Biography of ludwig becker

Becker, Ludwig Philipp Heinrich (1808-1861)

Born Offenbach-on-Main near Darmstadt, Germany, 5 Sept. 1808; died Bulloo, S of Cooper Ck, Qld, 28 Apr. 1861 [dysentery, scurvy]

He was the eldest of five children. His father, Ernst Friedrich Becker, held what was considered a respectable civil service position as a lotto director, and in 1821 became auditor for the Archduke of Hesse-Darmstadt. His mother, Amona Eleanora Becker, née Weber, also of Rodelheim, died at Darmstadt when Ludwig was only eleven years old. The following year his father married Johanette Christiane Weber of Rodelheim, perhaps his sister-in-law.

Ludwig was attended the Ludwig Georg Gymnasium [school] in Darmstadt where he studied the classics, natural sciences and art, and it was here that he began a lifelong association with Johann Jakob Kaup, five years his senior, who was to become one of the foremost zoologists of Europe. By 1929 he had moved to Franfurt-am-Main where he worked as a painter for the