Georg Karl Berendt

Georg Carl Berendt ( born June 13, 1790 in Gdansk, † January 4, 1850 ) was a German physician and naturalist. In particular, Berendt has become known for his research on amber and its inclusions.

Life

Berendt was the second of three sons of the physician Dr. Nathanael Berendt and his wife Johanna Concordia born Schmidt. After attending high school, he studied in Königsberg, Göttingen and Berlin. He received his doctorate in Göttingen in the field of ophthalmology. In 1814 he joined Danzig in the medical practice of his father. Berendt married in 1817 Marianne Reinic, with whom he had six children. In 1844 he received the title of " Royal Medical Raths ", in 1845 he was elected a member of the Scholars Academy Leopoldina. He died after several recovering from serious illness in 1850 in his native Danzig from a pulmonary embolism. As an ophthalmologist Georg Carl Berendt won great reputation.

Work

Already during his studies employed Berendt with amber. So he undertook in 1809 with one of his teachers a trip to the Sambia to so-called " Bernsteingräberei ". In 1820 Berendt was a member of the Society of Natural Sciences in Gdansk, whose director he was from 1837 to 1845. Berendt put on a very significant for that time amber collection, which included more than 4,000 pieces at the end of his life, of which about 3,200 with about 350 animal and vegetal inclusions. His particular interest was the botanical inclusions. Alexander von Humboldt and Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who visited his collection. Some years after the death of Georg Carl Berendt King of Prussia bought the collection, which is now owned by the Berlin Museum of Natural History at the Humboldt University. Some years before (1847 ) the British Museum acquired 200 pieces from his collection, which are also preserved.

Although Berendt itself has very little published, are his results on the development of amber, and his ( in particular plant ) inclusions of the milestones in the history of amber research, as one of the pioneers Berendt applies. He realized in the course of his research on amber inclusions as one of the first to recognize that at the time of formation of the fossil resin, the climate must have been much warmer than today, related species of the investigated included organisms today only occur in subtropical and tropical areas, Baltic amber rearranged several times must have been, from the resin only under airtight amber could be and more.

Writings (selection )

  • De atmosphaera nervorum sensitiva Commentatio. Dissertation from the year 1816.
  • The organic radicals present in the amber of antiquity. Volumes I and II, Berlin 1845-1856, ( doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.51864 ).
  • Monograph of the Bernstein - scraping. In: Annales de la Societe entomologique de France. Volume V, 1836.
  • About the occurrence of larger amber masses in the internal land. In 1842.
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