Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg
German biologist
- Lived
- 1795–1876
- Country
- Germany
Updated September 2026
About Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg
Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg was a German naturalist, zoologist, botanist, comparative anatomist, geologist, and microscopist. He was one of the most productive and renowned scientists of his time and a friend of the famous explorer Alexander von Humboldt. As a professor of medicine at the University of Berlin he was primarily interested in biology, naturalist studies and microscopy. His studies on micro-organisms led him to discover a number of protozoa, including the organisms giving the colour of the Red Sea, and he was among the first to suggest the separation of microscopic organisms into a grouping separate from the plants and animals. He wrote a major book on the life of microbes which included his own illustrations, 'Die Infusionsthierchen als vollkommene Organismen. Ein Blick in das tiefere organische Leben der Natur'. He was also a pioneer of micropaleontology.
Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.