Anton Luebbert, German medical doctor, published a monograph on his bacteriological research, Biologische spaltpilz untersuchung: Der staphylococcus pyogenes aureus und der osteomyelitiscoccus (Wuerzburg, 1886). During the next ten years he published eight medical papers, all but one of them in the journals Fortschritte der Medicin and the Zeitschrift fuer Hygiene. Thereafter he became Oberstabarzt (senior military medical officer) in German South West Africa (now Namibia), and in 1899 sent natural history specimens from Windhoek to the Colonial Museum in Berlin and to the city of Freiburg. He collected birds in Damaraland and, with Dr Eduard Fleck*, was one of the first to do so since the pioneering work of C.J. Andersson*. His birds were described in Germany by Professor Anton Reichenow*. During 1902 and 1903 Luebbert collected plants in the territory, which were sent to the Botanischer Garten und Botanischer Museum in Berlin and to the British Museum (Natural History) in London. Two plant species, Kalanchoe luebbertiana and Salacia luebbertii where named after him.

In 1901 he contributed a paper on the healing methods and medicinal plants of the native inhabitants of the territory, "Ueber die Heilmethoden und Heilmittel der Eingeborenen in DSWA" to Mitteilungen aus den deutschen Schutzgebieten (Vol. 19, pp. 77-90). After his return to Germany, probably in 1903, he was associated with the Institute for Hygiene, Hamburg. He compiled a paper on the treatment of hay fever, "Zur serumbehandlung des Heufiebers...", which was reprinted as a pamphlet in Berlin in 1904.

In 1920 Anton Luebbert, probably him, was awarded a doctoral degree by the University of Kiel for his thesis Beitrag zur Kenntnis von der Polyneuritis postdiphtherica. Years later Anton Luebbert, possibly him again, submitted another doctoral dissertation, on the application of infra-red photography to judicial medicine (1936).

List of sources:

Clancey, P.A. Scientific ornithology in South West Africa. Southern African Museums Association Bulletin (SAMAB), 1959, Vol. 7(3), pp. 47-57.

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za Publications by A. Luebbert.

Gunn, M. & Codd, L.E. Botanical exploration of southern Africa. Cape Town: Balkema, 1981.

Logan, R.F. Bibliography of South West Africa, Geography and related fields. Windhoek: SWA Scientific Society, 1969.

National Union Catalogue, pre-1956 imprints. London: Mansell, 1968-1980.

Royal Society of London. Catalogue of scientific papers [1800-1900]. London: Royal Society, 1867-1925.

Zelle, E. A contribution to the history of the State Museum in Windhoek, South West Africa. Southern African Museums Association Bulletin (SAMAB), 1958, Vol. 7(2), pp. 29-36.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-03-20 09:28:22