Academic practice par excellence: Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein’s role in Adelbert von Chamisso’s career as naturalist

Abstract

Adelbert von Chamisso’s (1781–1838) career as a naturalist is increasingly well-documented. Comparatively little, however, is known of his mentor and director of the Berlin Zoological Museum, Martin Hinrich Lichtenstein (1780–1857). This article highlights Lichtenstein’s influential role in Chamisso’s early career by reconstructing key moments of the student-mentor relationship from twelve yet unpublished letters (letters are presented in full in a separate contribution). It investigates the resources, rhetorical strategies, and allies necessary for establishing oneself as a scholar in the early nineteenth-century academic culture of Berlin.