Hermann-Steudner-Denkmal Stadtpark Görlitz

Carl Theodor Hermann Steudner (1 September 1832 – 10 April 1863) was a botanist and an explorer of

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Education and early work

Steudner was born in Greiffenberg, located in

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

, but grew up in Görlitz. He studied botany, mineralogy, and medicine in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

Würzburg Würzburg (; Main-Franconian: ) is a city in the region of Franconia in the north of the German state of Bavaria. Würzburg is the administrative seat of the ''Regierungsbezirk'' Lower Franconia. It spans the banks of the Main River. Würzburg ...

. Among his professors were

Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (19 April 1795 – 27 June 1876) was a German Natural history, naturalist, zoologist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopy, microscopist. Ehrenberg was an Evangelicalism, evangelist and was considered to ...

Heinrich Wilhelm Dove Heinrich Wilhelm Dove (6 October 1803 – 4 April 1879) was a Prussian physicist and meteorologist. Early years Dove was born in Liegnitz in the Kingdom of Prussia. Dove studied history, philosophy, and the natural sciences at the University of B ...

, and

Carl Ritter Carl Ritter (August 7, 1779September 28, 1859) was a German geographer. Along with Alexander von Humboldt, he is considered one of the founders of modern geography. From 1825 until his death, he occupied the first chair in geography at the Univer ...

in Berlin; and

Rudolf Virchow Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow (; or ; 13 October 18215 September 1902) was a German physician, anthropologist, pathologist, prehistorian, biologist, writer, editor, and politician. He is known as "the father of modern pathology" and as the founder ...

Franz von Rinecker Franz von Rinecker (3 January 1811 – 21 February 1883) was a German pharmacologist and physician, born in Schesslitz near Bamberg. He studied medicine at Munich and Würzburg, earning his medical degree in 1834. In 1838 he became professor of ...

, and Albert von Kölliker in Würzburg, where he began his friendship with Ernst Haeckel. Having returned to Berlin, Steudner devoted himself to botany and published on

Marantaceae The Marantaceae are a family, the arrowroot family, of flowering plants consisting of 31 genera and around 530 species, defining it as one of the most species-rich families in its order.Kennedy, H. (2000). “Diversification in pollination mechan ...

. He was elected a member of the

Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science The Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science, (Gesellschaft Naturforschender Freunde zu Berlin, in German) (GNF) is a scientific society founded in 1773. Apart from the Danziger Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, it is the oldest private natural ...

Expedition to Africa

Heinrich Barth Johann Heinrich Barth (; ; 16 February 1821 – 25 November 1865) was a German explorer of Africa and scholar. Barth is thought to be one of the greatest of the European explorers of Africa, as his scholarly preparation, ability to speak and wri ...

of the ''

Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin The Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin (''Berlin Geographical Society'') was founded in 1828 and is the second oldest geographical society. It was founded by some of the foremost geographers of its time. The founder Carl Ritter and the foundin ...

'' convinced Steudner to participate in an African expedition to search for

Eduard Vogel Eduard Vogel (7 March 1829February 1856) was a German explorer in Central Africa. Early career Vogel was born in Krefeld. He studied mathematics, botany and astronomy at Leipzig and Berlin, studying with Encke at the latter institution. In ...

, whose traces had been lost in the

Ouaddai Empire The Wadai Sultanate ( ar, سلطنة وداي ''Saltanat Waday'', french: royaume du Ouaddaï, Fur: ''Burgu'' or ''Birgu''; 1501–1912) was an African sultanate located to the east of Lake Chad in present-day Chad and the Central African Republ ...

. This expedition was initiated by

Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Ernest II (german: Ernst August Karl Johann Leopold Alexander Eduard, link=no; 21 June 181822 August 1893) was Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha from 29 January 1844 to his death in 1893. He was born in Coburg to Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfel ...

. The expedition was led by

Theodor von Heuglin Martin Theodor von Heuglin (20 March 1824, Hirschlanden, Württemberg5 November 1876), was a German explorer and ornithologist. Biography Heuglin was born in Hirschlanden (now part of Ditzingen) in Württemberg. His father was a Protestant pas ...

and started on 4 March 1861 in

Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...

. After sailing over the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

they landed at Massawa on 17 June 1861 and observed birds on Dahlak Archipelago. Their way through the

Ethiopian Highlands The Ethiopian Highlands is a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia in Northeast Africa. It forms the largest continuous area of its elevation in the continent, with little of its surface falling below , while the summits reach heights of up to . ...

led them to Keren in the country of the

Bilen people The Bilen (also variously transcribed as Blin, and also formerly known as the Bogo, Bogos or North Agaw) are a Cushitic ethnic group in the Eritrea. They are primarily concentrated in central Eritrea, in and around the city of Keren and further s ...

