Born in
Hamburg, Lichtenstein was the son of
Anton August Heinrich Lichtenstein, head of the
Johanneum. His father had an interest in eastern languages and built up an extensive library. He took an interest in natural history and geography from an early age, and came into contact with Count
Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg in 1797 and began to help examine the Count's extensive collections of insects and birds. He then went to study medicine at
Jena and
Helmstedt and qualified as a doctor on 26 April 1802. He then chose to travel and found work when the Dutch governor of the
Cape Colony, General
Jan Willem Janssens hired Lichtenstein as a family physician and tutor for his son. Lichtenstein prepared himself by reading the accounts of travellers like
Peter Kolbe,
Anders Sparrman,
Carl Peter Thunberg,
François Le Vaillant and
John Barrow. He also met the collectors
Johann Hellwig and
Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger who gave him an overview of the gaps in the knowledge of the flora and fauna of the African region and on methods for collecting specimens. He reached Cape Town on 23 December 1802 and from that point he traveled widely around southern Africa. When war broke out against England, he joined the Dutch army as a major surgeon. After the English conquered the colony, he returned to Germany. In 1811 he published
Reisen im südlichen Afrika : in den Jahren 1803, 1804, 1805, und 1806; as a result, he was appointed professor of zoology at the
University of Berlin in 1811, and appointed director of the
Berlin Zoological Museum in 1813. His collections of plants from Africa was examined in Germany by
Carl Willdenow. He travelled to London in 1819 to purchase specimens for the Berlin Museum at auctions. Lichtenstein was a close friend of
Carl Maria von Weber. After his death, in 1826, together with the banker
Wilhelm Beer, he arranged for the sale of the score of
Oberon to the Berlin music publisher Adolf Martin Schlesinger on behalf of Weber's widow Caroline. As guardian together with Carl Theodor Winkler, he participated in the education of Weber's orphaned sons Max Maria and Alexander. Together with
Alexander von Humboldt, Lichtenstein organized the annual meeting of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Physicians in Berlin in 1828. In 1829, Lichtenstein was elected a foreign member of the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. He was also appointed Privy Councillor in Berlin. He died from a stroke at sea while aboard a steamer from
Korsør to
Kiel. ==Legacy==