Hans Hermann Behr

Hans Hermann Behr
Hans Hermann Behr
Born	18 August 1818 Köthen (Anhalt), Germany
Died	6 March 1904 (1904-03-07) (aged 85) San Francisco, California
Citizenship	German
Nationality	German-American
Fields	botany, medicine, anthropology, entomology
Author abbrev. (botany)	Behr

Hans Hermann Behr (August 18, 1818, Köthen – March 6, 1904, San Francisco) was a German-American doctor, entomologist and botanist. At the time of his death, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that he was "reckoned among mental giants" and that he was "an authority of world-wide prominence" in many branches of science.

Behr came from a prominent family with connections to the administration of the principality of Köthen (also Koethen, Goethen or Colthen). He attended schools in Köthen and Zerbst where he studied Greek, Latin, Hebrew and mathematics. As a boy he developed an interest in natural history, including collecting birds' eggs. In 1837 he began his study of medicine, first at the Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg and later at the Humboldt University of Berlin where he graduated in 1843 as Doctor of Medicine. (In 1898, on his eightieth birthday, he was given the unusual honour of having his degree renewed by the University of Berlin at the recommendation of Rudolf Virchow.) Whilst at Wittenberg he had developed an interest in botany and a passing interest in the sport of duelling which left him with scars on his face.

Encouraged by his friends and mentors, Alexander von Humboldt and Karl Ritter, Behr left Bremerhaven on 27 May 1844 bound for Australia to study botany and entomology, in particular insects in the orders Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Arriving at Port Adelaide on 12 September 1844, he travelled to the Lutheran settlement at Bethanian and spent 13 months in the colony of South Australia exploring areas around Gawler, Lyndoch, the Barossa Ranges and the Light, Murray and Onkaparinga rivers. He collected insect and botanical specimens, sending reports back to Europe. He also lived with Aboriginal people, learning their languages and studying their customs.