Baron Friedrich August Marschall von Bieberstein (30 July 1768 – 28 June 1826) was an early explorer of the flora and archeology of the southern portion of Imperial Russia, including the Caucasus and Novorossiya.
[1] The 'Marschall von Bieberstein' family can trace its origins back over 800 years to the region today called Saxony in eastern Germany.
[2] He had three brothers, Carl Wilhelm Marschall von Bieberstein (1764–1817), who was from 1792 worked in Baden, then in 1800 became President of the Privy Councillor, then 1806 part of the Privy Council (known as the Geheimrat in Germany) and in 1809, Baden Minister of the Interior and finally in 1811, an Envoy in Stuttgart, and 'Ernst Franz Ludwig Marschall von Bieberstein (1770–1834), Chief Minister (Staatsminister) of the Duchy of Nassau between 1806 and 1834.
He collected many herbarium specimens all along the way, he published an account of his journey in French in 1798 "Tableau des provinces situées sur la côte occidentale de la mer Caspienne entre les fleuves Terek et Kour"[4] (and in German in 1800) (and into English in 1807)[9] which contained a great deal of botanical information, including 74 new species descriptions.
[4] In 1799, von Bieberstein was appointed privy-councillor (known as 'Director of the Silk House'), responsible for the development of sericulture (silkworm breeding) in southern Russia,[11] giving him a plenty of ideal chances to travel around the region and continue his botanical studies and add to his collection.
[12] Later in 1804, Von Bieberstein married a Finnish woman named Miss Maria Kristina Klick (1785- )[13] and together they moved to Marefa (also known as Marfopol'ye).
[4] Von Bieberstein remained in Marefa for the rest of his life and he developed orchards at 'Penz' and Poltava as well as supervising the military pharmaceutical gardens of Ukraine.
In 1810, he published a work with illustrations of south Russian plants entitled 'Centuria plantarum rariorum Rossiae meridionalis', in which 50 of his own hand-coloured engravings can be seen.