Burmeister was born in
Stralsund, where his father was a customs officer. He studied medicine at
Greifswald (1825–1827) and
Halle (1827–1829), and in 1830 went to
Berlin to qualify himself to be a teacher of natural history. His dissertation was titled
De insectorum systemate naturali and graduated as a doctor of medicine on November 4, 1829 and then received a doctor of philosophy on December 19 in the same year. He then joined for military service in Berlin and Grünberg (Silesia). He was soon after appointed an instructor in the
gymnasium at
Cologne. He later became a professor of zoology at the
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg serving there from 1837 to 1861. During this period he published several major works on insects which also involved the examination of insect collections around Europe and those of wealthy collectors. He married Marie Elise, the daughter of shipowner and insect collector M.C. Sommer of Altona, in 1836. In 1848, during the
revolutionary excitement, he was sent by the city of
Halle as deputy to the
national assembly, and subsequently by the town of
Leibnitz to the first
Prussian chamber. Around 1848 he became a socialist and still later opposed slavery. He traveled to Brazil from 1850 to 1852 — partly supported through the efforts of
Alexander von Humboldt — was cut short by a leg injury. He then visited
Argentina from 1857 to 1860, returning to Germany with zoological collections. He was elected to the
American Philosophical Society in 1856. In 1861, he divorced his wife and went to live in Argentina, founding the Institute at the
Museo Nacional in Buenos Aires. He married an Argentine woman and they had two sons, Carlos and Federico. Carlos also became a scientist. Burmeister headed the Academy of Sciences, formed from the scientific faculty of Argentina's
National University of Córdoba. In the field of
herpetology he described many new
species of
amphibians and
reptiles. He also
mistakenly described a
bovid atlas as belonging to
Macrauchenia patachonica. Burmeister was said to be harsh and did not have any close circle of friends. While working at the Argentine museum, he had a fall from a ladder and landed on a glass case and injured himself seriously on 8 February 1892. He resigned from work on 18 April and died on 2 May. A state funeral was held on the 4 May and the president of Argentina,
Carlos Pellegrini was present. A monument was placed on the bank of the Rio de La Plata in the
Parque 3 Febrero on October 7, 1900 and later moved to the
Parque Centenario. ==Evolution==