Gotthilft von Studnitz

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Gotthilft von Studnitz (born January 3, 1908 in Kiel , † March 11, 1994 in Bad Schwartau ) was a German physiologist and zoologist .

Life

Gotthilft von Studnitz came from the old West Moravian noble family Studnitz . He was the eldest of two boys of Corvette Captain Oswald von Studnitz (later Captain of the Sea) and his wife Johanna Theodora, nee. from Bulmerincq, who came from Warsaw. Studnitz received private tuition and attended the high school in his hometown, where he passed his school leaving examination in 1926. At the age of 12, he developed severe osteomyelitis , combined with a stiffening of the left leg in the hip and knee joint. From a very young age he was enthusiastic about nature, especially birds and mammals.

After graduating from high school, he studied botany , zoology , geology and physiology at the universities of Kiel and Breslau . He received his doctorate in 1930 from the University of Kiel. The subject of his dissertation was: The morphology and anatomy of 'Lima inflata', the file clam, along with biological studies on 'Lima hians Gmel' . He then worked as a scholarship holder of the Notgemeinschaft, from 1934 to 1936 as an extraordinary assistant at the Zoological Institute of Kiel University, where he completed his habilitation in 1935 . A year later, von Studnitz received an assistant position at the zoological institute of the Martin Luther University in Halle an der Saale . On May 18, 1936 he was appointed lecturer in zoology. At the University of Halle, von Studnitz, a member of the NSDAP since May 1, 1937 , was appointed associate professor in 1941. At the same time, he received a research assignment for color vision from the Wolfen factory . His appointment as full professor of zoology and director of the Zoological Institute and Museum of the University of Halle took place in 1942:

“At that time, von Studnitz was already working on a research assignment from the Navy High Command, he was making attempts to improve adaptation to darkness and reduce the effects of glare. In order to be able to show research results on humans, he carried out experiments on those sentenced to death in the prison in Halle. After he had given the delinquents an oily liquid - presumably vitamin A or other carotenoids - he took the eyes of the executed and examined changes in the cone substance. "

On June 19, 1944, Studnitz was involved in the execution of 16 people convicted by the Wehrmacht courts in Halle prison. He gave instructions on how to take medication and how to wear blindfolds and, after the death of the executed, ordered their eyeballs to be removed. 19 more executions followed. The opaque blindfolds were put on the condemned under the personal supervision of von Studnitz. No further attempts were made, although:

“Professor von Studnitz only asked to be allowed to administer some remedies to some of the convicted at a later date. In addition, he will still need individual eyes for supplementary attempts in the future. He expressed his sincere thanks for being able to carry out the experiment. ”(Quoted in Gattermann / Neumann 2005, p. 110)

After 1945 he left Halle together with the American occupation forces . His luggage also contained a number of valuable microscopes, all of which were meticulously listed in a criminal complaint from the University of Halle. Von Studnitz worked for a short time at the English Aviation Research Center in Farnborough and then moved to Bad Schwartau. He developed a few drugs to improve the light-dark adaptation of the eye and from 1951 onwards, as the successor to Ludwig Benick, rebuilt the natural history museum of the city of Lübeck , today's Museum for Nature and Environment Lübeck . He was also director of the adult education center there from 1952 . After his retirement, von Studnitz mainly worked as a hunting writer and also wrote a continuation of the von Studnitz family chronicle.

Gotthilft von Studnitz married Sylvia von Studnitz, 19 years his junior, daughter of Bernhard von Studnitz and Margot Eiffe in 1950.

Works (selection)

  • What i saw Snapshots from the wild life of animals, 1928
  • Retinal acid formation , 1937
  • On the being and becoming of an organ, 1944
  • Introduction to Zoology, 1950 a. 1953
  • Delusion or Reality ?, 1955
  • A hunting lodge in Sweden, 1963
  • The Studnitze in the 20th century. A Continued Family History 1889–1979, 1979
  • My hunting book, 1982

literature

  • Rolf Gattermann, Volker Neumann: History of zoology and the zoological collection at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg from 1769-1990 , Stuttgart / Leipzig 2005, pp. 107–115
  • Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . 2nd Edition. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2007. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
  • Henrik Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism. Mdv, Halle 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X , p. 443

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The story of the von Studnitz family
  2. ^ Entry on Gotthilft von Studnitz in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis (accessed on July 28, 2015)
  3. ^ A b Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Frankfurt am Main 2007, p. 612.
personal data
SURNAME Studnitz, Gotthilft from
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German physiologist and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 3, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiel
DATE OF DEATH March 11, 1994
Place of death Bad Schwartau