Ludwig Karl Georg Pfeiffer, also known as Louis Pfeiffer (4 July 1805 – 2 October 1877), was a German physician, botanist and conchologist.
Early life, Education & Medical Career
Louis Pfeiffer was born in Cassel, the eldest son of the jurist Burkhard Wilhelm Pfeiffer and his wife Louise (née Harnier). Pfeiffer received his primary education in the Cassel Lyceum, where he distinguished himself academically, and by the age of fifteen was already at the top of his class. In 1820, political tensions forced his father to relocate the family to Lübeck, but Louis continued to excel, reaching the top of his class there as well. At the age of sixteen, Pfeiffer entered into university to study medicine, first at the University of Göttingen, and finally at the University of Marburg, where he studied under such prominent scientists as Georg Wilhelm Franz Wenderoth and Ernst Daniel August Bartels, graduating in 1825. He spent the next year in Paris and Berlin, continuing his education, and returned to Cassel in 1826, where he entered into general practice and obstetrics. During his short interlude in Kassel, Pfeiffer was engaged in many artistic pursuits, particularly musical ones, and his lyric baritone was remarked on often by his brother Carl's friend (and later, his brother-in-law) Louis Spohr. The Pfeiffer brothers performed often with Spohr and his singing groups, even pairing up to perform in the opera of that Carl had adapted and Spohr composed. At the outbreak of Polish rebellion of 1831 he took the position of staff surgeon at the Alexander-Hospital in Warsaw, lending support to the beleaguered Polish partisans. In addition to the war-wounded he treated at the hospital, he also took a special interest in caring for the many thousands who were stricken with cholera as a result of the upheaval cased by the conflict. In September 1831, the Polish rebels were forced to capitulate to the overwhelming Russian military force, but Pfeiffer had developed such a close feeling of kinship and support for the Poles that he refused to stay on and work with the Russians.
Louis's return to Cassel was overshadowed, however, by the untimely death of his elder brother Carl, who succumbed to the very same cholera that Louis worked so hard to fight in Poland. As a result of the outbreak of cholera across Prussia, Louis was kept in quarantine before he could enter Cassel, which prolonged his and his family's grief, until he was finally permitted to return home and bury his brother. Upon his return home, Pfeiffer undertook his first publication, a personal recollection of his experience entitled Erfahrungen über die Cholera, gesammelt in dem Hospital zu Warschau im Sommer 1831.
Family
Louis Pfeiffer was married twice. His first marriage was to Luise Philippine (née Nathusius, 2 September 1811 – 18 September 1891), daughter of the industrialist Johann Gottlob Nathusius. They were married on May 19, 1832, and divorced in 1841. This union produced three children, all of whom died young: Gottlob Wilhelm Richard Paul (13 April 1834 – 9 March 1835) Louise Marie Anna (5 January 1836 – 29 May 1840) Johanna Caroline Marie (25 October 1837 – 1 June 1840)
Louis Pfeiffer married his second wife, Wilhelmine Friederike (née Wagner, 10 April 1823 - 26 June 1900), on October 9, 1842. Their marriage lasted until Pfeiffer's death, and produced six children: Wilhelm Conrad Hermann (30 September 1843 – 9 May 1883), a merchant in Spain, specializing in the trade of hazelnuts. Louis Hermann (6 December 1845 – 20 August 1887), an architect and public works supervisor in Frankfurt am Main. Richard Albert (30 November 1847 – 6 May 1906), a district judge in Rotenburg an der Fulda; married the daughter of high court judge Ludwig Moeli. Adolf Carl Gabriel (4 December 1850 – 1906), a Hauptmann in the 27th Nassau Field Artillery Regiment. Wilhelm Franz Carl (13 September 1852 – 19 January 1871) Rosalie Marianne Caroline Sophie Mathilde (22 February 1855 – 1925)