, from where

Werner Munzinger Werner Munzinger (4 April 1832 in Olten, Switzerland – 14 November 1875 in Awsa, Ethiopia) was a Swiss administrator and explorer of the Horn of Africa. Life and career He was born in Olten, and studied science and history at the Univer ...

came to join them, and afterwards to Adwa, where they met

Wilhelm Schimper Georg Heinrich Wilhelm Schimper in Amharic sources known as Sambar (2 August 1804 – October 1878) was a renowned German botanist and naturalist, who spent more than forty years in Ethiopia collecting specimens of plants, mainly in Semien, ...

. Here the expedition split into two parties. Steudner remained at Heuglin. They made a wide detour through the Galla country in order to search for

Tewodros II of Ethiopia , spoken = ; ''djānhoi'', lit. ''"O steemedroyal"'' , alternative = ; ''getochu'', lit. ''"Our master"'' (pl.) Tewodros II ( gez, ዳግማዊ ቴዎድሮስ, baptized as Gebre Kidan; 1818 – 13 April 1868) was Emperor of Ethiop ...

. After visiting

Gondar Gondar, also spelled Gonder (Amharic: ጎንደር, ''Gonder'' or ''Gondär''; formerly , ''Gʷandar'' or ''Gʷender''), is a city and woreda in Ethiopia. Located in the North Gondar Zone of the Amhara Region, Gondar is north of Lake Tana on t ...

and Magdala they came to Edschebet, where they were guests of Tewodros. From Lake Tana they turned north. By way of the

Blue Nile The Blue Nile (; ) is a river originating at Lake Tana in Ethiopia. It travels for approximately through Ethiopia and Sudan. Along with the White Nile, it is one of the two major tributaries of the Nile and supplies about 85.6% of the water to ...

, they reached

Khartoum Khartoum or Khartum ( ; ar, الخرطوم, Al-Khurṭūm, din, Kaartuɔ̈m) is the capital of Sudan. With a population of 5,274,321, its metropolitan area is the largest in Sudan. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile, flowing n ...

in July 1862. Because of this detour, the leadership of the expedition was taken from Heuglin. They used the break to visit

Kurdufan Kordofan ( ar, كردفان ') is a former province of central Sudan. In 1994 it was divided into three new federal states: North Kordofan, South Kordofan and West Kordofan. In August 2005, West Kordofan State was abolished and its territory ...

, where they followed the traces of

Theodor Kotschy Karl Georg Theodor Kotschy pl, Teodor Koczy (15 April 1813 – 11 June 1866) was an Austrian botanist and explorer. On his botanical investigations, Kotschy collected large amount of plants and herbs. He also described forty species of oaks in ...

. On 25 January 1863 they joined

Alexine Tinne Alexandrine "Alexine" Pieternella Françoise Tinne (17 October 1835 – 1 August 1869) was a Dutch explorer in Africa who was the first European woman to attempt to cross the Sahara. She was an early photographer. Early life Alexandrine ...

on her tour up the White Nile to the Bahr el Ghasal. Steudner died of fever on 10 April 1863 in

Waw Waw or WAW may refer to: * Waw (letter), a letter in many Semitic abjads * Waw, the velomobile * Another spelling for the town Wau, South Sudan * Waw Township, Burma *Warsaw Chopin Airport, an international airport serving Warsaw, Poland (IATA ai ...

near the

Jur River The Jur River (also Sue River) is a river in western South Sudan, flowing through the Bahr el Ghazal and Equatoria regions. About long, it flows north and northeast, joining the Bahr el Ghazal River on the western side of the Sudd wetlands. Th ...

Honors

Steudner visited regions which had never been explored by a botanist before. Hence, his careful reports were of high importance. Renowned herbariums, such as Kew Royal Botanic Gardens London, Natural History Museum London, ''Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle Paris'', Swedish Museum of Natural History Stockholm, and South African National Biodiversity Institute National Herbarium Pretoria, keep specimens that he collected. The

Steudner's dwarf gecko Steudner's dwarf gecko (''Tropiocolotes steudneri''), also Common name, commonly known as the Algerian sand gecko and Steudner's pigmy gecko, is a species of lizard in the Family (biology), family Gekkonidae. The species is native to North Africa ...

(''Tropiocolotes steudneri'') is named after Steudner.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). ''The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Steudner", p. 253). Also, Karl Koch, a friend of Steudner, named the plant genus '' Steudnera'' (subfamily

Aroideae Aroideae is a subfamily of flowering plants in the family Araceae. It is the largest subfamily in Araceae and consists of about 72 different genera, and 2,300 species. Many Aroideae have spiny pollen grains without a sporopollenin outer exine la ...

, family

Araceae The Araceae are a family of monocotyledonous flowering plants in which flowers are borne on a type of inflorescence called a spadix. The spadix is usually accompanied by, and sometimes partially enclosed in, a spathe (or leaf-like bract). A ...

) in honor of Steudner. In Görlitz, a monument was erected, but it was largely destroyed in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

to use the metal for military purposes.

References

External links

Biography at the Upper Lusatian Science Society
(archived, in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Steudner, Hermann 1832 births 1863 deaths People from Lwówek Śląski County People from the Province of Silesia German explorers of Africa 19th-century German people

Education and early work

Expedition to Africa

Honors

References

Further reading

External links