Georg Ernst Ludwig Hampe

Who was Georg Ernst Ludwig Hampe?

Georg Ernst Ludwig Hampe was a German pharmacist, botanist and bryologist who was a native of Fürstenberg.

In 1810 he became an apprentice pharmacist to his uncle in Brakel, and over the next fifteen years worked in a number of pharmacies at several locations, including in Halle an der Saale, at the university pharmacy in Göttingen, in the town of Allendorf, and later in the city of Braunschweig. In 1825 he became head of a local pharmacy in Blankenburg am Harz, where he remained its director until 1864.

During his time at Blankenburg, Hampe collected and studied flora native to the Harz Mountains. He was particularly interested in mosses, and through his association with bryologist Karl Müller, he became exposed to non-European species from the Americas, Madagascar, New Zealand, Australia, et al. In his collaborative research with Müller, he described numerous new bryological species.

Later in life, Hampe received an honorary professorship from the University of Göttingen. In 1876 he sold his pharmacy in Blankenburg, and moved to Helmstedt, where he went to live with his son. After Hampe's death, his large herbarium was acquired by the British Museum of Natural History.