200 years of Ferdinand von Mueller (1825 – 1896): botanist
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and above all, a botanist. He was appointed government botanist for the then colony of Victoria (Australia) in 1853 and later director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne. He also founded the National Herbarium of Victoria. He gave his name to many Australian plants. Stamps were issued multiple times in Australia and Germany in 1996 and in 2025.
Ferdinand von Mueller
Baron Sir Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller (Rostock, 30 June 1825 – Melbourne, 10 October 1896) was a German-Australian physicist, geographer, but primarily a botanist.
Initial period
Mueller was born in Rostock, Germany. After the premature death of his parents, his grandparents ensured he received a good education in Tönning, Schleswig. As an apprentice pharmacist, at the age of 15, he passed the pharmaceutical examinations and studied botany under Professor Ernst Ferdinand Nolte (1791–1875) at the Christian Albrechts University in KielHe received his doctorate in 1847 for a dissertation on shepherd's purse. His sister Bertha had already advised him to seek a warmer climate for health reasons, and when the botanist Ludwig Preiss also recommended Australia to him, he left for there from Bremen with his two sisters in 1847. It was said that he was already fishing plants out of the water on board the ship to analyze them.
(On October 5, 1665, the University of Kiel was solemnly opened by its founder, Duke Christian Albrecht of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorf. Originating as an idea on the battlefields of the Thirty Years' War, the State University of Schleswig-Holstein has a turbulent history. Today, the University of Kiel is one of Germany's leading research universities and stands for dynamic academic education and research. It is the only comprehensive university and the scientific innovation center of Schleswig-Holstein. More than 24.000 young people study here, and some 2.000 scientists and academics teach and conduct research here. The 350th anniversary in 2015 is an opportunity for the University of Kiel to look back on its achievements. At the same time, in this anniversary year, the university, together with the city and the state of Schleswig-Holstein, is charting the course for its further development in the 21st century.) Arrived in Adelaide, on On December 18, 1847, he soon found work as a pharmacist with Moritz Heuzenroeder. In the following months, he went to Mount Arden and Mount Brown on his own. Not long after, he bought some land near Adelaide in the Bugle Ranges and had a cottage built there. He lived there for some time with his sister Clara, intending to start a farm, but returned to his previous employer after a few months.
He sent his first botanical contributions to German monthly magazines and in 1852 his Flora of South Australia to the Linnean Society of London, which earned him fame in the botanical world.
Botanist for Victoria
He was officially appointed botanist of the state of Victoria by Governor Charles La Trobe in 1853, to study the flora. He studied the Buffalo Ranges, the upper Goulburn River basin, and Gippsland up to the coastal region. He explored the surroundings of Port Albert, and Wilsons Promontory concluded his 1500 km journey along the coast to Melbourne.
Between 1854 and 1872, Mueller was a member of the Victorian Institute for the Advancement of Science (VIAS), which later became the Philosophical Institute of Victoria. He was chairman of the Philosophical Institute in 1859 when it received a royal charter and has since been called the Royal Society of Victoria. He was an active member of the “Discovery Committee” that sent out the Burke and Wills expedition of 1860. Mueller promoted the exploration of Australia and, as a member of the Discovery Committee, gave various lectures on the subject to the society. He was not in favor of Robert O'Hara Burke as leader, but had little say in the organization due to deep divisions among the committee members.
From 1857 to 1873 he was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne and not only introduced many plants to Victoria, but also made known the excellent properties of the blue gum tree (Eucalyptus globulus), which led to its worldwide introduction. For these merits, Mueller was honored by various countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Denmark, and Portugal. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1861, and was knighted in the Order of St Michael and St George in 1879.
He was the discoverer of Lake Amadeus and Kata Tjuta. Initially, there were plans to name them “Lake Mueller” and “Mount Ferdinand,” but Mueller tipped the scales in favor of naming the lake “Lake Amadeus” after King Amadeus I of Spain, and Mount Olga after Queen Olga von Württemberg, who had previously honored him. In 1871, King Karl von Württemberg and Queen Olga granted him the hereditary title of Freiherr. From then on, he became known as Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller.
In early 1873, influential residents of Melbourne objected to his educational and scientific approach at the Royal Botanic Gardens. They preferred an aesthetic approach, and Mueller was dismissed as director in 1873. Mueller had done much for the botanical gardens despite the small budget; he remained officially a botanist and never commented on the loss of his position.
In April 1873, Mueller conceived the genus Guilfoylia and described William Guilfoyle as an educated collector who expected much from his collection. However, when Guilfoyle assumed his position as director of the botanical gardens, his view changed, and he called Guilfoyle an ignoramus with little botanical knowledge. Consequently, Mueller removed Guilfoylia as part of the genus Cadellia in his botanical overview of 1882. In 1857, Mueller applied for and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of Rostock.
He published eleven volumes of Fragmenta phytographica Australiae (1862–1881), two volumes of Planten van Victoria (1860–1865), and other books on Eucalyptus, Myoporaceae, Acacia, and Salsolaceae, all richly illustrated. He also participated in the co-production of George Bentham's Flora Australiensis. He also described many new plant species sent by botanists throughout Australia. Mueller died in Melbourne and was buried in St. Kilda Cemetery.
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