Dictionary of National Biography, 1912 supplement/Brandis, Dietrich
BRANDIS, Sir DIETRICH (1824–1907), forest administrator and botanist, born at Bonn on 31 Mar. 1824, was eldest son of Christian August Brandis (1790-1867) by his wife Caroline Hausmann, of a good Hanoverian family, who was a pioneer in social work. His father, son of the court physician at Copenhagen, after studying at Göttingen and Kiel, was privatdocent at Copenhagen and Berlin, secretary to the Roman historian Niebuhr, when ambassador at Rome (1816-1821), and from 1822 to his death in 1867 was, save for three years' absence in Greece (1837-9), professor of philosophy at Bonn. Appointed kabinetsrat by Otho, King of Greece, in 1837, the elder Brandis spent that and the two following years with his family at Athens, where the archæologist Ernst Curtius acted as their tutor. Of Dietrich's younger brothers Bernhard (1826-1911), geheimer-sanitätsrat, obtained a reputation as a physician, while Johannes, kabinetsrat, was private secretary to Augusta, the German Empress.
Dietrich, after early education at Bonn, commenced botanical pursuits at Athens, studying under Fraas and accompanying Link on excursions. Returning to Bonn in August 1839, he attended the royal high school and university there. Subsequently he studied botany at Copenhagen under Schouw, at Gottingen under Grisebach and Lantzius-Beninga, and again at Bonn with Treviranus. He became Ph.D. Bonn on 28 Aug. 1848, and privatdocent in 1849. In 1854 he married Rachel, daughter of Joshua Marshman [q. v.], Indian scholar and missionary, and widow of Voigt (1798-1843), Danish surgeon and botanist. This marriage determined his career. His wife's sister was wife of General Sir Henry Havelock [q. v.]. When Pegu in Burma was annexed in 1852, the valuable teak forests were being depleted by unscrupulous adventurers: strong control was essential to their preservation. In 1855 General Havelock was consulted; on his suggestion the governor-general, Lord Dalhousie, put Brandis in charge of the threatened forests on 16 Jan. 1856. Next year his commission was extended to include all Burmese forests. So thoroughly did Brandis perform his task that by 1861 the Burmese forests were saved. His professional duties precluded much scientific study, but his interest in botany was maintained, and on 5 May 1860 he was elected F.L.S. In 1862 Brandis was summoned to Simla to advise the government of India on general forest policy. The problem was difficult because rights of public user everywhere prevailed. Brandis, overcoming official and popular opposition, devised a just and successful system of eliminating or adequately curtailing these rights; he provided for the co-ordination and ultimately for the strengthening of the provincial departments which had control of the forests, and on 1 April 1864 was appointed inspector-general of Indian forests.
During 1863-5 and 1868-70 he toured extensively, establishing sound forest management in Northern India. While on furlough in 1866 he arranged for the continental training of candidates for employment in forestry work.
Invalided on 4 Feb. 1871, Brandis was on duty in England from 12 April 1872 till 22 May 1873, completing 'The Forest Flora of North-west and Central India,' commenced by Dr. John Lindsay Stewart. Prepared at Kew, this work, published in March 1874, established Brandis's botanical reputation; he was elected F.R.S. on 3 June 1875, and appointed C.I.E. on 1 Jan. 1878. After his return to India he founded in 1878 at Dehra Dun a school for native foresters. During 1881-3 he inaugurated a sound system of forest management in Madras. On 24 April 1883 he retired from Indian service, with a special honorarium and valedictory notice. As administrator and as professional forester he had proved himself equally eminent.
Settling in Bonn, Brandis, who inherited his mother's social interests, instituted a workmen's club. At the same time he resumed his botanical studies, working on specimens collected by himself or communicated from Calcutta. While Brandis had been absent from Simla on duty at Madras during 1881-3, it had been proposed to substitute an English for a continental training of forestry officers in India. Accordingly in 1885 a forestry school was established at Coopers Hill, and although Brandis thought the step to be premature, he joined the board of visitors. On 16 Feb. 1887 he was promoted K.C.I.E. On 10 Oct. following Brandis agreed to supervise the practical continental training of English students. He performed this duty from 1888 to 1896, not only for English students but also for the young foresters of the U.S.A. forest department. His services and expert knowledge were recognised by the honorary degree of LL.D. from Edinburgh in 1889, and the grade of a Prussian 'professor' in 1890. In 1898 his university gave him a jubilee diploma; on 22 Nov. 1905 he received a message of thanks from Theodore Roosevelt, the president of the United States.
After 1896 Brandis again confined his attention to botanical work, dividing his time from 1897 to 1900 between London and Bonn. In 1901 he settled in Kew in order to prepare a botanical forest manual. There he resided till November 1906, when he finally returned to Bonn.
His great work, 'Indian Trees,' which he completed while suffering from a painful malady, was issued in London in November 1906. It is a model of botanical exactitude and a monument of enthusiasm and perseverance.
Brandis died at Bonn on 29 May 1907, and was buried in the family grave in the old cemetery.
His first wife had died at Simla in 1863, and in 1867 he married secondly, at Bonn, Katharine, daughter of Dr. Rudolph Hasse. By his second marriage Brandis had four sons and three daughters; three children died young. The eldest, Joachim, is a civil engineer; Bernhard is judge in the higher court of Elberfeld; Caroline is a sister in the Evangelische Diakonie Verein. A pastel portrait, made in 1867 by G. H. Siebert of Godesberg, is now at Elberfeld.
[Meyer, Konversations-Lexikon, iii. 384; Brandis, Forest Flora of North-west and Central India, preface, pp. xiv, xvi; Eardley-Wilmot, Indian Forester, xxxiii. 305; B. D. J[ackson], Proc. Linn. Soc. Lond. 1907-8, p. 46; Pinchot, Proc. Soc. Amer. For. iii. 54; W. S[chlich], Proc. Roy. Soc. lxxx. obit. not. p. iii; India Office Records; Letters of Lady Brandis.]