Background
Karl August von Bergen was the son of anatomy professor Johann Georg von Bergen (died 1738). There he was taught by his father and by the anatomist Andreas Ottomar Goelicke (1670–1744).
Karl August von Bergen was the son of anatomy professor Johann Georg von Bergen (died 1738). There he was taught by his father and by the anatomist Andreas Ottomar Goelicke (1670–1744).
He attended the Gymnasium in his home town of Frankfurt an der Oder, he later studied medicine at the local Viadrina University from 1727. He also studied in Paris and Strasbourg.
He continued his studies at the University of Leiden, where he worked for the professors Hermann Boerhaave (1668–1738), Bernhard Siegfried Albinus. He returned to Viadrina University and received his doctorate in medicine in 1732 and took a post as a professor at the university. After the death of his father, he was awarded the chair of anatomy and botany at the university.
His duties included the care of the Botanical Garden, which had been founded in 1678 by Johann Christoph Bekmann.
In 1732 he demonstrated the general distribution of cellular membranes in animals, and showed that they not only enclose every part of the animal frame, but form the basis of every organization They had four children.
His most noted work is. Among his more unusual works is an essay on the rhinoceros:.
The botanist Conrad Moench named the plant genus Bergenia in his honor in 1794.
