Otto Warburg (botanist)

Otto Warburg
Otto Warburg, 1911
Born	(1859-07-20)July 20, 1859 Hamburg, Germany
Died	January 10, 1938(1938-01-10) (aged 78) Berlin, Germany
Occupation	botanist
Spouse(s)	Anna
Children	Edgar, Michael, Renate, Gustav, Gertrud

Otto Warburg (20 July 1859 – 10 January 1938), was a German botanist. He was also a notable industrial agriculture expert, as well as an active member of the Zionist Organization (ZO). From 1911–21, he served as the president of the ZO, which among other things, sought 'for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine."

Otto Warburg was born in Hamburg on 20 July 1859 to a family whose ancestors came to Germany in 1566, possibly from Bologna. He completed his studies at the Johanneum Gymnasium in Hamburg in 1879, and continued his education in the field of botany at the University of Bonn which he left after one semester to move to the University of Berlin, and later to University of Strasbourg, where he received his Ph.D in 1883. He went on to study chemistry in Munich and physiology in Tübingen with Wilhelm Pfeffer. In 1885 he embarked on a 4-year expedition to Southern and Southeastern Asia, ending in Australia in 1889.

In 1911 Warburg was elected president of the World Zionist Congress in Palestine, and he remained in the office until 1920. After 1920, the Congress moved to England. But Warburg stayed in Palestine and became founding director of the Agricultural Experimental Station in Tel Aviv. It later became the 'Institute of Agriculture and Natural History'. One of his students was Naomi Feinbrun-Dothan.