallesches Tor . The grave has not been preserved.
Honors
Schomburgk was a knight of the Royal Saxon Order of Civil Merit and a knight of the French Legion of Honor . In 1840 he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle, Third Class, by the Prussian King . In 1845 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Freyburg and on October 15, 1845 he was elected a member (matriculation no. 1560) of the Leopoldina with the academic surname Aublet . On June 9, 1859, Schomburgk was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society .
The extinct Schomburgk deer , which used to live in Thailand, is named after him ( Rucervus schomburgki (Blyth.)); the South American multi- spined fish ( Polycentrus schomburgkii M. et T.), a small perch fish, was named after his brother Richard. Confusions between the brothers regarding such species names occur regularly.
According to Robert Hermann Schomburgk, the plant genus Schomburgkia is Lindl. from the orchid family .
Works
- Descriptions of British Guiana, geographical and statistical. London 1840.
- Views in the Interior of Guiana. London 1840.
- Travels in Guiana and the Orinoco during the years 1835–1839. Edited from his reports and communications to the Geographic Society in London. v. Otto Alfred Schomburgk . With a foreword v. Alexander von Humboldt and his treatise on some of Guiana's important astronomical positions. Georg Wiegand, Leipzig 1841.
- The History of Barbados. Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans, London 1848, digitized
- The Discovery of the Large, Rich, and Beautiful Empire of Guiana. ( Hakluyt Society ) London 1848. Digitized
- Autobiography In: Dietrich Georg Kieser (Ed.): Leopoldina , Book I, Friedrich Fromann, Jena 1859, pp. 34–39, digitized
See also
literature
- Johann Daniel Ferdinand Neigebaur : History of the imperial Leopoldino-Carolinische German academy of natural scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann , Jena 1860, p. 272 (archive.org)
- Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal : Personal-Nachrichten (Nekrolog), in: Botanische Zeitung , 23rd year 1865, Artur Felix, Leipzig, p. 131f.
- Schomburgk, Robert Hermann , in: Ignatius Urban : Symbolae Antillanae Seu Fundamenta Flora Indiae Occidentalis , Fratres Borntraeger, Lipsiae 1902, p. 121 ff, digitized
- The Naturalists Library, Ichtyology, Vol. II, Fishes of Guiana , Lizars, Edinburgh, 1841, digitized version , (At the beginning an extensive account ("memoir") of his activities.)
Web links
- Author entry and list of the plant names described for Robert Hermann Schomburgk at the IPNI
- Member entry of Sir Robert Hermann Schomburgk at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on December 8, 2017.
References and comments
- ↑ On this trip his brother Moritz Richard Schomburgk accompanied him on behalf of the Prussian government in order to “enrich” the museums and gardens with zoological, botanical and ethnographic “peculiarities” from South America. (Source: Allgemeine Anzeiger und Nationalzeitung der Deutschen , Jg. 1844, 2nd volume, (23 September 1844), Becker, Gotha, p. 3365, digitized version )
- ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 234
- ^ Hans-Jürgen Mende : Lexicon of Berlin burial places . Pharus-Plan, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-86514-206-1 , p. 246.
- ^ History of Barbados . London 1847, there title page
- ^ Autobiography , in: Leopoldina
- ↑ Footnote to Guiana , in: Magazin für die Literatur des Auslands , Volumes 23-24, Friday August 18, 1843, Veit & Co, Berlin, p. 393, digitized .
- ↑ 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 | Schomburgk, Robert Hermann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Aublet |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German explorer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 5, 1804 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Freyburg (Unstrut) |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 11, 1865 |
| Place of death | Schöneberg |