Alexander Keyserling

Alexander Friedrich Michael Lebrecht Nikolaus Arthur Graf von Keyserling (born 15 Augustjul / August 27 1815greg in Kabillen, Kurland, today Kabile, Latvia, .. .. † 8 Maijul / May 20 1891greg in Rayküll, Estonia ) was a German geologist and paleontologist.

While studying in Berlin, he met the later empire founder Otto von Bismarck and his college friend John Lothrop Motley, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship.

He is regarded as the founders of Russian geology through his study conducted on behalf of the Emperor Nicholas I. expeditions by Russia with geological, paleontological, botanical, zoological and cartographic studies.

In 1847 he ended his academic career and retired to the estate Rayküll, which he had acquired as a dowry for his marriage to the daughter of the Russian Finance Minister George Cancrin. He held various positions, including as a knighthood Hauptmann (1857-1863) and curator of the University of Dorpat ( 1862-1869 ).

He was the grandfather of the philosopher Hermann Keyserling ( 1880-1946 ).

In 1847 he was awarded the Demidov Prize.

Writings (selection )

• Johann Heinrich Blasius: The Vertebrata of Europe, F. Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig, 1840.
• With Paul Theodor von Krusenstern (1809-1881): Scientific observations on a journey into the Pechora country in 1843 (C. Kray, St. Petersburg, 1846).
• Fossil mollusks. St. Petersburg 1848.
• Geology of European Russia and the Urals / Edit. by Gustav Leonhard. Stuttgart 1848
• The northern Urals and the coastal mountains of Pai - Choi, studied and described by a in the years 1847, 1848 and 1850, equipped by the Geographical Society Imperial Russian expedition ... ( Buchdruckerei the Imperial Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1853).
• Polypodiacea et cyatheacea herbarii bungeani (W. Engelmann, Leipzig, 1873).
• Genus Adiantum L. Recensuit Alexander Keyserling ... ( Russian Academy of Sciences, St. Petersburg, 1875).
• From the diary sheets of Count Alexander Keyserling ... (Stuttgart, 1894).