Paul Möhring

Who was Paul Möhring?

Paul Heinrich Gerhard Möhring was a German physician, botanist and zoologist.

Möhring was physician to the Prince of Anhalt. In 1752 he published Avium Genera, an early attempt to classify bird species, which divided birds into four classes and shows the beginnings of the modern groupings.

He studied medicine in Danzig and Wittenberg, and following graduation, he settled as a general practitioner in his hometown of Jever. During his long career, he maintained correspondence with Albrecht von Haller, Lorenz Heister, Carl Linnaeus, Hans Sloane and Paul Gottlieb Werlhof. The plant genus Moehringia was named in his honor by Carl Linnaeus.