Walther Ulrich Eduard Friedrich Gothan (26 August 1879 in

Woldegk Woldegk () is a town in the Mecklenburgische Seenplatte district, in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. It is situated 24 km southeast of Neubrandenburg. The former municipality Petersdorf was merged into Woldegk in May 2019. Woldegk i ...

– 30 December 1954 in Berlin) was a German

paleobotanist Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...

, known for his studies of

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonifero ...

flora.Historical perspective of early twentieth century Carboniferous paleobotany
edited by William Culp Darrah, Paul C, Robert Herman Wagner He studied mining and

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

at the mining academies in

Clausthal Clausthal-Zellerfeld is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is located in the southwestern part of the Harz mountains. Its population is approximately 15,000. The City is the location of the Clausthal University of Technology. The health resort ...

and

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

, and

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 ...

and chemistry at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative o ...

. In 1905 he received his doctorate from 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 ...

with the thesis, ''Zur Anatomie lebender und fossiler gymnospermen Hölzer''.Gothan, Walther Ulrich Eduard Friedrich
In:

Neue Deutsche Biographie ''Neue Deutsche Biographie'' (''NDB''; literally ''New German Biography'') is a biographical reference work. It is the successor to the ''Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie'' (ADB, Universal German Biography). The 26 volumes published thus far cover ...

(NDB). Band 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, , S. 654. From 1903 onward, he worked as an assistant at the Prussian Geological Survey. He taught classes in paleobotany at the Mining Academy and at the

Technical University of Berlin The Technical University of Berlin (official name both in English and german: link=no, Technische Universität Berlin, also known as TU Berlin and Berlin Institute of Technology) is a public research university located in Berlin, Germany. It was ...

, where in 1926 he became an associate professor. During the following year, he received an honorary professorship at the University of Berlin. In 1938 he was named a departmental head at the Prussian Geological Survey, and after World War II, was associated with work done at the

Academy of Sciences of the GDR The German Academy of Sciences at Berlin, german: Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (DAW), in 1972 renamed the Academy of Sciences of the GDR (''Akademie der Wissenschaften der DDR (AdW)''), was the most eminent research institution ...

. In 1951 he founded the ''Arbeitsstelle für Paläobotanik'' within the Academy. The fossil genera of ''Gothania'', ''Gothaniella'' and ''Gothanopteris'' commemorate his name, the latter genus being described by

Gen-ichi Koidzumi was a Japanese botanist, author of several papers and monographs on phytogeography including work on roses and Amygdaloideae (Rosaceae), maples (Aceraceae), mulberries (the genus '' Morus''), and many other plants. His name is sometimes transli ...

in 1936. His name is also associated with the

Gothankammen Gothankammen is a mountain ridge in Wedel Jarlsberg Land at Spitsbergen, Svalbard. It has a length of about eight kilometers, and is a located between the glaciers of Høgstebreen and Bjørnbreen Bjørnbreen is a glacier in Wedel Jarlsberg Land a ...

, a mountain ridge on

Spitsbergen Spitsbergen (; formerly known as West Spitsbergen; Norwegian: ''Vest Spitsbergen'' or ''Vestspitsbergen'' , also sometimes spelled Spitzbergen) is the largest and the only permanently populated island of the Svalbard archipelago in northern Norw ...

Selected works

* ''Die fossilen Hölzer von König Karls Land'', 1907 – The fossil woods of

Kong Karls Land Kong Karls Land or King Charles Land is an island group in the Svalbard archipelago, in the Arctic Ocean. The island group covers an area of and is made up of the islands of Kongsøya, Svenskøya, Abel Island, Helgoland Island, and Tirpitzøya. ...

. * ''Entwicklungsgeschichte der pflanzenwelt. Pflanzengeographie. Die pflanzenwelt der tropen'' (with

Hubert Winkler Hubert Winkler (13 February 1875 in Prenzlau – 10 June 1941 in Breslau) was a German botanist, who specialized in tropical flora research. From 1895 he studied theology and botany at the University of Breslau, where in 1901/02 he worked as a ...

Robert Knud Friedrich Pilger Robert Knud Friedrich Pilger (3 July 1876, in Helgoland – 1 September 1953, in Berlin)

, 1913) – Evolutionary history of the plant world /

Plant geography Phytogeography (from Greek language, Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographi ...

/ The plant world of the tropics.
''Lehrbuch der Paläobotanik''
(with Henry Potonié, 1921). * ''Paläontologisches praktikum'', (with Otto Seitz, 1920) – Practical

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. * ''Geschichtliches über die Verwendung und die Entstehungstheorie der Kohlen'' (with Rudolf Daber, 1956) – History on the application and the formation theory of coal.HathiTrust Digital Library
(published works)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gothan, Walther 1879 births 1954 deaths People from Mecklenburgische Seenplatte (district) Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Academic staff of the Humboldt University of Berlin Academic staff of the Technical University of Berlin Paleobotanists 19th-century German geologists Members of the German Academy of Sciences at Berlin 20th-century German geologists