Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck

Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (February 14, 1776 – March 16, 1858) was a prolific German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

botanist, physician

Physician

A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...

, zoologist, and natural philosopher. He was a contemporary of Goethe and was born within the lifetime of Linnaeus

Carolus Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus , also known after his ennoblement as , was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist, who laid the foundations for the modern scheme of binomial nomenclature. He is known as the father of modern taxonomy, and is also considered one of the fathers of modern ecology...

. He described approximately 7,000 plant species (almost as many as Linnaeus himself). His last official act as president of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina

German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina

The Leopoldina is the national academy of Germany.Historically it was known under the German name Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina until 2007, when it was declared the national academy of Germany.The Leopoldina is currently located in Halle...

was to admit Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin

Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...

as a member. He was the author of numerous monographs on botany and zoology. His best-known works deal with fungi.

Biography

Nees von Esenbeck was born in Schloss Reichenberg near Reichelsheim (Odenwald)

Reichelsheim (Odenwald)

Reichelsheim is a community in the Odenwaldkreis in Hesse, Germany.-Location:Reichelsheim lies in the middle Odenwald at elevations between 200 and 538 m in the middle of the Geo-Naturpark Bergstraße-Odenwald....

. He showed an early interest in science and, after receiving his first education at Darmstadt

Darmstadt

Darmstadt is a city in the Bundesland of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Rhine Main Area.The sandy soils in the Darmstadt area, ill-suited for agriculture in times before industrial fertilisation, prevented any larger settlement from developing, until the city became the seat...

, he went on to Jena, obtaining his degree in medicine in 1800. He practiced as a physician for Francis I (Erbach-Erbach)

Francis I (Erbach-Erbach)

thumb|right|Antique collection in the Erbach PalaceFrancis I or Franz I. Graf zu Erbach-Erbach was a German nobleman and art collector.- Biography :...

, but he had developed a great interest in botany during his university studies, and eventually he returned to academia

Academia

Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

. In 1816 he joined the Leopoldina Academy

German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina

, which was one of the most prestigious institutions in Europe. In 1817 he was appointed professor of botany in Erlangen. Three years later he became professor of natural history in Bonn

University of Bonn

The University of Bonn is a public research university located in Bonn, Germany. Founded in its present form in 1818, as the linear successor of earlier academic institutions, the University of Bonn is today one of the leading universities in Germany. The University of Bonn offers a large number...

, where he established the Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn

The Botanische Gärten der Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn , also known as the Botanischer Garten Bonn, is a botanical garden and arboretum maintained by the University of Bonn...

, and in 1831 he was appointed to the chair of botany at the university of Breslau. In 1818 he was elected president of the Leopoldina Academy. He continued as president of the academy for the rest of his life.
In botany he achieved notoriety for their contributions to Acanthaceae

Acanthaceae

The family Acanthaceae is a taxon of dicotyledonous flowering plants containing almost 250 genera and about 2500 species....

and Lauraceae

Lauraceae

The Lauraceae or Laurel family comprises a group of flowering plants included in the order Laurales. The family contains about 55 genera and over 3500, perhaps as many as 4000, species world-wide, mostly from warm or tropical regions, especially Southeast Asia and South America...

families.
In 1848 he became politically active. In 1851 due to conflicts with the government he was deprived of his professorship and pension at Breslau. Seven years later Nees von Esenbeck died essentially penniless in Breslau. He was an older brother to botanist Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck

Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck

Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck was a German botanist and pharmacologist who was a native of Schloss Reichenberg in Reichelsheim...

(1787-1837).

Works

De Cinnamomo disputatio (1843)
Agrostologia brasiliensis (1829)
Genera et species Asterearum (1833)
Systema Laurinarum (1836)
Florae Africae australioris illustration monographicae Gramineae (1841)
Die Algen des süßen Wassers, nach ihren Entwickelungsstufen dargestellt (1814)
Das System der Pilze und Schwämme (1816)
Naturgeschichte der europäischen Lebermoose mit Erinnerungen aus dem Riesengebirge (1833-38, 4 Bände)
Bryologia germanica (with Christian Friedrich Hornschuch
Christian Friedrich Hornschuch
Christian Friedrich Hornschuch was a German botanist born in Rodach, Bavaria.In 1808 he started his career as an apprentice at a pharmacy in Hildburghausen...

und Jacob Sturm
Jacob Sturm
Jacob Sturm was the most famous engraver of entomological and botanical scientific publications in Germany at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th century. He lived in Nuremberg....

, 1823–31, 2 Bände mit 43 Tafeln)
Synopsis hepaticarum (with Carl Moritz Gottsche
Carl Moritz Gottsche
Carl Moritz Gottsche was a German bryologist who was a native of Altona. He is remembered for his work as director of the Botanical Gardens at Hamburg.Gottsche was a leading authority of Hepaticae...

und Johann Lindenberg, 1844–1847)
Hymenopterorum Ichneumonibus affinium monographiae (1834, 2 Bände)
System der spekulativen Philosophie, Band 1
Die Naturphilosophie (1841)
Die allgemeine Formenlehre der Natur (1852)
Vorlesungen zur Entwickelungsgeschichte des magnetischen Schlafs und Traums (1820)

External links

http://www.nees-von-esenbeck.de/ (German language site devoted to Nees von Esenbeck; includes extensive biography)

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Biography

Works

Further reading

External links