Eduard Adolf Strasburger (1 February 1844 – 18 May 1912) was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

professor and one of the most famous

botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...

s of the 19th century. He discovered

mitosis In cell biology, mitosis () is a part of the cell cycle in which replicated chromosomes are separated into two new nuclei. Cell division by mitosis gives rise to genetically identical cells in which the total number of chromosomes is mainta ...

in plants.

Life

Eduard Strasburger was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...

, the son of Krystyna Anna (von Schütz) and Edward Bogumił Strasburger (1803–1874).Klaus Oskar Leyde: Strasburger. In: Deutsches Geschlechterbuch Band 207 (56. Allgemeiner Band), C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg 1998, S. 227–242. In 1870, he married Aleksandra Julia Wertheim (1847–1902), they had two children: Anna (1870–1942) and

Julius The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...

(1871–1934). Strasburger studied

biological sciences Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

and

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a popu ...

, receiving a PhD in 1866 after working with

Nathanael Pringsheim Nathanael Pringsheim (30 November 1823 – 6 October 1894) was a German botanist. Biography Nathanael Pringsheim was born at Landsberg, Prussian Silesia, and studied at the universities of Breslau, Leipzig, and Berlin successively. He graduat ...

. In 1868 he taught at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. In 1869 he was appointed professor of

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (german: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The un ...

. From 1881 he was head of the ''Botanisches Institut'' at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

. Strasburger died in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Achievements

Strasburge was a founder of the famous ''Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen'' (''Textbook of Botany''), which first appeared in 1894. He was the first to provide an accurate description of the embryonic sac in

gymnosperms The gymnosperms ( lit. revealed seeds) are a group of seed-producing plants that includes conifers, cycads, ''Ginkgo'', and gnetophytes, forming the clade Gymnospermae. The term ''gymnosperm'' comes from the composite word in el, γυμνό� ...

(such as

conifers Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extan ...

) and

angiosperms Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants th ...

(flowering plants), along with demonstrating double-fertilization in angiosperms. He came up with one of the modern laws of plant

cytology Cell biology (also cellular biology or cytology) is a branch of biology that studies the structure, function, and behavior of cells. All living organisms are made of cells. A cell is the basic unit of life that is responsible for the living and ...

: "New cell nuclei can only arise from the division of other nuclei." and originated the terms

cytoplasm In cell biology, the cytoplasm is all of the material within a eukaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, except for the cell nucleus. The material inside the nucleus and contained within the nuclear membrane is termed the nucleoplasm. The ...

and

nucleoplasm The nucleoplasm, also known as karyoplasm, is the type of protoplasm that makes up the cell nucleus, the most prominent organelle of the eukaryotic cell. It is enclosed by the nuclear envelope, also known as the nuclear membrane. The nucleoplasm ...

. Together with

Walther Flemming Walther Flemming (21 April 1843 – 4 August 1905) was a German biologist and a founder of cytogenetics. He was born in Sachsenberg (now part of Schwerin) as the fifth child and only son of the psychiatrist Carl Friedrich Flemming (1799–1880) ...

and Edouard van Beneden, he elucidated chromosome distribution during cell division. His work on the upward movement of

tree sap 01 or '01 may refer to: * The year 2001, or any year ending with 01 * The month of January * 1 (number) Music * 01'' (Richard Müller album), 2001 * ''01'' (Son of Dave album), 2000 * ''01'' (Urban Zakapa album), 2011 * ''O1'' (Hiroyuki Sawa ...

proved that the process was physical and not physiological.

Awards

He was awarded the

Linnean Medal The Linnean Medal of the Linnean Society of London was established in 1888, and is awarded annually to alternately a botanist or a zoologist or (as has been common since 1958) to one of each in the same year. The medal was of gold until 1976, and ...

in 1905, as well as the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature colle ...

's even more prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1908, awarded only once every 50 years.

