Jonathan Carl (or Karl) Zenker (1 March 1799 – 6 November 1837) was a German

naturalist Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

born in Sundremda, located in the

Saalfeld-Rudolstadt Saalfeld-Rudolstadt is a ''Kreis'' (district) in the south of Thuringia, Germany. Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) the districts Weimarer Land, Saale-Holzland, Saale-Orla, the district Kronach in Bavaria, and the districts Son ...

district. Originally a student of

theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...

at the

University of Jena The University of Jena, officially the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (, abbreviated FSU, shortened form ''Uni Jena''), is a public research university located in Jena, Thuringia, Germany. The university was established in 1558 and is cou ...

, he subsequently devoted his energies to science and medicine. From 1823 he lived in

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

, later returning to

Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany 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 in ...

, where on the basis of his dissertation "Batrachomyologia", he became a

privat-docent ''Privatdozent'' (for men) or ''Privatdozentin'' (for women), abbreviated PD, P.D. or Priv.-Doz., is an academic title conferred at some European universities, especially in German-speaking countries, to someone who holds certain formal qualifi ...

natural history Natural history is a domain of inquiry involving organisms, including animals, fungi, and plants, in their natural environment, leaning more towards observational than experimental methods of study. A person who studies natural history is cal ...

. In 1828 he became an associate professor of

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and natural history, followed by a full professorship in 1836 (one year prior to his death at the age of 38). A genus of

grasses Poaceae ( ), also called Gramineae ( ), is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos, the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in ...

called '' Zenkeria'' is named in his honour. Also, he named the genus of fossil broad-leaf trees ''

Credneria ''Credneria'' is an extinct genus in the family or Platanaceae of broad-leaf trees similar to extinct ''Platanus'' species that appeared during the Cretaceous. The genus was first described by Zenker (1833) and has formerly been placed in the f ...

'' in honor of Karl August Credner.

Selected writings

* ''Musci Thuringici: vivis exemplaribus exhibuerunt et illustraverunt'', 1821–1825, exsiccata work (with David Nathanael Friedrich Dietrich, 1799–1888). * ''Die Pflanzen und ihr wissenschaftliches Studium überhaupt : ein botanischer Grundriss zum Gebrauche academischer Vorträge und zum Selbststudium'', 1830 - Scientific study of plants in general, etc. * ''Zwei neue fossile Corallenarten'', 1833 - Two new fossil

coral Corals are colonial marine invertebrates within the subphylum Anthozoa of the phylum Cnidaria. They typically form compact Colony (biology), colonies of many identical individual polyp (zoology), polyps. Coral species include the important Coral ...

-types. * ''Beiträge zur Naturgeschichte der Urwelt. Organische Reste (Petrefacten) aus der Altenburger Braunkohlen-Formation, dem Blankenburger Quadersandtein, jenaischen bunten Sandstein und Böhmischen Übergangsgebirge'', 1833 - Contributions to the natural history of the prehistoric world. Organic residues (

petrifaction In geology, petrifaction or petrification () is the process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with minerals. Petrified wood typifies this proce ...

s) from the

Altenburg Altenburg () is a city in Thuringia, Germany, located south of Leipzig, west of Dresden and east of Erfurt. It is the capital of the Altenburger Land district and part of a polycentric old-industrial textile and metal production region betw ...

lignite Lignite (derived from Latin ''lignum'' meaning 'wood'), often referred to as brown coal, is a soft, brown, combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. It has a carbon content around 25–35% and is considered the lowest ...

formation, the Blankenburg blocks of

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, Jena's colorful sandstone and the

Bohemia Bohemia ( ; ; ) is the westernmost and largest historical region of the Czech Republic. In a narrow, geographic sense, it roughly encompasses the territories of present-day Czechia that fall within the Elbe River's drainage basin, but historic ...

n Übergangsgebirge. * ''Flora von Thüringen und den angrenzenden Provinzen'', (with

Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal Diederich Franz Leonhard von Schlechtendal (27 November 1794, Xanten – 12 October 1866, Halle an der Saale, Halle) was a German botanist. Life and work Von Schlechtendal was born in Xanten, Xanten am Rhein and when his father Diederich Fried ...

(1794–1866), Christian Eduard Langethal (1806–1878) and Ernst Schenk) - Flora of

Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...

and neighboring provinces.

References

Deutsche Biographie
Zenker, Jonathan Karl. {{DEFAULTSORT:Zenker, Jonathan Carl 19th-century German botanists German naturalists Academic staff of the University of Jena University of Jena alumni People from Saalfeld-Rudolstadt 1837 deaths 1799 births

Selected writings

See also

References