Karl Heinrich Bergius

German naturalist (1790-1818).

Karl Heinrich Bergius (1790–1818), also known as Carl Heinrich Bergius, was a Prussian botanist, naturalist, cavalryman and pharmacist from Küstrin. He is notable for his natural history collecting in southern Africa. Bergius served as a cavalryman in the Prussian campaign of the Napoleonic Wars, for which he was awarded the Iron Cross. He subsequently studied pharmacy in Berlin where his botanical interests were noted by Martin Lichtenstein at the Berlin Zoological Museum. Lichtenstein encouraged him to go to the Cape Colony of southern Africa to work as an assistant pharmacist in Cape Tow