Heinrich Karl (or Carl) Hermann Hoffmann (; April 1819 – 26 October 1891) was a German botanist and

mycologist Mycology is the branch of biology concerned with the study of fungi, including their genetic and biochemical properties, their taxonomy and their use to humans, including as a source for tinder, traditional medicine, food, and entheogens, as w ...

born in

Rödelheim Rödelheim is a quarter of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. It is part of the ''Ortsbezirk Mitte-West'' and is subdivided into the ''Stadtbezirke'' Rödelheim-Ost and Rödelheim-West. There are a number of celebrities who have established their base ...

Career

He studied medicine at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von ...

, and in 1839 furthered his education in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

as a student of

physiologist Physiology (; ) is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a sub-discipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out the chemical ...

Johannes Peter Müller Johannes Peter Müller (14 July 1801 – 28 April 1858) was a German physiologist, comparative anatomist, ichthyologist, and herpetologist, known not only for his discoveries but also for his ability to synthesize knowledge. The paramesonephri ...

(1801–1858). In 1842 he earned his habilitation at

Giessen Giessen, spelled Gießen in German (), is a town in the German state (''Bundesland'') of Hesse, capital of both the district of Giessen and the administrative region of Giessen. The population is approximately 90,000, with roughly 37,000 univer ...

, where he worked as a private lecturer. During this time his focus turned exclusively to botany, and in 1853 he became a professor of botany and director of the

botanical gardens A botanical garden or botanic gardenThe terms ''botanic'' and ''botanical'' and ''garden'' or ''gardens'' are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word ''botanic'' is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens, an ...

at Giessen. He maintained these positions until his death in 1891. Hoffmann was a pioneer of botanical

phenology Phenology is the study of periodic events in biological life cycles and how these are influenced by seasonal and interannual variations in climate, as well as habitat factors (such as elevation). Examples include the date of emergence of leav ...

(plant

climatology Climatology (from Ancient Greek, Greek , ''klima'', "place, zone"; and , ''wiktionary:-logia, -logia'') or climate science is the scientific study of Earth's climate, typically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of at least 30 ...

). He also did important studies in the fields of

plant physiology Plant physiology is a subdiscipline of botany concerned with the functioning, or physiology, of plants. Closely related fields include plant morphology (structure of plants), plant ecology (interactions with the environment), phytochemistry (bi ...

and

phytogeography Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution ...

. He conducted research involving the biological aspects of

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

in relation to fermentation,

putrefaction Putrefaction is the fifth stage of death, following pallor mortis, algor mortis, rigor mortis, and livor mortis. This process references the breaking down of a body of an animal, such as a human, post-mortem. In broad terms, it can be vie ...

and disease, and also performed early investigations in the field of

bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classific ...

. In 1869, Hoffmann wrote a book on

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

and varieties that included a long excerpt from

Gregor Mendel Gregor Johann Mendel, OSA (; cs, Řehoř Jan Mendel; 20 July 1822 – 6 January 1884) was a biologist, meteorologist, mathematician, Augustinian friar and abbot of St. Thomas' Abbey in Brünn (''Brno''), Margraviate of Moravia. Mendel wa ...

's genetics paper of 1865. The book attempted to refute

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English natural history#Before 1900, naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all speci ...

's theory of evolution. Darwin had an annotated copy of the book.Galton, David. (2009)
''Did Darwin read Mendel?''
'' QJM: An International Journal of Medicine'' 102 (8): 587–589.

Published works

* ''Schilderung der deutschen Pflanzenfamilien vom botanisch-deskriptiven u. physiologisch-chemischen Standpunkt'' (Portrayal of German plant families from a botanical-descriptive and physiological-chemical standpoint), (Gießen 1846). * ''Untersuchungen über den Pflanzenschlaf'' (Investigations involving "plant sleep"), (Gießen 1851). * ''Pflanzenverbreitung u. Pflanzenwanderung'' (Plant spread and migration), (

Darmstadt Darmstadt () is a city in the States of Germany, state of Hesse in Germany, located in the southern part of the Frankfurt Rhine Main Area, Rhine-Main-Area (Frankfurt Metropolitan Region). Darmstadt has around 160,000 inhabitants, making it th ...

1852). * ''Witterung und Wachstum, oder Grundzüge der Pflanzenklimatalogie'' (Weather and growth, main features of plant climatology), (

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 ...

1857). * ''Lehrbuch der Botanik'' (Textbook of botany), (Darmstadt 1857). * "Icones analyticae fungorum" (Gießen 1861-65).
"Index fungorum"
(Leipzig 1863). * ''Untersuchungen zur Bestimmung des Werthes von Species und Varietät. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik der Darwin'schen Hypothese'' (Researches on the determination of the value of species and variety. A Contribution to the Critique of the Darwinian Hypothesis, 1869) * ''Mykologische Berichte'' (Mycological reports), (1870–73, three parts). * ''Pharmakologische Studien über die Alkaloide der Quebrachorinde'' . .l.188
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of t ...

* ''Resultate der wichtigsten pflanzenphänologischen Beobachtungen in Europa'' (1885).

References

* "Parts of this article are based on a translation of an equivalent article at the

German Wikipedia The German Wikipedia (german: Deutschsprachige Wikipedia) is the German-language edition of Wikipedia, a free and publicly editable online encyclopedia. Founded on March 16, 2001, it is the second-oldest Wikipedia (after the English Wikipedia) ...

", source listed a
Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie

The English Mechanic and World of Science
(biographical information). {{DEFAULTSORT:Hoffmann, Hermann German mycologists 1819 births 1891 deaths University of Giessen faculty 19th-century German botanists

Career

Published works

See also

References