Otto Bütschli

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Otto Bütschli around 1916
Otto Bütschli at the microscope table in Heidelberg, photo taken around 1895

Johann Adam Otto Bütschli (born May 3, 1848 in Frankfurt am Main , † February 3, 1920 in Heidelberg ) was a German zoologist .

Life

Otto Bütschli was born in Frankfurt on May 3, 1848 , the son of a confectioner who originally came from Switzerland . His father had immigrated to Germany in 1830 and settled in Frankfurt. There he married Emilie Kullmann, a native of Frankfurt, in 1843. After completing school in Frankfurt, Otto Bütschli studied mineralogy , chemistry and paleontology at the Polytechnic in Karlsruhe from 1864 . In 1865/1866 he became an assistant to the paleontologist Karl Alfred von Zittel . In 1866 Biitschli moved to the University of Heidelberg , where he 1868 in mineralogy, chemistry and zoology to Dr. phil. received his doctorate and was then assistant to Robert Wilhelm Bunsen .

1869 Biitschli assistant was at the University of Leipzig with Rudolf Leuckart because he had decided to switch to zoology. There he dealt with ontogenetic studies on nematodes .

1873–1874 he was assistant to the zoologist Karl August Möbius at the University of Kiel , where he continued his studies on infusoria . In 1876 he completed his habilitation at the Polytechnic in Karlsruhe, where he continued to work as a private lecturer.

In 1878, when he was not yet 30 years old, Bütschli was appointed full professor of zoology and paleontology at Heidelberg University. Despite numerous appointments to other universities, the scientist remained in Heidelberg until the end of his life. In the colloquial language of Heidelberg at that time, the term “Zoological Institute” was no longer used, but rather the “Bütschli Institute”. Studies on the development processes of the egg cell as well as intensive studies on protozoa appeared in his first major work in 1876, which was published in the treatises of the Senckenberg Society . These investigations and a work published at the same time in the botanical field by the well-known botanist Eduard Strasburger put cell theory on a new scientific basis. In 1888 Bütschli was accepted into the Leopoldina . From 1894 he was a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg . In 1896/97 he was President of the German Zoological Society . In 1900 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1909 he was accepted as a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences . From 1915 to 1920 he was their secretary.

research

Bütschli worked on the evolutionary history and comparative anatomy of insects , gastropods and especially nematodes. He discovered the mitotic cell division in animals and wrote important papers on reproduction cycles, the fine structure of the protoplasm , the systematics of the protozoa , which went back to the suggestions of his teacher Rudolf Leuckart.

Honors

A mineral newly discovered and described by Charles Milton and Joseph M. Axelrod in 1947 was named Bütschliit in his honor .

Fonts (selection)

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto Bütschli  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mindat - Bütschliite
  2. ^ Member entry of Otto Bütschli at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on February 7, 2016.
  3. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Otto Bütschli. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 8, 2015 (Russian).
  4. ^ Member entry by Otto Bütschli (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 7, 2016.
  5. ^ Members of the HAdW since it was founded in 1909. Otto Bütschli. Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, accessed on July 19, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Butschli, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bütschli, Johann Adam Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 3, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH February 3, 1920
Place of death Heidelberg