Johann Wilhelm von Müller, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJohann Wilhelm von Müller
German scientist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Kochersteinsfeld, Baden-Württemberg, Germany
About Johann Wilhelm von Müller
- Baron Johann Wilhelm von Müller (4 March 1824 – 24 October 1866) was a German ornithologist and explorer. Müller was born in Kochersteinsfeld, Neckarsulm, the grandson of the banker Johannes Müller.
- In 1845 he travelled to Morocco and Algiers, and in 1847 embarked on a longer African journey, accompanied by Alfred Brehm as his secretary.
- They travelled through Egypt to Khartoum and Kordofan, returning to Alexandria in February 1849.
- Müller left Brehm there and returned to Germany with the natural history specimens collected on his journey, and made plans for a third expedition.
- Unfortunately Müller ran into financial difficulties and was not able to rejoin Brehm, instead sending him funds to proceed to Khartoum with Alfred's brother Oskar and a doctor called Richard Vierthaler. In the autumn of 1849 Müller began publication of the ornithological journal Naumannia, edited by Eduard Baldamus.
- He also began work on an illustrated book entitled Beiträge zur Ornithologie Afrikas (1853-1870), of which only five parts were ever published.
- In 1852 he purchased the natural history collection of Christian Ludwig Landbeck before the latter's emigration to Chile.
- Later in that same year he became director of the Brussels Zoological Garden, resigning in 1854.
- He then travelled to North America, and on his return wrote Reisen in den Vereinigten Staaten, Canada, und Mexiko (1864-1865). Müller is commemorated in the scientific name of the blue-headed bee-eater, Merops muelleri. The Müllerberget mountain in Edgeøya, Svalbard, is named after him.
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