Hermann Weber (zoologist)

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Hermann Robert Weber (born November 21, 1899 in Bretten , † November 18, 1956 in Tübingen ) was a German zoologist who was best known as an entomologist .

Scientific career and importance

After a year of military service, Weber suffered permanent damage to his heart and hearing from the following flu pandemic. He studied physics at the TH Stuttgart from 1919 to 1921 and became a member of the Corps Rhenania Stuttgart . In 1922 he received his doctorate in Tübingen with a thesis on the thorax of the hornet . From 1928 he was a private lecturer in Bonn, from 1930 to 1935 associate professor for zoology at the TH Danzig . During this time he joined the Corps Baltica. In 1935/36 he held the substitute chair for forest zoology at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg . From 1936 to 1939 he was a full professor of zoology and comparative anatomy in Münster , where his son Hermann Weber was born. From 1939 he was at the University of Vienna . Weber was DFG department head biology. From 1941 to 1944 he was a professor at the Reich University of Strasbourg . In 1940 he became president of the German Zoological Society . From 1951 to 1956 Weber was a full professor and director of the Zoological Institute of the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen .

Weber made significant contributions to entomology , especially the anatomy of insects. His textbook on entomology (1933) and later his more brief outline of entomology were considered for decades to be exemplary representations of the entire field of entomology , which summarized the morphology and physiology , the development history , systematics and ecology of insects in an equally well-founded manner. The last revised edition of the ground plan appeared in 1954, an unchanged fourth edition in 1966 posthumously; the detailed textbook was also reprinted in 1968.

A significant concept that goes back to Hermann Weber is that of construction morphology . He coined this term because he criticized the classical theory of forms ( morphology ) and pointed out that morphology should not just be a method of comparison, but should go beyond description and comparison. Morphological research must, if it wants to retain its validity as an independent discipline, the dynamics of an organism, i. H. take into account its ontogenetic and evolutionary-historical becoming as well as the functional relationships of individual structures in the overall association of a living being.

The German Society for General and Applied Entomology honored him in 1954 and posthumously in 1963 with the Fabricius Medal .

His estate is in the Tübingen University Library ( call number : Mn 49).

Political activities under National Socialism

Weber belonged to the group of "old National Socialists", which speaks in favor of joining the NSDAP before 1933. In November 1933 he signed the professors' declaration of Adolf Hitler at German universities and colleges . He was a board member of the Reichsbund für Biologie, became co-editor of the magazine Der Biologe, which was taken over by the SS-Ahnenerbe , and wrote in 1942: “The pair of terms› Organism u. Environment ‹[...] means nothing else in the language of biologists than in the language of politics the word of› blood etc. Soil ‹“. On July 27, 1942, together with Otto Mangold , among others , he signed a letter from the board of directors of the German Zoological Society to the Reich Chancellery , in which, as a board member, he took all "measures" against the Jews in view of the "immense severity of the struggle of Judaism against German people "expressly approved.

Publications (selection)

  • The thorax of the hornet. A contribution to the comparative morphology of the insect thorax . Jena 1925
  • Hemipteran biology. A natural history of the Schnabelkerfe . Berlin 1930
  • Entomology textbook . Jena 1933
  • Entrepreneurship plan . 1938, 3rd edition Stuttgart 1954

literature

  • Salvini-Plawen, L., Mizzaro, M .: 150 years of zoology at the University of Vienna. In: Verh. Zool.Bot.Ges. Austrian 136, 1999, pp. 1-76.
  • Peter Wenk: Biographical information on Hermann Weber. In: Entomol. Gener. 31, 2009, pp. 109-112

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Wenk: Biographical information on Hermann Weber. Entomol Gener, 31 (2): 109-112, Stuttgart 2008-09, ISSN  0171-8177
  2. ^ Ernst Klee: German Medicine in the Third Reich. Careers before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-10-039310-4 , p. 142.
  3. ↑ a b c Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 657.
  4. ^ [1] Federal Archives, Central Database of Legacies. Retrieved September 11, 2019.
  5. ↑ Confession, p. 132
  6. ^ Ernst Klee : German Medicine in the Third Reich. Careers before and after 1945. S. Fischer, Frankfurt am Main 2001, ISBN 3-10-039310-4 , p. 142.
  7. ↑ a b Quotation from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich . Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 657.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Weber, Hermann
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Weber, Hermann Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Boards
DATE OF DEATH November 18, 1956
Place of death Tübingen