Family

Strasburger was married to the pianist Alexandra Julie ("Alexandrine") Wertheim (1847–1902, daughter of the banker and councillor Julius Wertheim 1817–1901 from Warsaw, half sister of

Carl Tausig Karl Tausig (sometimes "Carl"; born Karol Tausig; 4 November 184117 July 1871) was a Polish virtuoso pianist, arranger and composer. He is generally regarded as Franz Liszt's most esteemed pupil, and one of the greatest pianists of all time. Life ...

) and aunt of the pianist

Juliusz Wertheim Juliusz Edward Wertheim (24 September 1880 – 6 May 1928), sometimes known as Julius or Jules Wertheim, was a Polish pianist, conductor and composer, a member of a prominent family, who had a significant influence on the career of Arthur Rubi ...

(1880−1928); they had three children (the third died early).Klaus Oskar Leyde: Strasburger. In: Deutsches Geschlechterbuch Band 207 (56. Allgemeiner Band), C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg 1998, S. 227–242. His son was the internist

Julius Strasburger Julius Strasburger (26 December 1871, in Jena – 28 October 1934, in Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main) was a German internist. He was the son of botanist Eduard Strasburger (1844–1912). He studied medicine at the universities of University of Bonn ...

, a grandson was the ancient historian

Hermann Strasburger Hermann Strasburger (21 June 1909 – 4 April 1985) was a German ancient historian. He was the son of the internist Julius Strasburger and grandson of the botanist Eduard Strasburger Eduard Adolf Strasburger (1 February 1844 – 18 May 1912) ...

Works

*''On Cell Formation and Cell Division'', 1876 – a book in which he set forth the basic principles of

. *''Ueber das Verhalten des Pollens und die Befruchtungsvorgänge bei den Gymnospermen: Schwärmsporen, Gameten, pflanzliche Spermatozoiden und das Wesen der Befruchtung''. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena, 1892. *''Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen'', 1st ed., 1894
4th ed., 1900
digital edition by ULB Düsseldorf
5th ed., 1902
by ULB Düsseldorf
8th ed., 1906
by ULB Düsseldorf
16th ed., 1923
available at BHL; 33rd ed., 1991; 36th ed. 2008. Translated to English, Estonian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish. A complete list of editions and translations up to 1994 is given in Finke et al. (1994)Finke, Bresinsky, Denffer, Ehrendorfer, Mägdefrau, Sitte, Ziegler & Lucius (1994). "100 Jahre Strasburgers Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen". Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, Jena, New York. * ''A Textbook of botany''
1st ed., 1898
English translation of the 2nd German ed. (1895), available at BHL. Macmillan, London. *''Das kleine botanische Practicum für Anfänger : Anleitung zum Selbststudium der mikroskopischen Botanik und Einführung in die mikroskopische Technik''
4th ed., 1902
digital edition by ULB Düsseldorf.

Notes

References

"Strasburger, Eduard Adolf"

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

(1979 ed)
"Science is in a Constant Flow": Live and Work of Eduard Strasburger (1844–1912)
maintained by great-great-grandniece

Elonka Dunin Elonka Dunin (; born December 29, 1958) is an American video game developer and cryptologist. Dunin worked at Simutronics Corp. in St. Louis, Missouri from 1990–2014, and in 2015 was Senior Producer at Black Gate Games in Nashville, Tenne ...

* * Finke, H.M., A. Besinsky, D. von Denffer, F. Ehrendorfer, K. Mägdefrau, P. Sitte, H. Ziegler, W.D. von Lucius (1994): 100 Jahre Strasburgers Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen, 1894–1994. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart/ Jena / New York. 168 Seiten. * Alt, W., K. P. Sauer: ''Biologie an der Universität Bonn. Eine 200-jährige Ideengeschichte.'' In: ''Bonner Schriften zur Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte.'' Band 8. V&R unipress, 2016
hdl.handle.net
. *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strasburger, Eduard 1844 births 1912 deaths Scientists from Warsaw 19th-century German botanists 19th-century Polish botanists Schoolteachers from Warsaw University of Bonn alumni University of Bonn faculty Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala