Franz Sieber

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Franz Wilhelm Sieber, born Prague 30 March 1789 - died Prague 17 December 1844, was a botanist and collector who travelled in Europe, the Middle East, Southern Africa and Australia.

After 5 years of study at the Gymnasium, endowed with a considerable talent for the graphic arts he studied architecture, switched to engineering and finally settled on natural history, in particular botany.

He made several collecting trips to Italy, Crete, Greece, Egypt and Palestine; and a two-year long expedition to Australia, Mauritius and South Africa, collecting not only plants, but also animals, art and ethnographic objects.

He never reached the Western hemisphere, but sent several people to make collections for him, notably Franz Kohaut in the Antilles and Wenceslas Bojer on Mauritius .

His behavior and publications became progressively more erratic. He was constantly involved in quarrels with the authorities and fast became more and more deranged. Having “discovered” a cure for rabies he appeared in front of the city elders of Prague and demanded financial support. Soon thereafter he landed in the Prague insane asylum, where he spent the fourteen final years of his life, dying there at the age of fifty-five.