{{Short description|German botanist, naturalist and poet (1803–1867)}} {{Expand German|topic=bio|Karl Friedrich Schimper|date=August 2018}} {{Infobox person | name = Karl Friedrich Schimper | image = Schimper_Karl_Friedrich_1866.jpg | birth_date = {{birth date|1803|2|15}} | birth_place = Mannheim, Germany | death_date = {{death-date and age|21 December 1867|15 February 1803}} | death_place = Schwetzingen, Germany | occupation = {{hlist|Botanist|naturalist|poet}} }} '''Karl Friedrich Schimper''' (15 February 1803 – 21 December 1867) was a German botanist, naturalist and poet.
== Life ==
=== Early life and education ===
Schimper was born in Mannheim, on February 15, 1803, to Friedrich Ludwig Heinrich Schimper and Margaretha Kathar. Jakob. Wilh. V. Furtenbach.<ref name="gedbas">{{cite web |title=Karl Friedrich SCHIMPER |url=https://gedbas.genealogy.net/person/show/1207517880 |website=GEDBAS |accessdate=29 August 2018}}</ref> He was a theology student at Heidelberg University and taught at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München.
=== Career ===
Schimper pioneered research in the field of plant morphology, particularly phyllotaxis.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Douady |first=Stéphane |title=Do plants know math? unwinding the story of plant spirals, from Leonardo da Vinci to now |last2=Dumais |first2=Jacques |last3=Golé |first3=Christophe |last4=Pick |first4=Nancy |date=2024 |publisher=Princeton University Press |others=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-15865-5 |location=Princeton, New Jersey}}</ref> He is perhaps best known as the originator of the theory of prehistoric hot and cold eras, and was one of the initiators of the modern theories of ice ages and climatic cycles. He was a brother of botanist Georg Wilhelm Schimper and cousin of botanist Wilhelm Philippe Schimper.
Bill Bryson states in his book ''A Short History of Nearly Everything'' that Karl Schimper originated the idea of glaciation and proposed the radical idea that ice sheets had once covered much of Europe, Asia, and North America. However, Schimper was known to be reluctant to write and never published his ideas. He discussed them with Louis Agassiz, who went on to appropriate the idea as his own and, much to Schimper's dismay, undeservedly received much of the credit for its origination.<ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/25101263 |The E.P. Evans: ''The Authorship of the Glacial Theory'', North American review. / Volume 145, Issue 368, July 1887] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191231175831/http://rs6.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem%2Fncps%3A%40field%28DOCID+%40lit%28ABQ7578-0145-13%29%29%3A%3A%7CThe |date=2019-12-31 }}. Accessed on February 25, 2008.</ref>
=== Death ===
Schimper died on December 21, 1867, in Schwetzingen.<ref name="gedbas"/>
==Works== * ''Beschreibung des Symphytum Zeyheri und seiner zwei deutschen verwandten der S. bulbosum Schimper und S. tuberosum Jacq : mit 6 Steintaf.'' . Winter, Heidelberg 1835 [https://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:hbz:061:2-8074 Digital edition] by the University and State Library Düsseldorf {{botanist|K.F.Schimp.|Schimper, Karl Friedrich}}
==References== {{reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Schimper, Karl Friedrich}} Category:1803 births Category:1867 deaths Category:Scientists from Mannheim Category:19th-century German botanists Category:19th-century German naturalists Category:People from the Grand Duchy of Baden Category:Heidelberg University alumni Category:Academic staff of LMU Munich Category:German male poets Category:Writers from Mannheim Category:Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Category:German bryologists Category:19th-century German male writers
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