Schreibers was born in
Pressburg,
Hungary,
Habsburg Empire (today
Bratislava,
Slovakia) where his father was a military archivist. He was tutored at home before going to the Löwenburg Seminary in Vienna where he was influenced by his uncle Joseph Ludwig von Schreibers (1735-1809) who was a physician. He then studied medicine and earned his medical doctorate from
Vienna in 1798, but also studied
botany,
mineralogy and
zoology at the university. For a brief period of time he assisted his uncle, Joseph Ludwig von Schreibers, with his medical practice in Vienna. As a young man, he also toured museums throughout Europe. He met Sir
Joseph Banks in England. In 1802 he was an assistant to professor
Jordan and worked on
natural history and
agricultural sciences at the
University of Vienna. He also lectured on various topics. He clashed with
Andreas Freiherr von Stifft who came in his way until 1834. In 1806, following the death of
Andreas Xaverius Stütz, he was appointed director of the Viennese natural history collections (
Naturalienkabinette), which became his life's work. Schreibers was involved with all aspects of natural sciences, and he embarked upon total organizational overhaul of the museum's natural history collections. During his time as director, the size of the museum's
library grew from a few scientific books to a collection of over 30,000 volumes. Here, he stored the results of his personal research work, as well as a collection of
meteorites — Schreibers' main interest of study. On 31 October 1848 some parts of the collections of the museum were destroyed by fire during the course of bombardment of Viennese revolutionaries by the Austrian Imperial Army. Schreibers was devastated by the loss, and retired soon afterwards. Fortunately his collection of meteorites was saved from destruction. The common bent-wing bat (
Miniopterus schreibersii), also known as the Schreibers's long-fingered bat or Schreibers's bat, is a species of insectivorous bat. Schreibers is also commemorated in the
scientific names of two
species of New World lizards:
Cercosaura schreibersii and
Leiocephalus schreibersii. In 1847, an uncommon
iron-
nickel-phosphide ((Fe,Ni)3P) mineral was named in his honor by
Wilhelm Karl Ritter von Haidinger (1775–1871). The mineral is found in meteorites, and is known today as
schreibersite. Von Schreibers married IsabeIIa, daughter of
Joseph Franz von Jacquin, and they had a son who became an Austrian official. A daughter Sophie predeceased him. ==References==