Carl Theodor Hermann Steudner (1 September 1832 – 10 April 1863) was a
botanist and an explorer of
Africa.
Education and early work
Steudner was born in Greiffenberg, located in
Silesia, but grew up in Görlitz. He studied botany, mineralogy, and medicine in
Berlin and Würzburg. Among his professors were Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg, Heinrich Wilhelm Dove, and
Carl Ritter in Berlin; and
Rudolf Virchow, Franz von Rinecker, and Albert von Kölliker in Würzburg,
[ Biography at the Upper Lusatian Science Society (archived, in German)] where he began his friendship with
Ernst Haeckel.
[Ernst Haeckel. Entwicklungsgeschichte einer Jugend, Briefe an die Eltern 1852/1856. Leipzig, KF. Köhler, 1921]
Having returned to Berlin, Steudner devoted himself to botany and published on Marantaceae. He was elected a member of the Berlin Society of Friends of Natural Science.
Expedition to Africa
Heinrich Barth of the
Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin convinced Steudner to participate in an African expedition to search for
Eduard Vogel, whose traces had been lost in the
Ouaddai Empire.
[Schindler. Nekrolog. Vorgetragen zur Hauptversammlung im October 1863. in: Abhandlungen der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Görlitz, Vol. 12, pp. 201-205, 1865] This expedition was initiated by Ernest II, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The expedition was led by Theodor von Heuglin and started on 4 March 1861 in
Alexandria. After sailing over the
Red Sea they landed at
Massawa on 17 June 1861 and observed birds on Dahlak Archipelago. Their way through the Ethiopian Highlands led them to Keren in the country of the
Bilen people, from where
Werner Munzinger came to join them, and afterwards to
Adwa, where they met
Wilhelm Schimper. Here the expedition split into two parties. Steudner remained at Heuglin. They made a wide detour through the
Qwara Province country in order to search for Tewodros II of Ethiopia. After visiting
Gondar and
Amba Mariam they came to Edschebet, where they were guests of Tewodros. From
Lake Tana they turned north. By way of the
Blue Nile, they reached
Khartoum in July 1862.
[Hermann Steudner. Travel reports in Zeitschrift der Berliner Gesellschaft für Erdkunde und Zeitschrift für allgemeine Erdkunde 1861-1864.]
Because of this detour, the leadership of the expedition was taken from Heuglin. They used the break to visit Kurdufan, where they followed the traces of Theodor Kotschy. On 25 January 1863 they joined Alexine Tinne on her tour up the White Nile to the Bahr el Ghasal. Steudner died of fever on 10 April 1863 in Waw near the Jur River.
Honors
Steudner visited regions which had never been explored by a botanist before. Hence, his careful reports were of high importance. Renowned herbariums, such as Kew Royal Botanic Gardens London, Natural History Museum London,
Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle Paris, Swedish Museum of Natural History Stockholm, and South African National Biodiversity Institute National Herbarium Pretoria, keep specimens that he collected.
The Steudner's dwarf gecko ( Tropiocolotes steudneri) is named after Steudner.[Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . ("Steudner", p. 253).] Also, Karl Koch, a friend of Steudner, named the plant genus Steudnera (subfamily Aroideae, family Araceae) in honor of Steudner.
In Görlitz, a monument was erected, but it was largely destroyed in World War II to use the metal for military purposes.
Further reading
-
Meyers Konversationslexikon, 1885–1892, Vol. 15, p. 309
-
James Quirin. "Caste and Class in Historical North-West Ethiopia: The Beta Israel (Falasha) and Kemant, Journal of African History, Vol. 39, 1998, pp. 195–220
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Georg Schweinfurth. Beitrag zur Flora Aethiopiens. G. Reimer Berlin, 1867 online
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Annelore Rieke-Müller. Der Blick über das ganze Erdenrund - Deutsche Forschungsreisen und Forschungsreisende im 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Deutschen Afrika-Expedition 1860-1863. WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, 1999
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Uwe Fiedler: Auf den Spuren des Afrikaforschers Hermann Steudner. BoD – Books on Demand, 2015 (in German)
External links
