Origins & Early Life

Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt Hofmeister (18 May 1824 – 12 January 1877) was a German biologist and botanist. He "stands as one of the true giants in the history of biology and belongs in the same pantheon as Darwin and Mendel." Largely self-taught he was the first to study and establish alternation of generations and the details of sexual reproduction in the bryophytes. Hofmeister and his sister Clementine were the children of Friederich and Frederike (née Seidenschnur) Hofmeister. His father was a book and music publisher and seller in Leipzig.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

He left vocational high school (Realschule) at the age of 15 and was apprenticed in a bookshop in Hamburg by an acquaintance of his father. He met Muriel Agnes Lurgenstein and they married in 1847, subsequently having nine children. That same year, he was initiated freemasonry at Lodge Apollo in Hamburg. She (died 28 March 1870) and seven children pre-deceased him. His second marriage to Johanna Schmidt on 26 February 1876 was short because he died in 1877 following several strokes.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

He did most of his research in his free-time, largely from four to six in the morning before going to work. Nevertheless, he was only 27 when he published...

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