Heinrich (or Heinz) Michaelsen was a scientifically oriented
officer of the Schutztruppe (colonial
troops) in German South West Africa (now Namibia) during the early part of the
twentieth century. He made a detailed study of the lime-pans of eastern
Damaraland and reported his findings in a dissertation submitted to the
University of Berlin, Die Kalkpfannen des oestlichen Damaralandes (Berlin,
1910). The work was published also in the form of a comprehensive paper with
the same title in Mitteilungen aus den
deutschen Schutzgebieten (1910, Vol. 23(3), pp. 111-134). A shorter version
of the paper appeared in the Naturwissenschaftliche
Wochenschrift the same year. The paper was discussed by the geographer Dr Siegfried
Passarge*, to whom Michaelsen responded in the journal Globus (1910).
Michaelsen died while on active service as a lieutenant in
the German Army during World War I (1914-1918). There is some confusion about
his first name (usually Heinrich, sometimes Heinz) and his possible other
publications, as there were several other authors with the same names.
