Friedrich Wilhelm Merkel

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Friedrich Wilhelm Merkel (born August 27, 1911 in Breslau ; † August 12, 2002 ) was a German ornithologist and professor of zoology at the University of Frankfurt am Main . In his Frankfurt working group, Merkel paved the way for research into the magnetic sense of animals.

Career

Friedrich Wilhelm Merkel came from a family interested in biological topics: his grandfather Eduard Merkel was an authority on the systematics and ecology of native molluscs , his father had been chairman of the Wroclaw local branch of the Silesian Ornithologists ' Association for many years . During his school days Merkel, who was always called Fritz by all his friends , was concerned with the behavior - especially social behavior - of bag titmice in the sewage fields of Wroclaw and described their polygyny in a first scientific publication .

Thanks to the involvement of father and son in the local ornithological association, Merkel had close contact with committed ornithologists from childhood on. These included u. a. the manor owner Karl Gustav Johannes Waldemar Trettau (born January 30, 1893), who had studied agriculture before the First World War and after the war managed the 820 hectare Gimmel manor in the district of Oels, which Trettau's father acquired in 1905 . Merkel was able to catch his test birds there during his scientific studies at the University of Breslau . At Gut Grimmel, Merkel also suggested an extensive program to investigate the breeding biology and population dynamics of pied flycatchers , which Trettau continued in the Mönchbruch nature reserve in southern Hesse after the expulsion from Silesia .

During his studies, was Merkel to deepen its species knowledge in the ornithological station of Rossitten and Hiddensee worked temporarily as a "Plan observers". The migratory birds that he experienced there at close range made him choose the “Physiology of migratory unrest in birds” as the subject of his dissertation, which he submitted in Breslau in 1937 - a research area that has long been the focus of his scientific work.

Friedrich Wilhelm Merkel was married to his wife Ilse, who was also from Silesia and who was also a biologist, from 1939 until his death.

Research topics

In early 1938, Merkel moved to Frankfurt University together with his doctoral supervisor Hermann Giersberg (* December 14, 1890 in Saarbrücken, † March 9, 1981 in Frankfurt am Main) and took on a position as a research assistant. Shortly after the beginning of the Second World War , however, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . He was captured by the Soviets on the Eastern Front and was held in Siberia for years after the end of the war . In 1950, however, he returned to Frankfurt am Main and dealt again with the physiological principles of bird migration: How can one objectively measure migratory unrest ? What role does fat digestion play in bird migration? How does the activity of the endocrine glands of migratory birds change over the course of the year? "He was the first to point out the role of the photoperiod as a timer ," wrote his student Wolfgang Wiltschko in an obituary.

The special scientific achievement of Friedrich Wilhelm Merkel was that he paved the way for the proof of the magnetic sense of the animals. As a doctoral student , he had already developed an "orientation cage" in order to be able to use it to observe the behavior of migratory birds - a possible preferred direction when flying around. In contrast to the doctrinal opinion until well into the 1960s, Merkel was able to use field observations to prove that migratory birds can find their migration direction even without sky marks (position of the sun or moon, stars); From this he deduced that this ability to orientate , which was initially called “non- visual ”, had to be based on the earth's magnetic field . In the mid-1960s, his doctoral student Wolfgang Wiltschko was actually the first to demonstrate the orientation of migratory birds to the Earth's magnetic field using a further developed experimental cage.

Based on attempts to find the home of migratory birds , Merkel began a long-term study on population dynamics and the sociobiology of starlings at the end of the 1960s , which he continued for three decades. He had set up the observation colony in his private garden so that he could continue his behavioral observations even after his retirement . One of the results of this study was the detection of polygyny in this species as well.

Honors

In 1988 Merkel was awarded honorary membership of the German Ornithological Society during its 100th annual meeting . After his retirement he became involved in bird protection and headed the ornithological association ornithological observation station Untermain e. V (whose honorary chairmanship was proposed last) and was also the editor of his ornithological journal Luscinia for several years .

Publications (selection)

  • Investigations into daily and yearly changes in the energy balance of caged migratory birds. In: Journal of Comparative Physiology. Volume 41, No. 2, 1958, pp. 154-178, doi: 10.1007 / BF00345584 .
  • with HG Fromme: Investigations on the orientation ability of nocturnal robins, Erithacus rubecula. In: Natural Sciences. Volume 45, No. 20, 1958, pp. 499-500, doi: 10.1007 / BF00635576 .
  • with HG Fromme, W. Wiltschko: Non-visual orientation in robins that are restless at night. In: Vogelwarte. Volume 22, 1964, pp. 168-173.
  • with W. Wiltschko: Nocturnal unrest and migration orientation in small birds. In: Verh. Dtsch. Zool. Ges. Jena 1966, pp. 356-361.
  • with K. Fischer-Klein: Angle compensation in dwarf quail (Excalfactoria chinensis). In: Vogelwarte. Volume 27, 1973, pp. 39-50.
  • Orientation in the animal kingdom. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart, 1980 (= basic concepts of modern biology , volume 15).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Wiltschko: Professor Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Merkel on his 80th birthday. In: Luscinia. Volume 47, No. 1–2, 1991, pp. 2–4, full text (PDF)
  2. ^ Hessisches Staatsarchiv, Giersberg holdings, Hermann
    The Beginning of Neuroscience in Frankfurt
  3. ↑ In: Journal for Ornithology . Volume 144, 2003, pp. 111-113.
  4. ↑ Friedrich Wilhelm Merkel and Wolfgang Wiltschko : Magnetism and finding direction for restless robins (Erithacus rubecula). In: Vogelwarte. Volume 23, 1965, pp. 71-77.
personal data
SURNAME Merkel, Friedrich Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Merkel, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and behavioral scientist
DATE OF BIRTH August 27, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 2002