The bicentenary of Georg Hartung, a German pioneer geologist and explorer

We present a tribute to Georg Friedrich Karl Hartung (1821–1891), a less-known non-academic German geologist, on his 200th anniversary. Influenced by eminent 19th century scientific personalities such as Oswald Heer, Charles Lyell, and Alexander von Humboldt, he performed pioneer geological observations and sampling in the Azores, Madeira, and Canaries volcanic archipelagos. Later in his life he travelled to the USA and explored the Scandinavian countries. His scientific endeavours were published in several books and papers, many of them co-authored by academic German geologists and palaeontologists. His works on the macaronesian islands are deemed as classics, many enriched by his own detailed geological illustrations.