Ernst Dieffenbach

, Partially called Johann Karl Ernst Dieffenbach in the English speaking Ernest Dieffenbach, ( born January 27, 1811 in Giessen, Hesse- Darmstadt, † October 1, 1855 ibid, Grand Duchy of Hesse), was a German physician, geologist, naturalist, and later Professor at the University of Giessen. Special merit he acquired through his scientific research in New Zealand.

Early years

Ernst Dieffenbach, was born on January 27, 1811 in Giessen, the son of Louis Adam Dieffenbach, a Protestant minister and professor of theology at the University of Giessen. His mother was Louise Henriette Christiane Hoffmann from top Mockstadt. From 1828 to 1833 he studied medicine at Giessen, but also got interested in other natural sciences. So he was, inter alia, Student of Justus Liebig, a chemist and professor at the same university.

Also interested in politics, to Dieffenbach joined while a student democracy movement of the fraternities, which in turn received after the July Revolution of 1830, another in Paris buoyancy and the Hambach Festival in April 1833 with the Frankfurt Guard storm was at its peak in May 1832. In Giessen, he was a member of the fraternity "Germania". With the failed attempt to trigger a revolution, many students were arrested or fled the country. Dieffenbach, presumably involved in the uprising and also persecuted, fled in August 1833 in the French Strasbourg. In May 1834, the exclusion of the Giessen University followed. Two months later Dieffenbach went to Switzerland to Zurich for his study of medicine continue. In 1835 he graduated with a doctorate.

In Switzerland, politically active, Dieffenbach joined the Swiss section of " Young Germany " on. In 1836 he was sent for political activities for two months in jail. In August 1836, finally, expelled from the Swiss authorities Dieffenbach, even at the instigation of the Austrian Government points.

England

About France Dieffenbach went to England, where he found refuge in London. He wrote articles for the British Annals of Medicine and the Edinburgh Review, taught German, worked as a prosector at Guy's Hospital and at times as a doctor for a factory in London. His living conditions during this period were precarious. The activities ranged in total not to live. But his work for scientific journals made ​​him in the British professional world known and so it happened that he was nominated by two officials of the Royal Geographical Society, of the New Zealand Company was given the opportunity in the spring of 1839 to conduct an expedition to explore New Zealand.

New Zealand

In May 1839 Dieffenbach sailed on the Tory, a settler ship of the New Zealand Company under the direction of William Wakefield, of Plymouth in the direction of New Zealand. The ship reached the North Island in August 1839. Dieffenbach spent two years in the budding colony. He traveled the Marlborough Sounds, the Hutt Valley, Taranaki Region, the west coast of the North Island and the Volcanic Plateau, traveled up to North Country and attended for four weeks, the Chatham Islands. He was the first scientist who conducted research in New Zealand and lived. Dieffenbach collected and documented the flora and fauna of the country, and the landscape with its geological conditions. His collection was later entrance to the Royal Botanic Gardens, in London's Kew and the British Museum.

But Dieffenbach was attracted not only the scientific challenge. In December 1839, he ascended the Taranaki at the second attempt. He is, together with James Heberley who handled the four-day climb with him and 20 minutes to have rather reached the summit, to the Erstbesteigern of 2,518 m high active volcano. The initiative for the ascent came from Dieffenbach.

He cataloged by him in 1840, but in 1872 extinct Dieffenbach- Rail ( Gallirallus dieffenbachii ) was named after him in honor.

Back in England

In October 1841 Dieffenbach returned to England, made ​​his first book " New Zealand and its native population " out and worked on his book " Travels in New Zealand", which appeared in two volumes in 1843 in London. In an article in the Times on April 6, 1844 his book was discussed and considered very valuable for all who had interest in the new colony for various reasons. The two volumes were to manuals for travelers and colonists and were a good basis for future explorers.

In January 1843 Dieffenbach founding member of the London Ethnological Society and represented there, Johann Gottfried Herder 's view that the individuality of every people a product of a dialectic between the global- human nature, the individual character of the breed and the specific environment, developed in the race itself. Dieffenbach assumed in his essay "On the Study of Ethnology ," that with the relatively stable classification of racial types, ethnologists races with the precision of a botanist could create a Ethnological map of the world which lives the geographical boundaries in which each race, would show.

Back in Germany

During the year 1843 Dieffenbach returned to Germany and saw himself first, due to his previous political activities recurring difficulties exposed. But support came from Liebig and Humboldt. On a short trip to England on behalf of Liebig, Dieffenbach was hoping to get in a conversation with Lord Stanley another order for an expedition to New Zealand. An offer to make a scientific trip to South America, but he refused. Back Dieffenbach Darwin's "Journal of Researches " translated into German, participated with works in scientific journals and in 1848 could work more freely after the German revolution. He took over the editorship of the liberal Free Hessian newspaper and in 1849 professor at the University of Giessen. An offer to get a seat in the first German parliament, the Frankfurt National Assembly, but he refused. In 1850 he got an associate professor of geology plotted and published in 1852 his translation of the work "The Geological Observer " by Henry Thomas de la Bèche.

In April 1851 his Dieffenbach Catherine Emilie Reuning married. From this marriage two daughters were born, Clare and Anna. 1855 Dieffenbach ill with typhoid fever and died on 1 October of the same year in Giessen. His grave is unknown.

Works

• Ernest Dieffenbach, Smith, Elder and Co., Cornhill (ed.): New Zealand and its native population. London 1841.
• Ernest Dieffenbach, John Murray ( ed.): Travels in New Zealand - with a contribution to the Geography, Geology, Botany, and Natural History of Country did. Volume I, II, London 1843.
• Ernst Dieffenbach: On the Study of Ethnology. London January 31, 1843 (11 -page essay, presented at the inaugural meeting of the Ethnological Society, Thomas Hodgkin 's House in London).
• Ernst Dieffenbach: Charles Darwin's Natural Sciences trips to the islands of the green promontory, South America, Tierra del Fuego, the Falkland Islands, Isla Chiloe Islands, Galapagos Islands, Otaheite, New Holland, New Zealand, Van Diemen 's Land, Keeling Islands, Mauritius, St. Helena, the Azores ect .. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1844 ( translation with notes from the book " Journal of Researches " by Charles Darwin).
• Ernst Dieffenbach: Preschool geology - A guide for monitoring and proper understanding of the still now on the Earth's surface preceding changes as well as to the study of geological phenomena in general .. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1853 ( translation and German editing with additions of the work "The Geological Observer" by Henry Thomas de la Bèche ).