Anton Kerner von Marilaun
Encyclopedia
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
n botanist and professor at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
.
Career
Kerner was born in Mautern, Lower AustriaLower Austria
Lower Austria is the northeasternmost state of the nine states in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria since 1986 is Sankt Pölten, the most recently designated capital town in Austria. The capital of Lower Austria had formerly been Vienna, even though Vienna is not officially part of Lower Austria...
, and studied medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
followed by an education in natural history, for which he carried out phytosociologic
Phytosociology
Phytosociology is the branch of science which deals with plant communities, their composition and development, and the relationships between the species within them. A phytosociological system is a system for classifying these communities...
studies in Central Europe. In 1858 Kerner was appointed professor of botany at the Polytechnic Institute at Buda, and then in 1860 was appointed professor of natural history
Natural history
Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards observational rather than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research published in magazines than in academic journals. Grouped among the natural sciences, natural history is the systematic study...
at the University of Innsbruck. He resigned the latter position in 1878 to become professor of systematic botany at the University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, and also curator of the botanical garden there
Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna
The Botanical Garden of the University of Vienna is a botanical garden in Vienna, Austria. It covers 8 hectares and is immediately adjacent to the Belvedere gardens....
.
Kerner was particularly active in the fields of phytogeography
Phytogeography
Phytogeography , also called geobotany, is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution of plant species...
and phytosociology
Phytosociology
Phytosociology is the branch of science which deals with plant communities, their composition and development, and the relationships between the species within them. A phytosociological system is a system for classifying these communities...
. He died in 1898 in Vienna at the age of 67.
Publications
- Das Pflanzenleben der Donauländer (The Background of Plant Ecology, translated by Henry S. Conard, 1951), Innsbruck, 1863. This book established his reputation and reports on his botanical explorations in HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
. - Die Kultur der Alpenflanzen, 1864. On the culture of alpine plants.
- Die botanischen Gärten, 1874. A sketch of a model botanical garden.
- Vegetationsverhältnisse des mittlern und östlichen Ungarn und Siebenbürgen, Innsbruck, 1875.
- Pflanzenleben, 1890-1891 (The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution, translated by F.W. Oliver, 1895-1896). One of his most important works.
In 1867, he finished the publication of the results of his studies with respect to the limits of vegetation of more than a thousand species of plants.
External links
- Petz-Grabenbauer, Maria, Kiehn, Michael (2004): "Anton Kerner von Marilaun" - A new book about Anton Kerner von Marilaun published by the Austrian Academy of Sciences (written in German)
- Chrono-biographical Sketch: Anton Kerner von Marilaun
- Obituary of Anton Kerner von Marilaun written by Otto StapfOtto StapfOtto Stapf FRS was an Austrian born botanist and taxonomist.Stapf trained in Vienna, moving to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1890. He was keeper of the Herbarium from 1909 to 1920...
, Nature 58, 251 - 252 (1898) - Full text of The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution: from the German of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (Volume 1) (1895-96)
- Full text of The Natural History of Plants, Their Forms, Growth, Reproduction, and Distribution: from the German of Anton Kerner von Marilaun (Volume 2) (1895-96)
- Digitalized books written by Anton Kerner von Marilaun, mostly English translations
- PNAS-Artikel written by Thomas Hartmann about the lost origins of chemical ecology in the 19th century (containing a paragraph about Anton Kerner von Marilaun, p. 4542)