Carl Chun

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Carl Chun

Carl Friedrich Chun (born October 1, 1852 in Höchst am Main , † April 11, 1914 in Leipzig ) was a German zoologist and deep-sea researcher. His life's work is the organization and implementation of the Valdivia expedition 1898/1899. He was a specialist in rib jellyfish and squid .

Life

Chun attended the Lessing Gymnasium in Frankfurt am Main, where he also attended lectures at the Theatrum anatomicum of the Senckenberg Foundation . He studied zoology at the Georg August University of Göttingen and the University of Leipzig under Rudolf Leuckart , where he received his doctorate in medicine in 1875. He later worked as an assistant to his teacher. In 1876 he went to Anton Dohrn at the Naples Zoological Station . With a monograph on the ctenophores , which was published in the series Fauna and Flora of the Gulf of Naples in 1880 , he achieved worldwide recognition as a biologist. He was particularly interested in the deep sea fauna, which he examined with self-constructed closing nets on the coasts of Corsica , Dalmatia and the Canary Islands .

From 1878 he worked as a private lecturer at the University of Leipzig, in 1883 he received a chair at the Albertus University of Königsberg . In 1898 he was appointed professor of zoology at the University of Leipzig.

In 1881 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . Chun used holidays in the Mediterranean to perfect his fishing techniques for pelagic marine animals . As a result of a trip to the Canary Islands in the winter of 1887/1888, Chun published a work entitled The pelagic fauna in greater ocean depths and their relationship to surface fauna , thus establishing his reputation as a pioneer in plankton research . In 1889 he took part in the German plankton expedition, where he worked on the rib and state jellyfish . In 1891, Chun, who was now an authority on marine biology, was appointed professor of zoology at the Silesian Friedrich Wilhelms University .

The deep-sea squid Vampyroteuthis infernalis discovered by Chun

In September 1897 he presented his dream of a world-wide exploration of the deep sea to his colleagues at the gathering of German naturalists and doctors in Braunschweig. With a resolution of the society Chun was empowered to ask at "the very highest place" for the realization of his plan. In January 1898, the Kaiser, Bundesrat and Reichstag approved Chun's high financial demands.

The former mail steamer Valdivia was equipped for the demands of an oceanographic expedition in record time . On July 31, 1898, the Valdivia began its voyage through the Atlantic around the southern tip of Africa into the Indian Ocean. On December 16, 1898, she reached the southernmost point off the Antarctic Enderby Land and then set course for Sumatra . From there, the ship began its homeward journey, which led via Sri Lanka and the Seychelles to the east coast of Africa. The last of a total of 268 processed stations was made near Cape Guardafui . On May 1, 1899, the expedition reached its home port in Hamburg.

In addition to his teaching activities, Chun devoted himself intensively to the publication of the results of the Valdivia expedition, whereby he himself wrote the scientific part about the cephalopods. 1902/1903 he was president of the German Zoological Society . Since 1898 he was a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences . In 1905 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1906 he was chairman of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors . In 1911 he received the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina.

In total, over 70 scientists worked on the processing of the collection material, including the organizer of the Challenger expedition, Sir John Murray . The complete publication of the work, which appeared in 24 volumes and 95 individual deliveries, lasted until 1940. Carl Chun did not see the completion of this work. He died on April 11, 1914 of a long-standing heart condition in Leipzig. Large parts of Carl Chun's scientific estate are now at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin and the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt a. M.

family

He was married to Lily Vogt (1860-1940), a daughter of Professor Carl Vogt . Carl Vogt (1817–1895) was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly and from 1852 professor at the University of Geneva .

Carl and Lily Chun's daughter Annie, born in 1885, was the first wife of the zoologist Otto zur Strassen , a participant in the Valdivia expedition; the daughter Lily, born in 1887, was the social democratic politician Lily Pringsheim , who was married to the plant physiologist Ernst Georg Pringsheim junior .

Fonts

Front cover of the cover of the 1st edition of the bestseller From the Depths of the World (1900)
  • The ctenophores of the Gulf of Naples and the adjacent sea sections: a monograph. Fauna and flora of the Gulf of Naples and the adjacent sea sections ed. from the Zoological Station in Naples, 1: XVIII, 313 S., Stazione Zoologica Napoli, Leipzig: Engelmann, 1880
  • Catechism of Microscopy. Weber's illustrated catechisms. 138 p., Leipzig: S. Weber, 1885
  • The pelagic animal world at greater depths of the sea and its relation to the surface fauna. Bibliotheca Zoologica 1 (1): 66 p., Cassel: Fischer, 1887
  • The Relationships Between Arctic and Antarctic Plankton. 64 p., Stuttgart: Nägele, 1897
  • From the depths of the ocean. 1st edition, 549 pages, Jena: Fischer, 1900
  • From the depths of the ocean. 2nd edition, 592 pages, Jena: Fischer, 1903
  • The cephalopods T. 1: Oegopsida. Scientific results of the German deep sea expedition on the steamer Valdivia 1898–1899, 18 (1), Jena: Fischer, 1910
  • The cephalopods T. 2: Myopsida, Octopoda. Scientific results of the German deep-sea expedition on the steamer Valdivia 1898–1899, 18 (2), Jena: Fischer, 1910

literature

  • Robert Mertens :  Chun, Carl. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 252 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • O. Steche: Carl Chun. In: Annual report of the Silesian Society for Patriotic Culture . 92 (1914), VI. Department, pp. 4-7
  • FH Winter: Carl Chun. In: 45th report of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society in Frankfurt am Main . 1914. Issue 3, pp. 176-183
  • G. Zirnstein: Carl Chun (1852-1914) . In: Gerald Wiemers (Ed.): Sächsische Lebensbilder. Vol. 6th Partial Volume AK . Stuttgart 2009, pp. 137-166.
  • Andreas von Klewitz: Carl Chun, the Valdivia and the discovery of the deep sea . Parthas Verlag Berlin, Berlin 2012. ISBN 978-3-86964-071-6

Portraits

Chun at the bowling evening of the Association for Scientific Medicine
  • Cast bronze medal 1909, 60 mm. Medalist: Paul Sturm (1859–1936). Front: CARL CHUN DEUTSCHE TIEFSEE EXPEDITION 1898–1899 --- Bearded bust to r. Back: A nymph among sea animals looks down at the sea floor through a nautical device. Literature: Grund 1986, No. 75. Heidemann 1998, No. 81.

Web links

Commons : Carl Chun  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Member entry of Carl Chun at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on February 3, 2016.
  2. ↑ Carl Chun: From the depths of the ocean . 2nd Edition. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1903, p. 591 ( hu-berlin.de [accessed January 7, 2019]).
  3. ^ Members of the SAW: Carl Chun. Saxon Academy of Sciences, accessed on October 2, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Karl Chun (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 3, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Chun, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chun, Carl Friedrich (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and deep sea researcher
DATE OF BIRTH October 1, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH High on the Main
DATE OF DEATH April 11, 1914
Place of death Leipzig