Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (19 April 1795 – 27 June 1876) was a German naturalist,

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, althoug ...

, and microscopist. Ehrenberg was an evangelist and was considered to be of the most famous and productive

scientist A scientist is a person who conducts scientific research to advance knowledge in an area of the natural sciences. In classical antiquity, there was no real ancient analog of a modern scientist. Instead, philosophers engaged in the philosoph ...

s of his time.

Early collections

The son of a judge, Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg was born in Delitzsch, near

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

. He first studied

theology Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

, then

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

and

natural sciences Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and became a friend of the famous

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, ...

. In 1818, he completed his doctoral dissertation on

fungi A fungus ( : fungi or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as a kingdom, separately from ...

, ''Sylvae mycologicae Berolinenses.'' In 1820–1825, on a scientific expedition to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

with his friend Wilhelm Hemprich, he collected thousands of specimens of

plant Plants are predominantly photosynthetic eukaryotes of the kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all current definitions of Plantae exclu ...

s and

animal Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the Kingdom (biology), biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals Heterotroph, consume organic material, Cellular respiration#Aerobic respiration, breathe oxygen, are Motilit ...

s. He investigated parts of

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

, the

Libyan Desert The Libyan Desert (not to be confused with the Libyan Sahara) is a geographical region filling the north-eastern Sahara Desert, from eastern Libya to the Western Desert of Egypt and far northwestern Sudan. On medieval maps, its use predates t ...

, the Nile valley and the northern coasts of the

Red Sea The Red Sea ( ar, البحر الأحمر - بحر القلزم, translit=Modern: al-Baḥr al-ʾAḥmar, Medieval: Baḥr al-Qulzum; or ; Coptic: ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϩⲁϩ ''Phiom Enhah'' or ⲫⲓⲟⲙ ⲛ̀ϣⲁⲣⲓ ''Phiom ǹšari''; ...

, where he made a special study of the

coral Corals are marine invertebrates within the class Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact colonies of many identical individual polyps. Coral species include the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and ...

s. Subsequently, parts of Syria,

Arabia The Arabian Peninsula, (; ar, شِبْهُ الْجَزِيرَةِ الْعَرَبِيَّة, , "Arabian Peninsula" or , , "Island of the Arabs") or Arabia, is a peninsula of Western Asia, situated northeast of Africa on the Arabian Plat ...

and

Abyssinia The Ethiopian Empire (), also formerly known by the exonym Abyssinia, or just simply known as Ethiopia (; Amharic and Tigrinya: ኢትዮጵያ , , Oromo: Itoophiyaa, Somali: Itoobiya, Afar: ''Itiyoophiyaa''), was an empire that historica ...

were examined. Some results of these travels and of the important collections that had been made were reported on by Humboldt in 1826. While in Sudan he designed the mansion of the local governor of

Dongola Dongola ( ar, دنقلا, Dunqulā), also spelled ''Dunqulah'', is the capital of the state of Northern Sudan, on the banks of the Nile, and a former Latin Catholic bishopric (14th century). It should not be confused with Old Dongola, an ancien ...

Abidin Bey Abdin Bey al-Arnaut (c. 1780–1827) was an Albanian commander and politician of Egypt during the early era of Muhammad Ali's rule. A member of the core group of Muhammad Ali's commanders, after his death the Abdeen Palace named after him was bu ...

. After his return, Ehrenberg published several papers on

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s and

s and two volumes ''Symbolae physicae'' (1828–1834), in which many particulars of the mammals,

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

s, etc., were made public. Other observations were communicated to scientific societies.

Focus on microscopic organisms

Ehrenberg was appointed professor of

at Berlin University in 1827. In 1829 he accompanied Humboldt through eastern

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

to the

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

frontier. After his return he began to concentrate his studies on microscopic organisms, which until then had not been systematically studied. For nearly 30 years Ehrenberg examined samples of water, soil, sediment, blowing dust and rock and described thousands of new species, among them well-known flagellates such as ''

Euglena ''Euglena'' is a genus of single cell flagellate eukaryotes. It is the best known and most widely studied member of the class Euglenoidea, a diverse group containing some 54 genera and at least 200 species. Species of ''Euglena'' are found in f ...

'',

ciliate The ciliates are a group of alveolates characterized by the presence of hair-like organelles called cilia, which are identical in structure to eukaryotic flagella, but are in general shorter and present in much larger numbers, with a differen ...

s such as ''Paramecium aurelia'' and ''Paramecium caudatum,'' and many fossils, in nearly 400 scientific publications. He was particularly interested in a unicellular group of

protist A protist () is any eukaryotic organism (that is, an organism whose cells contain a cell nucleus) that is not an animal, plant, or fungus. While it is likely that protists share a common ancestor (the last eukaryotic common ancestor), the exc ...

s called diatoms, but he also studied, and named, many species of

radiolaria The Radiolaria, also called Radiozoa, are protozoa of diameter 0.1–0.2 mm that produce intricate mineral skeletons, typically with a central capsule dividing the cell into the inner and outer portions of endoplasm and ectoplasm. The el ...

foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular ectoplasm for catching food and other uses; and commonly ...

and

dinoflagellates The dinoflagellates (Greek δῖνος ''dinos'' "whirling" and Latin ''flagellum'' "whip, scourge") are a monophyletic group of single-celled eukaryotes constituting the phylum Dinoflagellata and are usually considered algae. Dinoflagellates a ...

