Hermann Vitzthum von Eckstädt
Hermann Ludwig Wilhelm Vitzthum von Eckstädt (born January 26, 1876 in Berlin , † May 19, 1942 in Munich ) was a German lawyer and arachnologist . He was a leading mite expert.
Life
He came from the noble family Vitzthum von Eckstädt (and therefore had the title of count) and was the son of the royal Prussian chamberlain Otto Rudolf Vitztum von Eckstädt (1831-1906). His mother Helene came from the rich Hamburg merchant family Jenisch . After graduating from high school at the Katharineum in Lübeck in 1896 (a schoolmate was Thomas Mann ) he studied law in Lausanne , Munich and Berlin. In 1907 he passed the great state examination in law. At the same time he attended lectures on zoology, botany, geology and paleontology and made extensive trips in Europe. After graduating, he went on a research trip to Egypt and Sudan (with the Russian geographer Alfred Hans ). In 1908 he settled in Weimar as Chamberlain of the Grand Duke and in the same year married Hedwig Eleonore Countess von Bernstorff (1882–1940), with whom he had two daughters and a son. By Ernst Haeckel he was encouraged to zoological studies, but also devoted himself to botany and bred orchids and roses. Excluded from military service due to a leg handicap, he served in the nursing of the Johanniter in the First World War . He also had the opportunity to do zoological studies in the Balkans . After losing his fortune in the period of inflation after the war, he moved to Mittenwald in 1919 and to Munich in 1922, where he worked for an insurance company. On February 10, 1926, he married Hilde Julie Goldschmidt from Vienna.
He dedicated himself to mites after the First World War. In 1925 he received his doctorate in zoology in Jena (The underground acarofauna) after he had already published 32 articles on mites. From 1926 he worked for the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture as a scientific assistant in mite research, especially parasitic mites in animals and bees, which ended for financial reasons. From 1930 he was only at the Institute for Apiculture in Berlin and from 1932 at the Zoological Institute of the Agricultural University in Berlin. In 1934 he received a family grant from the Vitzthums, which enabled him to concentrate on mite research in Munich. He completed the first part of his article on mites in Bronn's classes and orders of the animal kingdom (published 1943). At the end of 1941 he fell ill with pneumonia and pleurisy and died soon after of the consequences.
With Karl Viets he also wrote the section mites in Brohmer's Die Tierwelt Mitteleuropas (1929).
He was co-editor of the magazine for Parasitenkunde and also wrote popular science articles for microscopes. He was a member of the Microbiological Association in Munich.
Part of his mite collection is in the Munich State Zoological Collection.
On May 25, 1942, his Jewish wife Hilde Julie committed suicide in order to avoid the imminent deportation because she was no longer protected in a so-called “ privileged mixed marriage ”.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Hermann Genzken: The Abitur graduates of the Katharineum in Lübeck (grammar school and secondary school) from Easter 1807 to 1907. Borchers, Lübeck 1907 ( digitized version ), no. 1035
- ↑ mites collection of Vitzthum in Munich
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Vitzthum von Eckstädt, Hermann |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Vitzthum von Eckstädt, Hermann Ludwig Wilhelm (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German lawyer and arachnologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 26, 1876 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Berlin |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 19, 1942 |
| Place of death | Munich |