14 Facts About Hinrich Lichtenstein

Martin H[e]inrich Carl Lichtenstein was a German physician, explorer, botanist and zoologist.

Hinrich Lichtenstein explored parts of southern Africa and collected natural history specimens extensively and many new species were described from his collections by European scientists.

Hinrich Lichtenstein's father had an interest in eastern languages and built up an extensive library.

Hinrich Lichtenstein took an interest in natural history and geography from an early age, and came into contact with Count Johann Centurius von Hoffmannsegg in 1797 and began to help examine the Count's extensive collections of insects and birds.

Hinrich Lichtenstein then went to study medicine at Jena and Helmstedt and qualified as a doctor on 26 April 1802.

Hinrich Lichtenstein prepared himself by reading the accounts of travellers like Peter Kolbe, Anders Sparrman, Carl Peter Thunberg, Francois Le Vaillant and John Barrow.

Hinrich Lichtenstein met the collectors Johann Hellwig and Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger who gave him an overview of the gaps in the knowledge of the flora and fauna of the African region and on methods for collecting specimens.

Hinrich Lichtenstein reached Cape Town on 23 December 1802 and from that point he travelled widely around southern Africa, becoming the personal physician of the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope.

Hinrich Lichtenstein travelled to London in 1819 to purchase specimens for the Berlin Museum at auctions.

Hinrich Lichtenstein was a close friend of Carl Maria von Weber.

Together with Alexander von Humboldt, Hinrich Lichtenstein organized the annual meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians in Berlin in 1828.

In 1829, Hinrich Lichtenstein was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Hinrich Lichtenstein was responsible for the creation of Berlin's Zoological Gardens in 1841, when he persuaded King Frederick William IV of Prussia to donate the grounds of his pheasantry.

Hinrich Lichtenstein published Johann Reinhold Forster's manuscripts for Descriptiones animalium in 1844.