Carl Ludwig Sprenger

Who was Carl Ludwig Sprenger?

Carl Ludwig Sprenger was a German botanist, born on 30 November 1846 at Güstrow, Mecklenburg and died 13 December 1917 on the island of Corfu.

Sprenger lived in Naples from 1877 to 1907, and was a partner in the horticultural house of Dammann & Co. of San Giovanni a Teduccio, Naples, Italy. David Fairchild praised Sprenger, "a brilliant botanist who had established a nursery ... he was one of those real plantsmen who both know the names of plants and how to grow them ... He enthusiastically collected seeds for botanical gardens and freely gave of his knowledge to others ... The eruption of Vesuvius [April 4, 1906] buried his plants under volcanic ash, destroying hundreds of his best specimens."

In 1907, Kaiser Wilhelm purchased Achilleion, a palace in Corfu. Sprenger became supervisor of the Kaiser's garden.

Sprenger's life had no sound; Fairchild wrote that he was "very deaf". The man who surrounded himself with plants died December 13, 1917, a hostage of war. As a German he was imprisoned by the Serbs in the middle of the First World War, but after an intervention by the local administration, they let him go. He stayed in Corfu until his death, some years later.