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A 19th-century Saxon landowner and naturalist, he balanced practical agriculture with a deep interest in fossils, minerals, and the natural history of the Dresden region. His surviving work is especially tied to early studies of fossil plants from Saxony’s sandstone landscapes.
After attending school in Bautzen, he began studying natural sciences at the University of Leipzig in 1817, but later turned toward practical agriculture and acquired the estate at Possendorf near Dresden. Alongside his work as a landowner, he took an active role in agricultural associations and continued to pursue scientific interests.
In later years he devoted himself more intensely to mineralogical and paleontological research. He assembled a collection of minerals and fossils, especially plant remains from the Quader sandstone, and donated part of it during his lifetime to the Royal Mineralogical Museum in Dresden; another portion later went to the Royal Polytechnic there.
He was also involved with learned societies and helped support scientific publishing in Dresden, including work connected with the natural science society Isis. His best-known publications include studies on the fossil flora of the Quader mountains around Dresden, Dippoldiswalde, and Meissen.