Biography

German colonial administrator and naturalist. Stuhlmann was born and grew up in Hamburg where his father was an architect. He took a great interest in natural history while at school and went on to study natural sciences at Tübingen and Freiburg, earning his doctorate at the latter. Concentrating on zoology, he also undertook studies at the University of Kiel before being employed as a demonstrator at the Zoological Institut of Würzberg in 1887. He did not stay long, however, but left Germany the following year on what would be the first voyage in a long series of expeditions.

Arriving in Egypt in early 1888, Stuhlmann visited Alexandria and Cairo, where he met fellow naturalist George Schweinfurth; the pair would forge a long-lasting friendship. From Egypt he continued on to Zanzibar, making botanical and zoological collections for the Prussian Academy of Sciences. He spent 1889 flitting between Zanzibar and Mozambique, carrying out research, but was soon kept busy by his new role in the deutschen Schutztruppe (German Protectorate Forces). Initially a reserve officer, he was then promoted to Lieutenant and was wounded during an engagement at Lembula in January 1890. Later that year he set off on a two-year journey into the interior of German East Africa and beyond, following expedition leader Emin Pasha. Their itinerary up to November took in Morogoro, Tabora, Selaue (30km south of Lake Victoria) and Bukoba on the western shore of Lake Victoria. From Bukoba Stuhlmann sailed to the Sesse Islands and Uganda in December 1890 - January 1891. By May the party was in the Congo at Lake Albert, and after climbing in the Rwenzori Range, they continued exploring along the Semliki and Iuri River until November 1891, when they were stalled at Lake Albert by an outbreak of smallpox. In December, Pasha ordered Stuhlmann to return with other healthy members of the expedition to Bukoba (in German East Africa, present-day Tanzania). Pasha himself met a sticky end not long afterwards, killed by slavers. Meanwhile Stuhlmann, despite being beset by difficulties, managed to reach the coast with a bounty of more than 4,300 plants. Deposited in Berlin, unfortunately many were destroyed when the botanic garden at Dahlem was bombed in World War Two. Some duplicates from this trip survive in other herbaria.

The African expedition tested Stuhlmann's resilience to the utmost. He was ill with black-water fever after reaching the coast and spent some seven weeks in hospital before he was fit enough to return to Germany in late 1892. On home soil, he produced several works based on his recent experiences, including the account Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika (1894), which provided an unembroidered description of their journey into the heart of Africa. The dark continent had unequivocally captured his imagination, and Stuhlmann was back before long. This time, however, he was in an administrative role based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, with duties covering land surveying and agricultural policy. While surveying the Uluguru mountains and environs in 1894 he made further natural history collections, including 3,000 plants, and more during an expedition in February 1895 at the mouth of the Rovuma River. In 1901-1903 he studied methods of agricultural research in India and Dutch East Indies, after which he was made director of the research station at Amani, some 320km north of Dar es Salaam. Under his leadership, the Amani Institut became a renowned centre for tropical agricultural research. In later years, under British colonial rule, the station moved to Muguga in Kenya as the East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organisation, while the Amani herbarium was eventually moved to the Kenya National Museum in 1984.

Stuhlmann authored many papers while at Amani, covering not only botany and geography but also colonial economics. Though he loved East Africa, ill health forced him to leave the tropics in 1908 and he settled back in Hamburg as general secretary to the Central Office of the Colonial Institut. This administrative role was a great departure, but he nevertheless immersed himself in his new duties. He went on to found and direct the Hamburgischen Welt-Wirtschafts-Archiv, an institute dealing with world trade, and was able to visit Africa again in 1911 and 1913, when he went to Algeria and Tunisia.

Stuhlmann was considered to be in such rude health at the time of his 65th birthday that he was permitted to continue working as a civil servant, despite having reached retirement age. However, he quickly became unwell with cancer, and died in November 1928 following an operation. He is remembered in the specific epithets of a great many East African plants and animals (stuhlmannii).

Sources:
M.J. van Steenis Kruseman, "Cyclopedia of Collectors", Flora Malesiana, online edn:
http://www.nationaalherbarium.nl/FMCollectors/S/StuhlmannFL.htm, accessed 10 October 2010
H. Meyer, 1929, "Franz Stuhlmann. Ein Nachruf", Mitteilungen aus den Deutschen Schutzgebieten, 36(2): I–II, V–VIII
F.L. Stuhlmann, 1894, Mit Emin Pascha ins Herz von Afrika
B. Verdcourt, 1988-1989, "Collectors in East Africa - 13. F.L. Stuhlmann", The Conchologists' Newsletter, 106: 113-117; 109: 181-187; 110: 211-219.