Franz Ewald Theodor Bachmann

Who was Franz Ewald Theodor Bachmann?

Franz Ewald Theodor Bachmann, was a medical practitioner and naturalist.

Bachmann studied in Breslau with Adolf Engler and in Würzburg where he was awarded an M.D. in 1883. He arrived in the Cape on 4 July 1883 in the company of Friedrich Wilms and disembarked while Wilms carried on to Durban. Bachmann spent the next four years practising medicine in the Western Cape, spending two years in Darling and the remainder in Hopefield. In November 1887 he left for Natal aboard the Trojan and stayed for a year in Pondoland where he acted as agent for Berlinsche Pondo Gesellschaft, writing a report on the natural resources there and trying to acquire land for a German agricultural settlement, a venture which was never realised. He wrote an account of his experiences "Reisen, Erlebnisse und Beobachtungen in der Kapkolonie, Natal und Pondoland", published in 1901 in Berlin, but of scant botanical importance. His first trip went from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, across the Ixopo and Umzimkulu Rivers to Clydesdale Mission. His return route crossed the Ibisi River near Harding where he called at the Marburg Mission before getting back to Durban via a boat from Port Shepstone.