Eberhard Ackerknecht

Eberhard Ludwig August Ackerknecht (born June 11, 1883 in Baiersbronn , † October 2, 1968 in Zurich ) was a German and from 1924 Swiss veterinary anatomist . At his four places of work, he represented the new functional perspective with practical veterinary practice and considered teaching and research to be of equal value. He was the first to describe the Ackerknecht organ named after him ( Organon orobasale ) and one of the pioneers of the Zurich Adult Education Center. With his courses on the nature of domestic animals, Ackerknecht campaigned for a better understanding of them. Since 2002 the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Leipzig has awarded the Ackerknecht Prize, named after him, for excellent teaching.

Life

Ackerknecht was born as the son of the high school teacher Julius Ackerknecht (1856–1932) and his wife Sophie, nee. Henes (1857–1932), born. His brother Erwin Ackerknecht (1880–1960) was a literature professor and director of the Schiller National Museum in Marbach am Neckar , his nephew the medical historian and Professor Erwin Heinz Ackerknecht (1906–1988).

After graduating from high school at the humanistic Karls-Gymnasium in Stuttgart , Ackerknecht studied veterinary medicine from 1902 to 1906 at what was then the University of Veterinary Medicine in Stuttgart. From his license to practice medicine in 1906, he was an assistant at the pathological institute of this university. In 1909 he passed the district examination (senior veterinarian) and worked from 1910 to 1911 at the medical college in Stuttgart. After receiving his doctorate in Stuttgart, he was a prosector at the University of Zurich from 1911 , in 1914 he became a private lecturer , in 1921 adjunct professor and in 1925 finally full professor and institute director in Zurich. In 1933 he was appointed to succeed the important veterinary anatomist Hermann Baum as professor and director of the Veterinary Anatomical Institute at the University of Leipzig , at that time one of the leading faculties. In November 1933 he signed the German professors' confession of Adolf Hitler .

After the war he was called in by the Americans to help with denazification , but went to Zurich as a Swiss abroad because of the transition from Leipzig to the Soviet occupation zone. From 1945 to 1949 he worked part-time as an editor on the “Swiss Lexicon” and lectured at the Zurich Adult Education Center. From 1949 to 1951 he was given a teaching position at the University of Munich , and in 1951 a visiting professor at the Free University of Berlin . From 1952 he was a full professor and director of the Veterinary Anatomical Institute. With his retirement in 1955, Ackerknecht returned to Switzerland.

Ackerknecht was a co-founder in 1919 and a popular lecturer at the adult education center in the canton of Zurich for 18 years.

He was married to Käthe geb. Müller and had two sons and two daughters. He found his final resting place in the Witikon cemetery .

Services

Ackerknecht was the first to describe the Ackerknecht organ ( Organum orobasale ), a rudimentary floor gland of many mammals, which was later named after him . He wrote numerous articles on the comparative and functional or pathological anatomy of domestic animals. He was co-author of the updated handbook of the comparative anatomy of domestic animals , the 18th edition of which appeared in 1943. It was considered a standard work for a long time and was printed and translated into other languages ​​until 1985. Ackerknecht supervised 73 dissertations and two habilitations and more than 200 works with those at the institutes under his direction.

Ackerknecht considered research and training to be of equal value and dealt intensively with questions of didactics in anatomical instruction from a functional and comparative point of view with practical veterinary relevance, which was also reflected in the specialist literature. He developed the so-called "formalin cow", a standing domestic cattle fixed with formalin , as an anatomical, realistic demonstration object. Ackerknecht was a talented and humorous teacher and advocated the students' concerns. In 2002, the Veterinary Medicine Faculty of the University of Leipzig introduced the Ackerknecht Prize for excellent teaching, which is awarded annually to the best academic teacher in the faculty at the suggestion of the students.

At the adult education center in the Canton of Zurich, his courses on the nature of pets and their understanding as well as the importance of their diseases for humans were very successful.

In 1953 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Medical Faculty of the Free University of Berlin, and in 1964 the Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Ackerknecht was a member and honorary member of numerous scientific societies, including the Saxon Academy of Sciences , the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina zu Halle (since 1940), the World Association of Veterinary Atomic Scientists and the Schaffhausen Natural Research Society (CH).

According to the burial and cemetery office of the city of Zurich, his grave is listed among the graves of celebrities (Zurich-Witikon cemetery). The estate is looked after by the Swiss Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine (Society of Swiss Veterinarians) and is located in Basel and Zurich (Museum of the History of Veterinary Medicine).

Works

In addition to numerous contributions to specialist literature, the Handbook of the Comparative Anatomy of Domestic Animals (Ellenberger / Baum) , written together with Otto Zietzschmann and Hugo Grau , 18th edition, Springer Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 1943, 4 reprints up to 1985. ( ISBN 3-540-06717-5 / ISBN 0-387-06717-5 )

literature

• Fritz Heberlein: View over the Gartenhag . In: Lucerne's latest news . July 4, 1953, No. 153, p. 3
• Hugo Grau: Eberhard Ackerknecht in memory . In: Switzerland. Veterinary Archives . Volume 110, 1968, p. 653 f .; Tierärztliche Umschau, No. 12, 1968, p. 599 f.
• Erich Künzel: Professor Dr. Dr. hc Eb. Farm hand † . In: Berlin and Munich veterinary weekly . Issue 1/1969, p. 20
• Hanspeter Mattmüller: Adult Education Center in Basel and Zurich. On the history of adult education in Switzerland . Verlag Paul Haupt Bern, 1976, pp. 261, 414 (234, 235), 325 (436), 432 (436)
• The University of Zurich, 1933–1983 . Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the University of Zurich, Ed. Rectorate, Zurich 1983, pp. 457, 458, 710
• Swiss Lexicon 1991 in 6 volumes . Volume 1, p. 47
• German Biographical Encyclopedia . KG Saur Verlag, Munich, 1995, Volume 1, p. 19
• Urs Boschung: Eberhard Ackerknecht. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Werner Sackmann: 100 years of the Veterinary Medicine Faculty in Zurich, 1902–2002. Edited by the Dean's Office, Zurich 2002, p. 92
• Beate Schneider: Life and work of the veterinary anatomist Eberhard Ackerknecht (1883–1968) . Inaugural dissertation, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, 2001; 2nd, supplemented edition 2003
• Dieter Ackerknecht: Memories of Eberhard Ackerknecht, Veterinäranatom, 1883–1968. A supplementary documentation . Zurich 2003

Web links

• Literature by and about Eberhard Ackerknecht in the catalog of the German National Library
• Eberhard Ackerknecht in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
• Leipzig Lexicon
• Urs Boschung: Ackerknecht, Eberhard. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Single receipts

1. ↑ List of members Leopoldina, Eberhard Ackerknecht (with picture)