Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer

Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer (1765 to 1844) was a German biologist and naturalist, born in Bebenhausen. He was a pioneer of Naturphilosophie, helped to establish organic chemistry, then called Pflanzenchemie, as a field, and developed an early version of recapitulation theory, the idea that embryos pass through stages reflecting their primitive ancestors, from his observation of animal embryos. He studied at the Karlsschule in Stuttgart and at the University of Göttingen from 1786 to 1788, where his teachers included Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, Johann Friedrich Gmelin and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, and in 1792 he became professor of chemistry at the Karlsschule. In 1796 he became professor of chemistry and botany at the University of Tübingen, where he founded the university botanical garden in 1804, and in 1816 he returned to Stuttgart as scientific director of the royal library and botanical garden. He published little in his lifetime, and much of what is known of his thought comes from his lectures; he influenced the philosopher Friedrich Schelling, and the plant genus Kielmeyera is named for him.