Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke

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Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke (born June 23, 1914 in the Saatzig district , Pomerania ; † November 21, 2000 in Gauting near Munich ) was a German zoologist , ornithologist , herpetologist and university lecturer.

Life

Koepcke studied natural sciences at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel . After the second semester, he had to interrupt his studies to do military service. During the Second World War he was employed at the Zoological Institute in Kiel to manage an assistant position. He received his doctorate there in 1947 with the dissertation on the drawing pattern of some Idotea species (woodlice).

In the post-war chaos, he walked across Europe in 1948 to get to Peru. In an adventurous way he got to Brazil without a passport, as a stowaway on a freighter, buried in a load of salt and crossed - again on foot - the huge continent to finally get to Lima in Peru, where he then at the Museo de Historia Natural Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos in Lima. In 1950 he married the ornithologist Maria Koepcke , née von Mikulicz-Radecki, whom he had met while studying in Kiel and who had followed him to Peru. In 1954 the daughter Juliane was born. Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke worked closely together and published together, with Maria Koepcke specializing in ornithology and her husband in the fauna of Peru. Their joint publications included Las Aves de Importancia Económica del Perú , published by the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture between 1963 and 1971. In 1957 Koepcke completed his habilitation in Hamburg with the work Synecological Studies on the west side of the Peruvian Andes .

Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke maintained a small villa called "Humboldthaus" in Miraflores, a district of Lima, which served as a base and meeting point for many scientists who studied the fauna and flora of South America. Over 150 research projects could be supported. Among other things, research into the herpetofauna of Peru was strongly supported.

In 1968 Maria and Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke founded the research station “ Panguana ” on the Río Llullapichis , named after the cockroach ( Crypturellus undulatus ) that was common there at the time . Between 1959 and 1962 Koepcke and Erich Titschack published the articles on the neotropical fauna in Jena . His wife died on December 24, 1971 in the crash of LANSA flight 508 , the daughter Juliane was the only survivor of the crash with 91 fatalities. His main work is the two-volume work Die Lebensformen. Foundations of a universally valid biological theory that appeared in 1973 and 1974. In 1974 Koepcke returned to Germany. He worked at the Zoological Museum of the University of Hamburg and taught zoology. He was also the curator of the herpetological collection from 1974 to 1981. Koepcke died in 2000. His daughter took over the management of the “Panguana” research station.

Fonts

Monographs

  • The life forms. Basics of a universally valid biological theory , Volume 1 Goecke and Evers, Krefeld 1973, ISBN 3-87263-016-4
  • The life forms. Basics of a universally valid biological theory. Volume 2, Goecke and Evers, Krefeld 1974, ISBN 3-87263-020-2
  • About the possible forms of life on other planets. Goecke and Evers, Krefeld 1975, ISBN 3-87263-022-9

Editing with Erich Titschack: Contributions to the neotropical fauna . VEB G. Fischer, Jena 1956–1962

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Andreas Schlueter: Hans-Wilhelm Koepcke (1914 - 2000) and its importance for the herpetological research of Peru by German-speaking scientists . In: Axel Kwet & Manfred Nieksch (eds.): Mertensiella . tape 23 . Basilisken-Presse, Rangsdorf 2016, ISBN 978-3-941365-53-7 , p. 261-273 .
  2. ↑ Werner Herzog: Julian's Fall into the Jungle (Film 2000), from min. 27:10
  3. ↑ a b Juliane Koepcke: When I fell from the sky - How the jungle gave me back my life . Piper Verlag, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-89029-389-9 .
  4. ↑ a b Orbituaries: Maria Emilie Anna von Mikulicz-Radecki Koepcke (PDF; 302 kB) on the website of the University Library of the University of New Mexico (English).
  5. ↑ a b Panguana on the website of the Munich State Zoological Collection
  6. ↑ Flight accident data and report of LANSA flight 508 in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
  7. ↑ Zoological Museum Hamburg ( Memento of the original from December 5, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.uni-hamburg.de
personal data
SURNAME Koepcke, Hans-Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German ornithologist and herpetologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 23, 1914
PLACE OF BIRTH Saatzig district , Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH November 21, 2000
Place of death Hamburg