Otto Karl Berg

{{Short description|German botanist and pharmacist}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Otto Karl Berg

| image =

| caption =

| birth_date = 15 August 1815

| birth_place = Stettin, German Confederation

| death_date = {{d-da|20 November 1866|15 August 1815}}

| death_place = Berlin, German Confederation

| nationality = German

| field = Botanist

| work_institution = University of Berlin

| prizes =

| footnotes =

| author_abbrev_bot = O.Berg

}}

Otto Karl Berg (15 August 1815 in Stettin – 20 November 1866 in Berlin) was a German botanist and pharmacist. The official abbreviation of his name, in botany, is O. Berg.

He was the son of Johann Friedrich and Wilhelmine Friederike Berg. He studied pharmaceutical botany at the University of Berlin and published his first Handbuch der Pharmazeutischen Botanik ("Handbook on Pharmaceutical Botany") as he graduated in 1845.{{cite journal|editor1-last=Proctor|editor1-first=William Jr.|title=Special Notice|journal=American Journal of Pharmacy|date=1867|volume=39|pages=190–192|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8rBLAAAAMAAJ&q=Otto+Karl+Berg+Berlin&pg=PA190|access-date=21 March 2017|publisher=Philadelphia College of Pharmacy}} In 1848, he married Caroline Albertine Florentine Witthaus, with whom he had six children.{{cite web|title=Otto Karl Berg|url=http://www.uni-stuttgart.de/hi/gnt/dsi2/index.php?table_name=dsi&function=details&where_field=id&where_value=4905|website=Database of Scientific Illustrators 1450-1950|access-date=21 March 2017}}

He joined the faculty of Botany and Pharmacology at the University of Berlin in 1849, where he specialized in South American flora. In 1862 he was appointed associate professor, and during his time in that position, he helped to make an independent discipline of pharmacology.