Gustav Karl Wilhelm Hermann Karsten (6 November 1817, in

Stralsund Stralsund (; Swedish language, Swedish: ''Strålsund''), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Stralsund (German language, German: ''Hansestadt Stralsund''), is the fifth-largest city in the northeastern German federal state of Mecklen ...

– 10 July 1908, in

Zoppot Sopot (; or ) is a seaside resort city in Pomerelia on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, with a population of approximately 40,000. It is located in Pomerania Province and has the status of county – the smallest city in ...

) was a German

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

Biography

Born in

, he followed the example of

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 1769 – 6 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, natural history, naturalist, List of explorers, explorer, and proponent of Romanticism, Romantic philosophy and Romanticism ...

and traveled 1844-56 the northern part of

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

(

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

). From 1856 to 1868, he was a professor at the agricultural college in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, afterwards serving as a professor of

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Plant physiologists study fundamental processes of plants, such as photosynthesis, respiration, plant nutrition, plant hormone functions, tr ...

at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

(1868–72). In 1881, at the suggestion of

David Friedrich Weinland David Friedrich Weinland (30 August 1829 in Grabenstetten – 19 September 1915 in Bad Urach, Hohenwittlingen) was a German zoologist and novelist. The son of a pastor, Weinland attended the Protestant Seminary in Maulbronn from 1843 to 1847. ...

, Karsten became convinced of the correctness of Otto Hahn's organic theory of the

chondrite A chondrite is a stony (non-metallic) meteorite that has not been modified by either melting or planetary differentiation, differentiation of the parent body. They are formed when various types of dust and small grains in the early Solar Syste ...

s and, as a result, wrote an essay entitled "Die Meteorite und ihre Organismen" in which he declared his support for Hahn's theory. He died 1908 in

Grunewald Grunewald is the name of both a locality and a forest in Germany: * Grunewald (forest) * Grunewald (locality) Grünewald may refer to: * Grünewald (surname) * Grünewald, Germany, a municipality in Brandenburg, Germany * Grünewald (Luxembourg), ...

. As a

taxonomist In biology, taxonomy () is the science, scientific study of naming, defining (Circumscription (taxonomy), circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxon, taxa (si ...

, he was the binomial author of many botanical species.

Selected bibliography

* ''Florae Columbiae ...'' 1859–1869. (Vol. 1
Digital edition
/ Vol. 2
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of the three State Libraries of North Rhine-Westphalia. ...

) * ''Chemismus der Pflanzenzelle'' 1869. * ''Deutsche Flora. Pharmaceutisch-medicinische Botanik'' 1880-1883; second edition 1894–1895. * ''"Hermann Karsten (1851) y Wilhelm Sievers (1888): las primeras descripciones e interpretaciones sobre el órigen de las terrazas aluviales en la Córdillera de Mérida''." C. Schubert. ''Bol. Hist. Geocien. Venez''., 44, pp 15–19 * "Die Meteorite und ihre Organismen", 1881 - The Meteorite and its Organisms.https://archive.org/details/the-meteorite-and-its-organisms archive.org English translation

References

External links

Florae Columbiae :terrarumque adiacentium specimina selecta in peregrinatione duodecim annorum observata: delineavit et descripsit H. Karsten
at the Biodiversity Heritage library {{DEFAULTSORT:Karsten, Hermann 1817 births 1908 deaths People from Stralsund People from Sopot Botanists with author abbreviations 19th-century German botanists Botanists active in South America German phycologists German pteridologists German mycologists 19th-century German geologists People from the Province of Pomerania Botanists from the Kingdom of Prussia Geologists from the Kingdom of Prussia