Georg Ludwig Engelhard Krebs

Georg Ludwig Engelhard Krebs (19 July 1792 - 11 May 1844) was a German apothecary and natural history collector who spent his entire career in South Africa.

He was born in Wittingen, then a part of Hanover, the son of Johan Krebs and Cecilia Engtlingen, and brother to Sophie Margaretha Dorothea Krebs and Georg Krebs.

Soon after qualifying as apothecary, he was recruited to work in South Africa by the firm of Pallas & Poleman of Cape Town. Arriving in May 1817, Krebs started collecting, often in the company of Karl Heinrich Bergius who died at age 28 of pulmonary tuberculosis in January 1818, poverty-stricken and abandoned by his former sponsors and employers. Krebs also got to know and collected in the company of Mund and Maire, Joachim Brehm, von Chamisso, Delalande, and Dr. William Gill, who became a close friend and medical adviser during their stay in the Eastern Cape.

Krebs asked his brother, Georg, a medical student in Berlin, to find out whether the Berlin's Natural History Museum was interested in purchasing natural history specimens. When Martin Lichtenstein agreed to this, some large consignments were shipped in 1820 and 1821.

At the end of his four year contract with Pallas & Poleman, Krebs was succeeded by Carl Friedrich Drège, the brother of Johann Franz Drège, leaving him free to sail to Algoa Bay where he arrived in November 1821. He left immediately for the inland town of Uitenhage where he was to stay the next three years. Back in Germany, Lichtenstein had obtained permission for Krebs to collect on behalf of the Berlin's Natural History Museum, resulting in the splendid title of "Cape Naturalist to the King of Prussia".

In 1822 Krebs collected at Uitenhage, Sundays River, Galgenbosch, Van Stadens River, Zuurberg and Swartkops, sending four consignments to Lichtenstein, which consisted mainly of birds, mammals and insects, but with some bulbs and succulent plants, assisted and advised by James Bowie. In 1823 he roamed further afield visiting the Bushmans, Kariega and Kowie Rivers, sending off his eighth consignment of 3800 insects, some 100 birds and no plants.

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