Otto Kersten (23 December 1839 in

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

– 22 November 1900 in Altenburg) was a German chemist and geographer. He studied chemistry and natural sciences 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 December ...

, and after graduation, worked as an assistant at the vocational school in

Chemnitz Chemnitz (; from 1953 to 1990: Karl-Marx-Stadt , ) is the third-largest city in the German state of Saxony after Leipzig and Dresden. It is the 28th largest city of Germany as well as the fourth largest city in the area of former East Germany ...

. In 1862 he took part in

Karl Klaus von der Decken Baron Karl Klaus (Carl Claus) von der Decken (born 8 August 1833 in Kotzen, Brandenburg, Germany; died 2 October 1865 near Bardera, Somalia) was a German explorer of eastern Africa and the first European to attempt to climb Mount Kiliman ...

's expedition in East Africa, where the two men made a partial ascent (4280 m) of

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and a ...

. In 1863 he traveled with von der Decken to the

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, ...

and the

Mascarenes The Mascarene Islands (, ) or Mascarenes or Mascarenhas Archipelago is a group of islands in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar consisting of the islands belonging to the Republic of Mauritius as well as the French department of Réunion. Thei ...

, and during the following year, Kersten visited

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Afric ...

, the

Comoros The Comoros,, ' officially the Union of the Comoros,; ar, الاتحاد القمري ' is an independent country made up of three islands in southeastern Africa, located at the northern end of the Mozambique Channel in the Indian Ocean. It ...

and

Mafia Island Mafia Island (Kisiwa cha Mafia) is an island and district of Pwani Region, Tanzania. The island is the third largest in Tanzanian ocean territory, but is not administratively included within the semi-autonomous region of Zanzibar, which has been ...

. In 1865 he returned to Europe."Kersten"
''Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon''. (in German).''Biographisches Jahrbuch und Deutscher Nekrolog''
edited by Anton Bettelheim. (in German). From 1870 he served at the German consulate in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, and in 1875 became manager of a chemical factory in

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 constitu ...

. In 1878, with Robert Jannasch, he founded the ''Zentralverein für Handelsgeographie'' (Central Association for Economic Geography). In 1883 he carried out

economic geography Economic geography is the subfield of human geography which studies economic activity and factors affecting them. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics. There are four branches of economic geography. There is, primary sect ...

research in

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

. In 1869–79 he publishe
''Baron Carl Claus von der Decken's Reisen in Ost-Afrika in den Jahren 1859 bis 1865''
("Decken's journeys in East Africa in 1859–65"; 4 volumes). Its editors included

Wilhelm Peters Wilhelm Karl Hartwich (or Hartwig) Peters (22 April 1815 in Koldenbüttel – 20 April 1883) was a German naturalist and explorer. He was assistant to the anatomist Johannes Peter Müller and later became curator of the Berlin Zoological Muse ...

Jean Cabanis Jean Louis Cabanis (8 March 1816 – 20 February 1906) was a German ornithologist. Cabanis was born in Berlin to an old Huguenot family who had moved from France. Little is known of his early life. He studied at the University of Berlin from 1 ...

Franz Martin Hilgendorf Franz Martin Hilgendorf (5 December 1839 – 5 July 1904) was a German zoologist and paleontologist. Hilgendorf's research on fossil snails from the Steinheim crater in the early 1860s became a palaeontological evidence for the theory of ev ...

Eduard von Martens Eduard von Martens (18 April 1831 – 14 August 1904) also known as ''Carl'' or ''Karl Eduard von Martens'', was a German zoologist. Born in Stuttgart in 1831, von Martens attended university in Tübingen, where he graduated in 1855. He then move ...

Carl Eduard Adolph Gerstaecker Carl Eduard Adolph Gerstaecker (30 August 1828 – 20 June 1895) was a German zoologist, entomologist and professor at the University of Berlin and then the University of Greifswald. Biography Gerstaecker was born in Berlin, where he studied m ...

, Otto Finsch,

Gustav Hartlaub Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and co ...

, et al. Animals and plants with the specific epithets of ''kersteni'' and ''kerstenii'' commemorate his name; examples being ''Lygodium kerstenii'' (a

fern A fern (Polypodiopsida or Polypodiophyta ) is a member of a group of vascular plants (plants with xylem and phloem) that reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. The polypodiophytes include all living pteridophytes exce ...

species), ''

Rieppeleon kerstenii ''Rieppeleon kerstenii'' is species of chameleon, a lizard in the family Chamaeleonidae. The species is endemic to East Africa. Geographic range ''R. kerstenii'' is found in eastern Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, and northeastern Tanzania. Common n ...

'' (Kenya pigmy

chameleon Chameleons or chamaeleons (family Chamaeleonidae) are a distinctive and highly specialized clade of Old World lizards with 202 species described as of June 2015. The members of this family are best known for their distinct range of colors, bein ...

), and ''

Pseudagrion kersteni ''Pseudagrion kersteni'', powder-striped sprite, Kersten's sprite or the powder-striped sprite, is a species of damselfly in the family Coenagrionidae. It is found in Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the ...

'' (Kersten's sprite).Water Dancers of SA's National Botanical Garden - SANBI
The Redspot Barb ''

Enteromius kerstenii The redspot barb (''Enteromius kerstenii'') is a species of freshwater cyprinid fish found in East Africa. It is named for the large, orange-red spot found on each operculum. According to FishBase, the South African ''Enteromius tangandensis'' ( ...

'' was also named for him.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kersten, Otto 1839 births 1900 deaths People from Altenburg Leipzig University alumni German geographers German explorers Explorers of Africa