Heinrich Balss

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Heinrich Balss (born June 3, 1886 in Mainz ; died September 17, 1957 in Munich ) was a German crustaceologist .

Life

Heinrich Balss attended primary school in Mainz and graduated from a humanistic grammar school in 1904. He then began studying mathematics at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg, which he broke off after one semester. In 1905 he moved to Munich to study zoology. Balss received his doctorate in 1908 with the dissertation "On the development of the sexual ducts in cestodes together with remarks on the ectoderm question".

Already during his studies he was in close contact with Franz Theodor Doflein , who after Balss employed him as a scientific assistant at the Zoological State Collection in Munich . Balss then dealt with Doflein's collection of marine life, from which he published, among other things, reports on sea ​​feathers and mantis shrimp . He also processed the zoological yield of the Pola expedition to the Red Sea and that of the Valdivia expedition . In 1912 Balss conducted research in Naples at the Naples Zoological Station on the sense of taste and smell in prawns. Although Balss dealt with marine life, this was his last stay at the sea.

Balss was appointed Royal Custodian on August 1, 1915 and only a few months later he had to do military service. After the First World War, he married in 1920 and dealt with decapods from West Africa, Australia and also with Doflein's collection and those of the Valdivia and Pola expeditions. From 1924, Balss also dealt with the history of zoology and natural science and published, among other things, the titles "Preformation and Epigenesis in Greek Philosophy" and "Studies on Aristotle as a comparative anatomist".

In 1925 Balss was appointed professor, in 1927 and 1928 he was able to complete his work on the Pola and Valvidia expeditions. In 1928 Balss became chief curator of the Zoological State Collections and published his work " Albertus Magnus as a zoologist", in which he called him the first German natural scientist. In addition to other works on decapods (including those of the Woltereck Expedition or Herm'schen Reisen), Balss also published on historical topics, such as "The doctrine of procreation and embryology in antiquity".

In 1937, Balss was given early retirement on the basis of the Nuremberg Laws . As a result, he was only able to continue his research at the Zoological State Collection as a guest. It was not until February 16, 1946 that he was reinstated. In 1951 Balss retired. He died two days after his wife on September 17, 1957 at the age of 71.

Some taxa were named after Heinrich Balss ; u. a. the partner shrimp genus Balssia Kemp, 1922 and the central shrimp Galathea balssi Miyake, S. & Baba, K., 1964.

Balss is the first to describe some taxa. For example, he described the hermit crab Sympagurus dofleini in 1910 and the crab Xanthias gilbertensis in 1938.

Works (selection)

  • Stomatopods of the Red Sea. - Exp. SM ship “Pola” in the Red Sea, north and south half of 1895 / 96-1897 / 98. - Zool. Result. XXVIII. -Denkschr. K. Akad. Wiss. Vienna, math.-naturw. Cl. 85: 1-4. 1910.
  • with F. Doflein: The Galatheids of the German Deep Sea Expedition. - Scientific Result. German deep-sea exp. "Valdivia" 1898-99 20 (3): 129-184. 1913. ( digitized online )
  • About chemoreception in shrimp. - Biol. Centralbl. 33 (8), pp. 508-515. 1913.
  • Studies on Fossil Decapods. - Palaeont. Zs. Berlin 5 (2), pp. 123-147. 1922.
  • About adaptations and symbiosis of the pagurids. A comprehensive overview. - Zs. Morph. Ökol. Berlin 1 (4): pp. 752-792. 1924.
  • History of the Zoological Collections. - In: The scientific institutions of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich. - Chronicle of the Centennial, iAd Academic Senate. Ed. KA von Müller, Munich: 300-315. 1926.
  • Decapoda. - In: Grimpe & Wagler: Tierwelt d. North and east Sea. Lief. 6, Part X (2): pp. 9-112. 1927.
  • Albertus Magnus as a zoologist. - Munich. Contribution z. Business u. Literature d. Natural science u. Medicine 1928 (11/12), pp. 1-155. 1928.
  • Contributions to the knowledge of the Potamonidae (freshwater crabs) of the Congo area. - Rev. Zool. Bot. Afr. Tervueren 28 (2), pp. 165-204. 1936.
  • Stomatopoda. - In: Bronn, HG: Klassen und Ordnungs des Tierreichs 5, Dept. 1, Book 6, Part 2, pp. 1–173. 1938.
  • Aristotle Biological Writings. - Verlag Ernst Heimeran, Munich: p. 301. 1943.
  • Albertus Magnus as a biologist. Work and origin. - Great natural scientist 1, scient. Verlagsges., Stuttgart: p. 306. 1947.
  • Decapoda. 1st - 15th Lief. - In: Bronn's classes and orders of the animal kingdom. 5, I. Abt., 7th book, pp. 1-2169. 1940-1961.
  • The millipedes, insects and spiders at Albertus Magnus. In: Sudhoffs Archiv 38, 1954, pp. 303–322.

literature

  • Ludwig Tiefenbacher: Heinrich Balss' life and work . In: Spixiana . tape 11 , no. 2 , 1989, pp. 187-192 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sympagurus dofleini (Balss, 1912). Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), accessed May 4, 2014 .
  2. ^ Xanthias gilbertensis Balss, 1938. Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), accessed May 4, 2014 .
personal data
SURNAME Balss, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German crustaceologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH 17th September 1957
Place of death Munich