Ludwig Friedrich Kämtz

The son of the cloth weaver Martin Philipp Kämtz and his wife, the merchant's daughter Dorothea Louise Bleidorn, attended the citizen school in Treptow. At the instigation of the deputy principal Lorentz, he was able to attend the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium in Berlin in 1814. There, his teacher Friedrich Wilhelm Jungius aroused his interest in the physics of the atmosphere. From 1817 to 1819, he attended the school of the orphanage in Halle and then studied law and philosophy at the university. He attended lectures in philosophy, history, ancient languages and mathematics. In 1822 he received his doctorate with a mathematical thesis. With studies on the theories of corpuscle theory of Isaac Newton and the wave theory of Augustin Jean Fresnel he habilitated in 1824.