Eduard Adolf Strasburger (1 February 1844 – 18 May 1912) was a Polish-

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professor and one of the most famous botanists of the 19th century. He discovered mitosis in plants.

Life

Eduard Strasburger was born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

, Congress Poland, the son of Krystyna Anna (von Schütz) and Edward Bogumił Strasburger (1803–1874).Klaus Oskar Leyde: Strasburger. In: Deutsches Geschlechterbuch Band 207 (56. Allgemeiner Band), C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg 1998, S. 227–242. In 1870, he married Aleksandra Julia Wertheim (1847–1902), they had two children: Anna (1870–1942) and

Julius The gens Julia (''gēns Iūlia'', ) was one of the most prominent patrician families in ancient Rome. Members of the gens attained the highest dignities of the state in the earliest times of the Republic. The first of the family to obtain the ...

(1871–1934). Strasburger studied biological sciences in

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and

Jena Jena () is a German city and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 inhabitants, while the city itself has a po ...

, receiving a PhD in 1866 after working with

Nathanael Pringsheim Nathanael Pringsheim (30 November 1823 – 6 October 1894) was a German botanist. Biography Nathanael Pringsheim was born at Landsberg, Prussian Silesia, and studied at the universities of Breslau, Leipzig, and Berlin successively. He graduat ...

. In 1868 he taught at the

University of Warsaw The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

. In 1869 he was appointed professor of

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

at the

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. From 1881 he was head of the ''Botanisches Institut'' at the University of Bonn. Strasburger died in

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Achievements

Strasburge was a founder of the famous ''Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen'' (''Textbook of Botany''), which first appeared in 1894. He was the first to provide an accurate description of the embryonic sac in gymnosperms (such as conifers) and

angiosperms Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (), commonly called angiosperms. The term "angiosperm" is derived from the Greek words ('container, vessel') and ('seed'), and refers to those plants ...

(flowering plants), along with demonstrating double-fertilization in angiosperms. He came up with one of the modern laws of plant cytology: "New cell nuclei can only arise from the division of other nuclei." and originated the terms

cytoplasm In cell biology, the cytoplasm is all of the material within a eukaryotic cell, enclosed by the cell membrane, except for the cell nucleus. The material inside the nucleus and contained within the nuclear membrane is termed the nucleoplasm. ...

and nucleoplasm. Together with Walther Flemming and Edouard van Beneden, he elucidated chromosome distribution during cell division. His work on the upward movement of

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proved that the process was physical and not physiological.

Awards

He was awarded the Linnean Medal in 1905, as well as the

Linnean Society of London The Linnean Society of London is a learned society dedicated to the study and dissemination of information concerning natural history, evolution, and taxonomy. It possesses several important biological specimen, manuscript and literature coll ...

's even more prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1908, awarded only once every 50 years.

Family

Strasburger was married to the pianist Alexandra Julie ("Alexandrine") Wertheim (1847–1902, daughter of the banker and councillor Julius Wertheim 1817–1901 from Warsaw, half sister of Carl Tausig) and aunt of the pianist Juliusz Wertheim (1880−1928); they had three children (the third died early).Klaus Oskar Leyde: Strasburger. In: Deutsches Geschlechterbuch Band 207 (56. Allgemeiner Band), C. A. Starke Verlag, Limburg 1998, S. 227–242. His son was the internist Julius Strasburger, a grandson was the ancient historian Hermann Strasburger.

Works

*''On Cell Formation and Cell Division'', 1876 – a book in which he set forth the basic principles of mitosis. *''Ueber das Verhalten des Pollens und die Befruchtungsvorgänge bei den Gymnospermen: Schwärmsporen, Gameten, pflanzliche Spermatozoiden und das Wesen der Befruchtung''. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena, 1892. *''Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen'', 1st ed., 1894
4th ed., 1900
digital edition by ULB Düsseldorf
5th ed., 1902
by ULB Düsseldorf
8th ed., 1906
by ULB Düsseldorf
16th ed., 1923
available at BHL; 33rd ed., 1991; 36th ed. 2008. Translated to English, Estonian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Spanish. A complete list of editions and translations up to 1994 is given in Finke et al. (1994)Finke, Bresinsky, Denffer, Ehrendorfer, Mägdefrau, Sitte, Ziegler & Lucius (1994). "100 Jahre Strasburgers Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen". Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, Jena, New York. * ''A Textbook of botany''
1st ed., 1898
English translation of the 2nd German ed. (1895), available at BHL. Macmillan, London. *''Das kleine botanische Practicum für Anfänger : Anleitung zum Selbststudium der mikroskopischen Botanik und Einführung in die mikroskopische Technik''
4th ed., 1902
digital edition by ULB Düsseldorf.

Notes

References

"Strasburger, Eduard Adolf"

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various t ...

(1979 ed)
"Science is in a Constant Flow": Live and Work of Eduard Strasburger (1844–1912)
maintained by great-great-grandniece

Elonka Dunin Elonka Dunin (; born December 29, 1958) is an American video game developer and cryptologist. Dunin worked at Simutronics Corp. in St. Louis, Missouri from 1990–2014, and in 2015 was Senior Producer at Black Gate Games in Nashville, Tenne ...

* * Finke, H.M., A. Besinsky, D. von Denffer, F. Ehrendorfer, K. Mägdefrau, P. Sitte, H. Ziegler, W.D. von Lucius (1994): 100 Jahre Strasburgers Lehrbuch der Botanik für Hochschulen, 1894–1994. Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart/ Jena / New York. 168 Seiten. * Alt, W., K. P. Sauer: ''Biologie an der Universität Bonn. Eine 200-jährige Ideengeschichte.'' In: ''Bonner Schriften zur Universitäts- und Wissenschaftsgeschichte.'' Band 8. V&R unipress, 2016
hdl.handle.net
. *

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Strasburger, Eduard 1844 births 1912 deaths Scientists from Warsaw 19th-century German botanists 19th-century Polish botanists Schoolteachers from Warsaw University of Bonn alumni University of Bonn faculty Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Members of the Royal Society Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala