Alexander Ecker
Johann Alexander Ecker (born July 10, 1816 in Freiburg im Breisgau ; † May 20, 1887 there ) was a German anatomist and leading anthropologist of his time.
Life
His parents were Johann Matthias Alexander Ritter von Ecker (1766–1829), professor of surgery and obstetrics at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau , and Anna von Mederer, daughter of k. k. top field physician Matthäus von Mederer . Alexander Ecker completed his medical studies in Freiburg in 1837 and completed his habilitation two years later. In 1840 he became a prosector in Freiburg, a year later a private lecturer in Heidelberg , and in 1844 he took up a full professorship in Basel . In 1850 he was again appointed to the chair of zoology , physiology and anatomy in Freiburg . He gave up physiology and zoology in 1857 when the chairs were reorganized. During the first ten years of his professorship in Freiburg, Ecker tried to improve the working conditions of the institutes under his control by making repeated submissions. Finally in 1865 the new building of the anatomical institute was approved by ministerial decree. The solemn inauguration, at which Ecker gave the speech, took place in 1867.
In 1861 Alexander Ecker was appointed Hofrat . In 1870 he was one of the founders of the “Academic Society” in Freiburg. Ecker retired in 1883, and Robert Wiedersheim was his successor. He was friends with Lorenz Oken (1779–1851).
Scientific achievements
His work on embryonic development in humans and animals as well as empirical studies on physiology and pathology became famous . The nomenclature of the convolutions and lobes of the cerebral cortex in humans, which is still valid today and which he presented in a monograph in 1869, comes from Alexander Ecker . Some of his anatomical studies and drawings found their way into publications by Charles Darwin . In addition to medicine and anatomy, Ecker's scientific work also extended to the fields of prehistory and early history , prehistoric anthropology and ethnology .
Ecker was involved in excavations in the area of the Kaiserstuhl , here he researched the type of row graves . The versatile scientist and founder of his own anthropological collection left an extensive estate to Freiburg , which formed the basis of the Museum of Ethnology and the Museum of Prehistory and Protohistory , and one of the most important German skull collections , the Alexander Ecker Collection, which comprises 1,600 exhibits. This collection is now kept in the Freiburg University Archives. The skulls came from archaeological excavations and research trips, etc. a. of his student Theodor Bilharz . On the basis of a comparative collection, his work "Crania Germaniae meridionalis occidentalis Description and illustration of skulls of the past and present inhabitants of southwestern Germany and in particular of the Grand Duchy of Baden" appeared in 1865. The definition of the so-called "row grave type" presented therein was used by subsequent anthropologists as the basis for the typological classification of the so-called "Nordic race".
Honors
In 1876 he received the Cothenius Medal . In 1863 he was elected both to the corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1880 to a member of the Leopoldina .
Hermann Volz created the form for an Ecker memorial, which was erected in Freiburg in July 1890 in front of the building of the Anatomical Institute. The substructure was made by the Karlsruhe sculptor Fidel Binz . Today the bust is in front of the institute built in the 1950s to replace the building that was destroyed in the war, albeit without its old stone base.
In Freiburg, a street was named after Ecker from 1889 to 2017. In November 2017, the Freiburg municipal council decided to rename Eckerstraße “because of its problematic pioneering role as a völkisch racial ideologist” in Ernst-Zermelo- Straße.
Publications (selection)
- On the doctrine of the structure and life of the contractile substance of the lowest animals . 1848 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.11653
- Anatomical description of the brain of the carp-like Nile pike Mormyrus cyprinoides L. L. Voss, Leipzig 1854. doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.12615
- Studies on ichthyology carried out in the Physiological and Comparative Anatomical Institute of the University of Freiburg, along with a history and description of these institutes . Freiburg 1857. doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.12350
- with Robert Wiedersheim: The anatomy of the frog . F. Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1864–1882 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.5512 , online ; 2nd edition, F. Vieweg and Son, Braunschweig 1887 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.5515 ; 3rd edition, F. Vieweg, Braunschweig 1896 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.5511 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.10095
- The convolutions of the human brain: according to our own investigations; especially about the development of the same in the fetus and with regard to the needs of doctors . Vieweg [u. a.] Braunschweig 1869
- Hundred years of a Freiburg professor family . Biographical notes, Mohr, Freiburg i. Br. 1886 digitized
literature
- List of publications by Alexander Ecker. Professor at the University of Freiburg 1839–1883 , Freiburg i. Br. 1883.
- Friedrich von Weech : Ecker, Alexander . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 48, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1904, p. 256 f.
- Wolf-Dietrich Foerster: Alexander Ecker. His life and work , dissertation University of Freiburg i. Br. 1954.
- Uwe Hoßfeld : History of biological anthropology in Germany. From the beginning until the post-war period. Stuttgart 2005.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heiko Wegmann: Corpses in the cellar. Badische Zeitung, November 14, 2009, accessed on August 28, 2018 .
- ^ Simone Ortolf: The Alexander Ecker collection in Freiburg. Freiburg University Hospital, accessed on August 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 73.
- ↑ Member entry by Alexander Ecker (with a link to an obituary) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on January 30, 2017.
- ^ Friedrich Kempf: Public fountains and monuments in: Badischer Architects and Engineers Association: Freiburg im Breisgau. The city and its buildings , 1898, pp. 494 - 495 .
- ↑ Street names in Freiburg. Retrieved August 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Eckerstraße is renamed Ernst-Zermelo-Straße - www.freiburg.de. Retrieved August 28, 2018 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Ecker, Alexander |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ecker, Johann Alexander (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German anatomist and anthropologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 10, 1816 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Freiburg in Breisgau |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 20, 1887 |
| Place of death | Freiburg in Breisgau |