Lorenz Oken (1 August 1779 – 11 August 1851) was a
German naturalist,
botanist,
biologist, and
ornithologist. Oken was born
Lorenz Okenfuss in
Bohlsbach (now part of
Offenburg),
Ortenau,
Baden, and studied natural history and medicine at the universities of
Freiburg and
Würzburg. He went on to the
University of Göttingen, where he became a
Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer), and shortened his name to Oken. As Lorenz Oken, he published a small work entitled
Grundriss der Naturphilosophie, der Theorie der Sinne, mit der darauf gegründeten Classification der Thiere (1802). This was the first of a series of works which established him as a leader of the movement of "
Naturphilosophie" in Germany.