The Herbarium
The Algae Collections comprise 37 000 herbarium sheets, 1000 wet specimens and about 12 000 samples with microalgae.
In 1943, during World War II, the Algae General Herbarium was completely destroyed except for 57 sheets, which were on loan. However, some old material survived in the basement including 600 sheets of Kützing´s exsiccatae (received 1894). Moreover, most of the wet collection is extant which contains, among others, 480 bottles of algae from type localities in Cameroon (leg. Ledermann), Annobon (leg. Mildbraed), Madagascar (leg. Voeltzkow), and the Kerguelen Islands (leg. Werth) (see P. Hiepko in Englera 7: 219-252, 1987). Also material that was on display in the showrooms of the museum had survived as is shown by Mshigeni & Jahn (1995) who investigated Eucheuma specimens from the turn of the century.
In addition, many microalgae are extant: Jahn (1996) gives details on 116 jars of
freshwater algae that were collected 100 years ago in East Africa and which contain
original material for about 200 names. Feibicke (in Willdenowia 22: 271-279, 1992) makes
known Willi Krieger´s 3640 algae samples collected in various water bodies in Eastern
Germany between 1908 and 1946. Wendker (in Willdenowia 17: 235-237, 1988) documents parts
of the Cholnoky diatom collection at B including syntypes from S.W. Africa and the Cape.
Further old material includes for example: 58 slides by Heiden & Kolbe (1928), 610
samples from Indonesia by Kolkwitz, 125 samples plus 802 slides by Marsson collected in
the years 1869-1903, 85 slides by Eulenstein (1867). Recently the Geissler Collection of
about 5000 samples was acquired which focusses on water bodies in Berlin in the years
1979-1997.
[Text: R. Jahn]
