Gregorius Wiedemann (1735-1762). Ein unbekannter Schüler Carl von Linnés und Freund Carsten Niebuhrs aus Kopenhagen

In a private letter of November 1764 from Bombay to Copenhagen Carsten Niebuhr mentions Gregorius Wiedemann, who had but a short life. He calls him a friend who had been as much as appointed to be a participant in the Arabian Journey but had abstained for his parents’ sake. Yet his name never shows up in the literature about the Arabian Journey. Thus this essay assembles information on Wiedemann’s biography for the first time. It turns out that he grew up in Copenhagen as a member of the German parish of St. Petri, studied theology in Copenhagen, but was more interested in the modern natural sciences. In 1757, provided with a letter of recommendation from Christian Gottlieb Kratzenstein, he went to Uppsala, where he belonged to the inner circle of Linné’s students. He returned to Copenhagen in 1758 prematurely, for the organzisers of the Arabian Journey were eager to win him for the scientific tasks. After his refusal he went to Göttingen in 1759 to continue his studies. There he formed a friendship with Niebuhr. In Wiedemann’s stead the organizers of the Arabian Journey appointed a Swedish student of Linné’s, Petrus Forsskål. – Gregorius Wiedemann may lay claim to a modest place in the previous history of the Arabian Journey as well as in the history of 18th century Danish botany.