. This research had an important bearing on some of the infusorial earths used for polishing and other economic purposes; they added, moreover, largely to our knowledge of the

microorganism A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...

s of certain

geological formation A geological formation, or simply formation, is a body of rock having a consistent set of physical characteristics ( lithology) that distinguishes it from adjacent bodies of rock, and which occupies a particular position in the layers of rock exp ...

s, especially of the

chalk Chalk is a soft, white, porous, sedimentary carbonate rock. It is a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite and originally formed deep under the sea by the compression of microscopic plankton that had settled to the sea floor. Ch ...

, and of the marine and freshwater accumulations. Until Ehrenberg took up the study it was not known that considerable masses of

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

were composed of minute forms of animals or plants. He also demonstrated that the

phosphorescence Phosphorescence is a type of photoluminescence related to fluorescence. When exposed to light (radiation) of a shorter wavelength, a phosphorescent substance will glow, absorbing the light and reemitting it at a longer wavelength. Unlike fluo ...

of the sea was due to organisms. He was a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences from 1836 and a foreign member of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

from 1837. In 1839, he won the

Wollaston Medal The Wollaston Medal is a scientific award for geology, the highest award granted by the Geological Society of London. The medal is named after William Hyde Wollaston, and was first awarded in 1831. It was originally made of gold (1831–1845), ...

, the highest award granted by the

Geological Society of London The Geological Society of London, known commonly as the Geological Society, is a learned society based in the United Kingdom. It is the oldest national geological society in the world and the largest in Europe with more than 12,000 Fellows. Fe ...

. Ehrenberg was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

in 1849. He continued until late in life to investigate the microscopic organisms of the deep sea and of various geological formations. He died in

on 27 June 1876.

Legacy

After his death in 1876, his collections of microscopic organisms were deposited in the Berlin's Natural History Museum (this museum was a part of the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

until it left the university in 2009). The "Ehrenberg Collection" includes 40,000 microscope preparations, 5,000 raw samples, 3,000 pencil and ink drawings, and nearly 1,000 letters of correspondence. His collection of

scorpion Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always en ...

s, and other arachnids from the Middle East, is also held in the Berlin Museum. Many herbaria around the world also hold botanical collections made by Ehrenberg, including the

National Herbarium of Victoria The National Herbarium of Victoria (Index Herbariorum code: MEL) is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known a ...

at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria are botanic gardens across two sites–Melbourne and Cranbourne. Melbourne Gardens was founded in 1846 when land was reserved on the south side of the Yarra River for a new botanic garden. It extends across ...

, the

National Museum of Natural History, France The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...

and the herbarium at the

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...

. He was also the first winner of the

Leeuwenhoek Medal The Leeuwenhoek Medal, established in 1877 by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), in honor of the 17th- and 18th-century microscopist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, is granted every ten years to the scientist judged to have made t ...

in 1877. In his hometown, Delitzsch, the highest A-Level school, the "Ehrenberg-Gymnasium" is named after him. The best student of the school year receives the Ehrenberg Prize and a scholarship.

Ehrenberg Island Ehrenberg Island ( no, Ehrenbergøya) is a minor island in the Bastian Islands in the Svalbard archipelago. It lies north of Lange Island. The island has the shape of an inverted teardrop and its highest elevation is above sea level. The closes ...

in the Svalbard archipelago is named after Ehrenberg. In 1998 the Linnean Society of London dedicated a special issue to "Christian Gottfried Ehrenburg (1795–1876) The man and his legacy".

Family

Christian Ehrenberg was the son of Johann Gottfried Ehrenberg (1757–1826) and his wife Christiane Dorothea Becker (1769–1808). His brother Carl August Ehrenberg (1801–1849) became a botanist and plant collector. After attending the same expedition (as part of Humboldt's team) with

Gustav Rose Prof Gustavus ("Gustav") Rose FRSFor HFRSE (18 March 1798 – 15 July 1873) was a German mineralogist who was a native of Berlin. He was President of the German Geological Society from 1863 to 1873. Life He was born in Berlin the son of pharmaco ...

, (who was the brother of

Heinrich Rose Heinrich Rose (6 August 1795 – 27 January 1864) was a German mineralogist and analytical chemist. He was the brother of the mineralogist Gustav Rose and a son of Valentin Rose. Rose's early works on phosphorescence were noted in the Quarte ...

), Ehrenberg married Gustav's cousin Julie Rose (1804–1848). After their first son died in infancy they had four daughters: Helene (* 1834), Mathilde (1835–1890), Laura (*1836) and Clara Ehrenberg (1838–1916). His youngest daughter Clara Ehrenberg was his assistant for over twelve years. She aided his scientific research, organised and indexed his collections and correspondence, and prepared a taxonomic reference book. Clara was also a published scientific illustrator. Helene married the botanist Johannes von Hanstein and Mathilde married the mineraologist

Karl Friedrich August Rammelsberg Karl Friedrich August Rammelsberg (1 April 1813 – 28 December 1899) was a German mineralogist from Berlin, Prussia. Life After an apprenticeship in pharmacy, he studied chemistry and crystallography at the University of Berlin, where his inf ...

