Otto Moritz (I) Ludwig von Engelhardt ( - ) was a

Baltic German Baltic Germans (german: Deutsch-Balten or , later ) were ethnic German inhabitants of the eastern shores of the Baltic Sea, in what today are Estonia and Latvia. Since their coerced resettlement in 1939, Baltic Germans have markedly declined ...

mineralogist. He was a member of the

Engelhardt family The House of Engelhardt (russian: Энгельгардт) is a Baltic-German noble and baronial family of the former Russian Empire. The family name is sometimes given as von Engelhardt. History The legendary founder of the Engelhardt dynasty, C ...

Biography

He was born in 1778 in his family'
manor Wieso
an estate in Viisu, Estonia. He studied Physics and Chemistry at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

(1796-1797) and at

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

(1797-1798). In company with Karl von Raumer he traveled through

central Europe Central Europe is an area of Europe between Western Europe and Eastern Europe, based on a common historical, social and cultural identity. The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) between Catholicism and Protestantism significantly shaped the area' ...

and

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, and in 1811 he undertook a journey with

Friedrich Parrot Johann Jacob Friedrich Wilhelm Parrot (14 October 1791) was a Baltic German naturalist, explorer, and mountaineer, who lived and worked in Dorpat (today Tartu, Estonia) in what was then the Governorate of Livonia of the Russian Empire. A pione ...

through the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

. The results of his extensive tour through Finland in 1818 were published in the work entitled ''Geognostischer Umriss von Finland'' (“Geological sketch of Finland”), vol. i. of an elaborately projected ''Darstellung aus dem Felsgebäude Russlands'' (“Representative rock constructions in Russia,” 1821). From 1820 to 1841 he was professor of mineralogy at

Dorpat Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia after the Northern Europe, Northern Europe, European country's political and financial capital, Tallinn. Tartu has a population of 91,407 (as of 2021). It is southeast of Tallinn and 245 kilometres ...

, and in 1826 he entered upon those extensive travels through Russia in the course of which he discovered the vast deposits of gold, platinum, and diamonds described in his famous reports published at

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

in 1828 and 1830. His other literary productions include a description of his first extensive tour, published by him jointly with his companion Raumer in the works respectively entitled ''Geognostische Versuche'' (“Geological experiments,” 1816) and ''Geognostische Umrisse'' (“Geological sketches,” 1817).

Personal life

Engelhardt married two times. His first wife Mary Pierson of Balmadis (1778-1803) died young at the age of 25 and later he married Catharina Elisabeth Johanna von Müller (1785-1868). He had 6 children in total, one daughter, Alexandra Eveline (1801-1874), with his first wife and 5 more (Maria Charlotte Wilhelmine (1813-1887) Auguste Dorothea "Emma" (1814-1896), Gotthard Gustav Rudolph (1816-1850), Otto Roderich (1819-1870), Meta Alexandra (1821-1825), Gustav Moritz Constantin "Moritz II" (1828-1881) ) with the second wife. His son, Moritz II became Professor of Theologie at the University of Dorpat.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Engelhardt, Moritz von 1778 births 1842 deaths Russian geologists Estonian explorers Russian people of German descent Leipzig University alumni University of Göttingen alumni Academic staff of the University of Tartu

Moritz Moritz is the German equivalent of the name Maurice. It may refer to: People Given name * Saint Maurice, also called Saint Moritz, the leader of the legendary Roman Theban Legion in the 3rd century * Prince Moritz of Hesse (2007), the son of ...