Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck

Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck ( born February 14, 1776 Castle Reichenberg near Reichel home in the Odenwald, † March 16, 1858 in Breslau) was a German botanist and natural philosopher. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " Nees ".

Life

Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees was the son of the Count Rentmeisters Johann Conrad Nees and his wife Katharina Dorothea Friederika Esenbeck. The botanist Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck was his brother.

After his first lessons by a private tutor Nees attended high school in Darmstadt. In the years 1795-1799 he studied at the University of Jena philosophy and medicine. His teachers were Professors August Batsch, Justus Christian Loder of and Christoph William hoof.

After Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees was in 1800 a PhD from the University of Giessen with a medical dissertation, he went back into the Odenwald and practiced in Erbach at the court of Count Franz I. ( Erbach- Erbach ). Two years later he settled in Sickershausen in Kitzingen / Main. There he married on August 19, 1802 Wilhelmine Luise Katharina von Ditfurth. After the wedding, the couple moved to the estate of the wife back in Sickershauen and he devoted himself entirely to his research. On September 22, 1803 his wife died, and since then, Christian Gottfried Daniel added his family name " Nees " to " Nees von Esenbeck ".

After a brief period of mourning Nees married on March 5, 1804 Elisabetha Jakobina of Mettingh. With her he had three daughters and two sons. With effect from May 3, 1816 Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees was admitted as a full member of the Leopoldina. During these years he corresponded frequently with the entomologists Friedrich Klug and his house became the meeting place of like-minded scholars, such as Joseph Eduard d' Alton, Ignaz Dollinger, Georg August Goldfuß, Christian Friedrich Horn Schuch (1793-1850), Dietrich Georg Kieser and Elias von Siebold.

In addition to general meetings and discussions was also done research on Good Sickershausen. Christian Heinrich Pander and Karl Ernst von Baer led here their studies on chicken embryo. Lorenz Oken (1779-1851) used the seclusion of country life and wrote some writings here. Nees wrote to two Oken'schen early works Procreation and demolition of the system of biology in Jenaische General Literary Gazette in 1806 and 1808 two reviews.

For economic reasons, took a job as a lecturer in 1817 Nees of Botany at the University of Erlangen in 1818 and was appointed professor of natural history and botany at the University of Bonn. On August 8, 1818 he was elected the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina as the successor of Friedrich von Wendt as its new President. The Bavarian Academy of Sciences appointed him in 1835 to the foreign members of the Mathematics and Physics class.

In Bonn he was - without having written a dissertation in this subject - the end of 1818 Dr. phil. doctorate. He was head of March 1819 together with his brother Theodor Friedrich Ludwig Nees von Esenbeck the reconstruction of the Botanical Garden. He held until 1830, and was in his own words a pleasant pastime this office. 1819 Nees met in Weimar, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. He has long been fascinated by its metamorphoses. In a letter dated 5 April 1823, he shares with Goethe that his honor is now a species was named after him: Goethea semperflorens and Goethea cauliflora. The seeds of this Malvengewächses received Nees of Prince Maximilian, who brought from Brazil to the Rhine.

Beginning in 1830 left Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees his family and settled with Marie Hüllmann, the wife of his colleague Dietrich Hüllmann, in Breslau. There is also entrusted him with the management of the Botanical Garden. This rapid, non-bureaucratic transfer was only possible by swapping jobs with Ludolph Christian Treviranus.

On 10 October of the same year he was legally divorced from his wife. Three years later he married in 1833 in Breslau Marie Hüllmann. After six years of marriage Nees also left this wife ( no divorce ) and lived from 1839 to his death with his cook Christiane Kambach together.

Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees was politically active. At least since 1840, he was close to the political pre-March period. In 1845 he joined the German Catholic movement and 1848 was instrumental in the founding of the Workers' Association in Wroclaw. On August 23, 1848 he served as president of the Berlin Labour Congress and was elected as a deputy in the Prussian National Assembly. There he was part of the left faction, whose policies he helped to shape.

Also at the workers' brotherhood Nees had its share. Due to this, he was " whether dangerous social aspirations" from Berlin reported in January 1849. In Breslau he was constantly monitored by the police and suspended for his " social policy " lectures, which he delivered in the spring of 1849 with effect from 31 January 1851, his salary reduced by 50 %. On March 13, 1852 disciplinary proceedings ended with his dismissal and complete cancellation of its pension.

His economic situation continued to deteriorate and he was forced to leave his private library and his herbaria for sale. Mostly he pledged its library of Leopoldina. His reputation did not hurt his political views; he remained long after his death, a highly respected scientist.

He had special merit also acquired the nomenclature, the cryptogams, he conducted research in zoological field and was one of the main representatives of the natural philosophy of his time.

Honors

In his honor, the plant genera were

• Esenbeckia H.B.K. of the rue family ( Rutaceae )
• Neesiella ship. the family of liverworts ( Marchantiophyta )

Named.

Also the Nees Institute for Biodiversity of Plants University of Bonn bears his name.

Works (selection)

• The algae represented the sweet water after their stages of development (1814 )
• The system of fungi and sponges. An attempt. 2 volumes ( 1816-1817 )
• Elenchus Plantarum Horti Botanici Bonnensis (along with TFL Nees von Esenbeck ) ( 1820)
• Lectures on the history of development of the magnetic sleep and dream (1820 )
• Manual of Botany. Schrag, Nuremberg 1820 ( Volume 1-2) Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf
• De Cinnamomo disputatio ( with TFL Nees von Esenbeck, 1823)
• Plantarum in Horto medico Bonnensi nutritarum, Icones selectae. Bonnae 1824 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf
• Bryologia germanica ( with horn Schuch and storm, 1823-31, 2 vols, with 43 plates )
• The German Brombeersträuche ( with consecration ) Schönian, Elberfeld 1827 Digitized edition of the University and State Library Dusseldorf
• Agrostologia brasiliensis (1829 )
• Genera et species Asterearum ( 1833)
• Natural history of the European liverworts with memories from the Giant Mountains ( 1833-38, 4 volumes)
• Hymenopterorum Ichneumonibus Affinium monographiae, genera et species illustrantes Europaea (1834, 2 volumes)
• Systema Laurinarum (1836 )
• Florae Africae australioris illustrationes monographicae. I. Gramineae (1841 )
• Karl Moritz Gottsche, Johann Bernhard Wilhelm Lindenberg Synopsis Hepaticarum, Hamburg, 5 parts, 1844-1847
• The system of speculative philosophy, Volume 1: Natural Philosophy ( 1841)
• Synopsis Hepaticarum ( with Carl Moritz Gottsche and Johann Lindenberg, 1844)
• The general morphology of nature as a preschool of Natural History (1852 )

Swell

• Johanna Bohley: Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck. A picture of life. Scientific Publishing Company, Stuttgart 2003, ISBN 3-8047-2075-7.
• Dietrich von Engelhardt (ed. ): Christian Gottfried Nees von Esenbeck. Politics and science in the first half of the 19th century. Scientific Publishing Company, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-8047-2153-2.
• Ilse Jahn: history of biology. Theories, methods, institutions, short biographies. Direct Media Publications, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3- 89853-538 X (1 CD -ROM).
• Karl Mägdefrau: History of botany. Life and achievements of renowned researchers. Fischer, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-437-20489-0.
• Acta Borussica Volume 4 / I ( 1848-1858 )
• Acta Borussica band 4/II ( 1848-1858 )