Gustav Maass

Gustav Friedrich Hermann Maass (December 2, 1830 - April 28, 1901) was a German botanist who was a native of Brandenburg an der Havel.

In 1848 he became an assistant to agriculturalist Hermann von Nathusius (1809-1879), and shortly afterwards spent twelve years in the military as an artilleryman in the 3rd Brandenburg Artillery Brigade, a "Brigadeschule" instructor at Magdeburg and as an assistant to the brigade staff in Berlin. In 1862 he became a manager in the "Magdeburgischen Land-Feuer-Societät" in Altenhausen, a position he maintained until his death in 1901.

In 1866 Maass was co-founder of the Walbeck "Aller Association", and was its chairman from 1874 to 1896. Within this association he performed extensive studies of flora in areas surrounding the Ohre and Aller Rivers. With Paul Ascherson (1834-1913) and Ludwig Schneider (1809-1889), he took part in extended botanical excursions. Schneider's publication of "Flora von Magdeburg" was as a result of their research.

Maass is credited with discovering several new species of blackberry, and provided assistance to Wilhelm Olbers Focke (1834-1922) with the latter's 1877 treatise "Synopsis Ruborum Germaniae". Also, the botanical species "Rubus maassii" was named in Maass' honor.

References

* "This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia."