Gustav Wilhelm Körber

Körber was born in Hirschberg, Silesia where his father was a high school director. He received his early education from the local high school. From 1835 studied natural sciences in Breslau and Berlin in 1838, obtaining his PhD in 1839 with the thesis De gonidiis lichenum.[http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Koerber%2C%20Gustav%20Wilhelm%2C%201817-1885 Online Books] Online Books by Gustav Wilhelm Koerber His teachers at Breslau included Heinrich Robert Göppert (1800-1884) and Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck (1776-1858). At Berlin his influences included Franz Julius Ferdinand Meyen (1804-1840) and the chemist Eilhard Mitscherlich (1794-1863). After graduation, he served as an instructor at the "Elisabethanum" in Breslau, and from 1862, worked as a private teacher. In 1873 he became an associate professor at the University of Breslau.[http://plants.jstor.org/person/bm000332923 JSTOR Global Plants] (biography)[http://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/187062.html Fakultät für Biologie und Psychologie] Albrecht-von-Haller-Institut für Pflanzenwissenschaften

File:Acta Horti berg. - 1905 - tafl. 127. - Gustav Wilhelm Koerber.jpg

Best known for his investigations of lichen species native to Silesia, he also examined specimens found in central and southeastern Europe as well as lichen collected from Mediterranean and Arctic regions. Körber is credited with introducing the term {{lichengloss|muriform}} in an 1855 publication to describe the distinctive multi-chambered spores of the lichen genera Rhizocarpon and Umbilicaria, as well as the terms {{lichengloss|polarilocular|polari-dyblastae}} and {{lichengloss|amphithecium}} in later publications.{{cite journal |last=Mitchell |first=M.E. |year=2014 |title=De Bary's legacy: the emergence of differing perspectives on lichen symbiosis |journal=Huntia |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=5–22 [14] |url=https://www.huntbotanical.org/admin/uploads/02hibd-huntia-15-1-pp05-22.pdf}} Körber used fungal characteristics for the description of lichens. This was also adopted by Abramo Massalongo (1824-1860) and was termed the Italian-Silesian school of lichen systematics and continues to be used. He however did not accept the idea that lichens were a symbiotic form and wrote a polemic against the Schwendener-Bornet's lichen theory. He published the exsiccata Lichenes selecti Germanici.{{cite web |title=Lichenes selecti Germanici: IndExs ExsiccataID=478684425 |website=IndExs – Index of Exsiccatae |publisher=Botanische Staatssammlung München |url=https://www.botanischestaatssammlung.de/DatabaseClients/IndExs/Exsiccatae_IndExs_Details.jsp?ExsiccataID=478684425 |access-date=19 May 2024}} The genera Koerberia (within the Placynthiaceae family) and Koerberiella (in the Lecideaceae family) are named after him.{{cite book | last=Burkhardt | first=Lotte | title=Eine Enzyklopädie zu eponymischen Pflanzennamen |trans-title=Encyclopedia of eponymic plant names | publisher=Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum, Freie Universität Berlin | year=2022 | isbn=978-3-946292-41-8 | url=https://doi.org/10.3372/epolist2022|format=pdf |language=German |location=Berlin | doi=10.3372/epolist2022 |access-date=January 27, 2022}}

Körber was a freemason and was involved in local politics and was a noted liberal.{{cite web |author=Scholz, Peter |title=Körber, Gustav Wilhelm |url=https://kulturstiftung.org/biographien/koerber-gustav-wilhelm |website=Kulturstiftung der deutschen Vertriebenen für Wissenschaft und Forschung}}

• Grundriss der kryptogamen-kunde, 1848 – Outline of cryptogamic species.
• [https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10302072 Systema lichenum Germaniae: Die Flechten Deutschlands], 1855 – "Systema lichenum Germaniae": German lichens.
• Parerga lichenologica: Ergänzungen zum Systema lichenum, 1865 – "Parerga lichenologica": Supplement to "Systema lichenum".
• Lichenen aus Istrien, Dalmatien u. Albanien: (with Emanuel Weiss), 1867 – Lichens of Istria, Dalmatia and Albania.
• Lichenen Spitzbergens und Novaja-Semlja's, auf der graf Wilczek'schen expedition, 1872 – Lichens of Spitzbergen and Novaya Zemlya, from the Wilczek expedition.[https://www.google.com/search?tbo=p&tbm=bks&q=inauthor:%22Gustav+Wilhelm+K%C3%B6rber%22 Google Search] publications)

{{Botanist|Körb.|Körber, Gustav Wilhelm}}

• :Category:Taxa named by Gustav Wilhelm Körber

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Category:1817 births

Category:1885 deaths

Category:German lichenologists

Category:People from Jelenia Góra

Category:People from the Province of Silesia

Category:Academic staff of the University of Breslau

Category:19th-century German botanists