Gerhard Heberer

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Gerhard Heberer (born March 20, 1901 in Halle an der Saale , † April 13, 1973 in Göttingen ) was a German zoologist , geneticist and anthropologist . At the time of National Socialism , he was a " racial researcher " and a member of the SS Research Association German Ahnenerbe .

Live and act

Gerhard Heberer was a co-founder of the German Academic Guild and leader of the Wandervogel in 1920 .

Heberer studied from 1920 to 1924 at the University of Halle zoology and genetics with Valentin Haecker as well as anthropology and racial studies with the Haeckel student Hans Hahne . In 1924, he was with a dissertation The spermatogenesis of copepods doctorate . From 1924 to 1926 he was an assistant at Hahnes Museum for "Folklore" in Halle. In 1927 he took part in Bernhard Rensch's “Sunda Expedition” to Indonesia. From 1928 to 1938 he was first a lecturer and then associate professor at the Zoological Institute of the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen , which was headed by Jürgen Wilhelm Harms . In 1932 he was in zoology and comparative anatomy habilitation .

In 1933 he joined the SA , which he belonged to until 1935. This was followed by entries into the NS Lecturer Association and the NS Teachers Association . In 1937 Heberer joined the NSDAP (membership number 3,972,811) and the SS (membership number 279,992), where he became Hauptsturmführer in 1942 . In 1935/1936 he temporarily held the chair for zoology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, on behalf of Otto zur Strassen . However, following his decidedly Darwinist lectures, the Reich Ministry of Education did not see a full professorship there due to protests from some Catholic students . Then sat Heinrich Himmler personally Heberer and gave him a place in the Race and Settlement Office -rod (RuSHA) of the SS. He was also a member of Himmler's SS Forschungsgemeinschaft Deutsches Ahnenerbe . From 1938 to 1945 he was professor for “General Biology and Anthropogeny” at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena . Together with Karl Astel , Hans FK Günther and Victor Julius Franz , Heberer formed the so-called Jena “Race Quadriga”, according to Hoßfeld. All four were "main protagonists of a« German science / biology »" in Thuringia. From 1942 he was on the advisory board of the Ernst Haeckel Society . In 1944 he gave lectures on "Germanization", ie the Nazification of Norwegian students who were deported there, in the Buchenwald concentration camp .

From 1945 to 1947 Heberer was interned for two years because of his SS membership. After his denazification (1947) he was director of an “anthropological research center” at the Georg-August University in Göttingen from 1949 to 1970 and from 1961/1962 visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin . In the 1950s and 1960s, Heberer was able to make significant contributions to the history of human descent and to the synthetic theory of evolution , so that his overall scientific work cannot be assessed solely with reference to the Nazi era. He wrote numerous books, including popular science books, particularly on paleoanthropology and the theory of evolution. He traveled to many museums around the world and also to archaeological sites of early hominids in Africa such as the Olduvai Gorge (1961) and was able to assemble an extensive paleoanthropological collection of fossil casts in Göttingen. Heberer retired in 1970 and died in Göttingen on April 13, 1973.

Publications (selection)

  • (Ed.): The evolution of organisms . Fischer, Jena 1943, several volumes, 3rd edition 1967–1974 (in it by Heberer: The type problem of tribal history ).
  • What does Darwinism mean today? , Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1949.
  • General theory of descent , Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1949.
  • New results in the theory of human descent. A research report. Musterschmidt, Göttingen 1951.
  • Pierre Marcellin Boule . The explorer of fossil humans. In: Hans Schwerte , Wilhelm Spengler : Researchers and Scientists in Europe Today. 2. Physicians, biologists, anthropologists . (= Designer of our time, Volume 4.) Stalling, Oldenburg 1955, pp. 288–295.
  • Schwalbe - Klaatsch - Mollison : The descent of humans. In: Hans Schwerte, Wilhelm Spengler: Researchers and Scientists in Europe Today. 2. Physicians, biologists, anthropologists . (= Designer of our time, Volume 4.) Stalling, Oldenburg 1955, pp. 296–307.
  • The animal-human transition field. In: Studium generale: Journal for interdisciplinary studies. Volume 11, 1958, pp. 341-352.
  • Charles Darwin. His life and his work . Kosmos-Franckh 1959.
  • with Ilse Schwidetzky-Roesing and Gottfried Kurth (eds.): Fischer Lexikon: Anthropologie. Fischer Bücherei, Frankfurt am Main 1959, new edition 1970.
  • The origin of humanity. In: Golo Mann , Alfred Heuss , August Nitschke (eds.): Propylaea World History , Volume 1, 1960.
  • The descent of man. Athenaion 1961.
  • Human descent doctrine. G. Fischer, Stuttgart 1965.
  • The justified Haeckel . Insights into his writings on the occasion of the publication of his main work "General Morphology of Organisms" a hundred years ago. G. Fischer, Stuttgart 1968.
  • as Mithrsg .: Grzimek's animal life . Supplementary volume Development history of living beings. Kindler 1972.
  • Homo. Our past and future. DVA 1968, paperback edition as Modern Anthropology , rororo, Reinbek near Hamburg 1973.
  • The origin of man. Our current level of knowledge. 4th edition, G. Fischer, Stuttgart 1975.
  • Helmut Hölder , Albrecht Egelhaaf, Jürgen Jacobs, Gerhard Heberer, Hans Querner: From the origin of the species. New knowledge and perspectives in the theory of descent. Rowohlt Taschenbuch, Reinbek near Hamburg 1975.

literature

  • Uwe Hoßfeld : Gerhard Heberer (1901–1973). His contribution to biology in the 20th century. Science and Education, Berlin 1997
  • ders .: History of biological anthropology in Germany , Franz Steiner Verlag 2005
  • Gottfried Kurth (Ed.): Evolution and Hominisation , G. Fischer 1962, 2nd edition 1967 (Festschrift for the 60th birthday)
  • Wolf-Ernst Reif: Evolutionary theory in German paleontology , in M. Grene: Dimensions in Darwinism , Cambridge University Press 1983, pp. 173-203

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Joachim Lerchenmueller, Gerd Simon, Masken-Wechsel: how SS-Hauptsturmführer Schneider became the BRD university rector Schwerte and other stories about the agility of German science in the 20th century , Verlag der Gesellschaft für Interdisciplinary Research 1999, p. 329
  2. ↑ Ute Deichmann: Biologists under Hitler , Campus, Frankfurt a. M./New York 1992, p. 283
  3. ↑ Uwe Hoßfeld, Universities and Colleges in National Socialism and in the Early Post-War Period , Franz Steiner Verlag 2004, p. 198
  4. ↑ Annett Hamann, Men of Combat Science , in: Uwe Hossfeld (Ed.), Combative Science: Studies for the University of Jena in National Socialism , Böhlau Verlag 2003, p. 215 f
personal data
SURNAME Heberer, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION National Socialist “racial researcher”, geneticist, anthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 20, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH April 13, 1973
Place of death Goettingen