. In 1852 Ehrenberg married his second wife, Karoline Friederike Friccius (1812–95), who was related to the chemist

Eilhard Mitscherlich Eilhard Mitscherlich (; 7 January 179428 August 1863) was a German chemist, who is perhaps best remembered today for his discovery of the phenomenon of crystallographic isomorphism in 1819. Early life and work Mitscherlich was born at Neuende ...

. The couple had one son, Hermann Alexander Ehernberg.

Standard author abbreviation

His zoological author abbreviation is Ehrenberg. Thi
query
lists taxa authored by him. See also

Taxa named by Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...

Publications

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1828). ''Naturgeschichtliche Reisen durch Nord-Afrika und West-Asien in den jahren 1820 bis 1825 von Dr. W.F. Hemprich und Dr. C.G. Ehrenberg. Historischer Theil.'' Ernst Siegfried Mittler: Berlin

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1828–1900). ''Symbolae physicae'', Species:Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg#Symbolae physicae. * Ehrenberg, C.G. (1830–1836). ''Vorträge in der Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin im Jahre 1830–1836''

** Band 1 : ''Organisation, Systematik und geographisches Verhältniss der Infusionsthierchen''. Berlin: gedruckt in Druckerei der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1830

*** ''Die geographische Verbreitung der Infusionsthierchen in Nord-Afrika und West-Asien, beobachtet auf Hemprich und Ehrenbergs Reisen'', S. 1–20

*** ''Beiträge zur Kenntnis der Organisation der Infusorien und ihrer geographischen Verbreitung, besonders in Sibirien'', S. 21–108

** Band 2 : ''Zur Erkenntniss der Organisation in der Richtung des kleinsten Raumes''. Berlin: gedruckt in Druckerei der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1832–1836

(note: incorrect name at Google Books). *** ''Über die Entwickelung und Lebensdauer der Infusionsthiere, nebst ferneren Beiträgen zu einer Vergleichung ihrer organischen Systeme'', 1831, S. 1–154

*** ''Dritter Beitrag zur Erkenntniss grosser Organisation in der Richtung des kleinsten Raumes'', S. 145–336

*** ''Zusätze zur Erkenntniss grosser organischer Ausbildung in den kleinsten thierischen Organismen'', 1835, S. 151–180

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1835). Die Akalephen des rothen Meeres und der Organismus der Medusen der Ostsee. ''Abhandlungen der Königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin''. p. 181–260, with foldout between p. 260–261

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1838). ''Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen''. 2 vols., Leipzig

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1839). ''Recherches sur l'organisation des animaux infusoires.'' J.B. Baillière: Paris

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1840). ''Das grössere Infusorienwerke''. Königliche Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin Bericht, 198–219. * Ehrenberg, C.G. (1843). ''Verbreitung und Einfluss des mikroskopischen Lebens in Süd-und Nord Amerika''. Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin Physikalische Abhandlungen, 1841:291–446. * Gravenhorst, J.L.C. (1844). ''Naturgeschichte der Infusionsthierchen nach Ehrenbergs groβem Werke über diese Thiere.'' Verlag und Druck von Gratz, Barth und Comp.: Breslau

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1848). Uber eigenthumliche auf den Bamen des Urwaldes in SU-Amerika zahlreich lebend mikroskopische oft kieselschalige Organismen. Königliche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin Nonatsber. 213–220. * Ehrenberg, C.G. (1854). ''Mikrogeologie''. 2 vols., Leipzig

* Ehrenberg, C.G. (1875). ''Fortsetzung der mikrogeologischen Studien''. Abhandlungen der königlichen Akademie der Wissenschaft: Berlin. * The Ehrenberg Collection (including plates from ''Mikrogeologie'', 1854). Available at ''Museum für Naturkunde'', ''Humboldt-Universität'

* See also

.

References

* * * Baker, I. D. B. (1997) "C. G. Ehrenberg and W. F. Hemprich's Travels, 1820–1825, and the Insecta of the Symbolae Physicae". ''Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift'' 44, (2):165–202. * Kern, Ralf, ''Wissenschaftliche Instrumente in ihrer Zeit'', 4 vols., Cologne: Koenig, 2010.

External links

*
Gaedike, R.; Groll, E. K. & Taeger, A. 2012: Bibliography of the entomological literature from the beginning until 1863 : online database – version 1.0 – Senckenberg Deutsches Entomologisches Institut.Ehrenberg-collection
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ehrenberg, Christian Gottfried German taxonomists 1795 births 1876 deaths Phycologists German anatomists 19th-century German botanists German entomologists German mycologists Microscopists Leeuwenhoek Medal winners Wollaston Medal winners Members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Humboldt University of Berlin faculty People from the Electorate of Saxony German Protestants