Christel Kasselmann has passed

The German botanist Christel Kasselmann passed away on 21 August. The Aquarienfreunde Berlin-Tegel 1912 announced this with regret. Her findings have become part of the general knowledge amongst aquarists today through lectures, books and several hundred articles. Dähne Verlag had also published one of her books and distributed another.

The fields of aquatics and botany have thus lost an expert who, like no other, knew how to share her knowledge and inspire a passion for plants. For she did not merely study aquatic plants from an aquarist’s perspective, but also scientifically described new species and, even in her youth, devoted herself to researching the habitats and ecology of aquatic and marsh plants.

Kasselmann was also involved in the aquarium hobby on many levels: as a district chairperson in the in the German Aquarists’ and Terrarium Keepers’ Association VDA, as editor of ‘Aqua Planta’, as head of the Aquatic Plants Working Group, and as a tireless writer and speaker at events both at home and abroad. Over a period of several months, she created planted aquariums for ‘Grüne Woche’ in Berlin and for ‘Vivarium’ in Rosmalen (the Netherlands).

In 2020, she published ‘Aquarium Plants’, the English translation of her book ‘Aquarienpflanzen’, which had appeared the previous year. The book quickly became the definitive international reference work, covering over 750 aquatic and marsh plants. Through marketing via her own website, she increasingly came into contact with social media and, with her daughter’s support, immediately began using it to educate others about plants and their cultivation. Once she had set her mind on propagating a particular species, she left no stone unturned until she was able to successfully pass on countless home-grown plants and the necessary knowledge for their successful care to other aquarists.