Career
He left his native Germany as a young man because he thought he was gravely ill and preferred to die in the mild climate of the Mediterranean region. He recovered and did considerable work there, including Abbildungen (illustrated monographs). He moved to Santiago, Chile in 1851.
There, he became a professor of botany and zoology and the director of the natural-history museum, and was a regular collaborator with Christian Ludwig Landbeck.
Museo de la Exploración Rudolph Amandus Philippi in Valdivia is named after him.