Hermann Wurmbach

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Hermann Wurmbach (born March 28, 1903 in Müsen , Siegen-Wittgenstein district ; † September 30, 1976 in Bonn ) was a German zoologist and professor of zoology at the University of Bonn .

Life

Childhood and youth

Hermann Wurmbach was born as the son of Hermann August Wurmbach (born September 1, 1872 in Müsen ; † December 18, 1912 in Müsen), farmer and leather manufacturer in Winterbach, and his wife Lucie Wurmbach, née. Daub (born November 25, 1877 in Eiserfeld , † August 18, 1968 in Müsen). Early on he became interested in inanimate and animate nature, because the rural surroundings of the place of birth offered ideal opportunities for development. Fish , amphibians and reptiles , which later became the most important objects of his scientific research, found his special affection early on.

Studies, marriage and wartime

After graduating from high school in 1922, Wurmbach began studying natural sciences at the Philipps University of Marburg . In the summer semesters 1925 and 1926 he worked as an assistant at the Zoological Institute in Marburg, in autumn 1926 he moved to Bonn in the same position at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität , where, after receiving his doctorate in 1927 with Eugen Korschelt in zoology with the dissertation topic Über the healing of broken bones in amphibians , as a research assistant found a job. Here he met his student Maria Küchenhoff (born January 27, 1905 in Neheim ; † July 24, 1989 in Bonn), whom he married in October 1930.

From this marriage the four daughters Leonie (born August 4, 1931 in Bonn; † November 8, 2009 in Leverkusen-Opladen ), Mechthild, Eva-Maria (born August 4, 1933 in Bonn) and Irmgard, of which Eva-Maria Wurmbach, who married the sculptor Joseph Beuys . The mineral Abswurmbachit was named after the daughter and later mineralogist Irmgard Abs-Wurmbach, who was born in 1938 and married the ornithologist Michael Abs . In 1931 he completed his habilitation in "Zoology and Comparative Anatomy" with the text The growth of the Selachierwirbels and its tissues . In 1937 he got the title of professor, in 1938 he became senior assistant at the Zoological Institute in Bonn and, from 1936, he held a teaching position for zoology at the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Bonn.

As a country gunner during the Second World War he made in 1941 his military service and in 1943 director of a malaria laboratory . Released from university service after a brief prisoner-of-war period, he was only able to resume teaching and research in 1948.

Textbook of Zoology

In 1955 he was appointed to the Scientific Council. In 1965, Wurmbach, who had been head of the development history department for many years, was appointed director of the Institute for Agricultural Zoology and Apiculture . Wurmbach has made a name for himself, among other things, with his well-known two-volume textbook on zoology , which was first published in 1957 and 1962. Wurmbach's term of office ended in 1971 with his retirement. Hermann Wurmbach died in the middle of the revision of the second volume of his textbook.

Wurmbach, who was not a pure theorist, but an inductive researcher with a relation to the objective, left a large number of drawings, some of which served as templates for the textbook. For the students of biology, the "Wurmbach" , in which a clear presentation of the systematics of the animals is in harmony with a detailed description of the species , became a term for a comprehensive and informative textbook in zoology.

Teaching

Academic teaching was an essential part of his life. When he came to Bonn in 1926 , the number of biology students had risen like an avalanche and, at the same time, due to the departure of a zoologist, the range of courses was limited. Here Wurmbach was able to develop quickly with his great talent for teaching and his thorough knowledge. His clear and vivid presentations in the lectures made him in connection with his outspoken talent for drawing at an outstanding academic teacher, who was not least appreciated by the students for his unconventional, human kind. The number of 49 dissertations that were written under his guidance proves the productivity in academic teaching.

Act

In addition to the textbook , in which the strength of many years of life flowed, Wurmbach left behind a wide range of scientific publications as the fruit of the experimental work of almost 50 years as well as a number of aquaristic and fishing publications , the first of which appeared in 1923. In total, he published just over 65 publications.

In the research, problems of developmental physiology , such as regeneration , the body's defense reaction against infections , the mechanics of growth - especially of the connective and supporting tissue - were in the foreground. Wurmbach paid particular attention to the hormonal effects during development. The long series of studies on the control of growth and shape formation through active ingredients , in which numerous students and employees were involved, testify to the intensity of this research work. Important experimental animals were amphibians and especially coral fish , so that at least here there is still a connection to earlier interests. In most cases, the statements were based on histological examinations; Various methodological improvements in the histological field resulted from the experience gained.

The ecological work, today one would say: work on environmental problems, included above all the studies on antithyroid substances in wastewater (1962) and studies on the effects of polyphosphate on organisms (1966). A special area of ​​interest was parasitology , where studies on sporozoa were carried out.

Publications (selection)

  • 1923: Naturally arranged aquariums. Leaves for aquarium and terrarium science , No. 34, pp. 35–37
  • 1925: About some aquatic plants and breeding aquariums. Leaves for aquarium and terrarium science , No. 36, pp. 130–133
  • 1928: Histological studies on the healing of fractures in mammals. Journal of Scientific Zoology , No. 132, pp. 200-256
  • 1933: Investigations on shark vertebrae on the fiber course as a consequence of growth . Zoological Yearbooks, Department of Anatomy and Ontogeny of Animals, No. 57, pp. 351–364.
  • 1940: Biological foundations for population policy , Bonn: Scheur 1940 (war lectures of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelm-Universität Bonn a. Rh .; 26).
  • 1957: Textbook of Zoology. Volume 1: General zoology and ecology , G. Fischer , Stuttgart
  • 1962: Textbook of Zoology. Volume 2: Special Zoology , G. Fischer, Stuttgart
  • 1967: Effective forces in growth, shaping and tissue differentiation . Acta Anatomica , No. 66, pp. 520-602
  • 1970: Textbook of Zoology. Volume 1: General zoology and ecology , 2nd completely revised edition, G. Fischer, Stuttgart
  • 1971: Textbook of Zoology. Volume 2: Special Zoology , 2nd revised edition, G. Fischer, Stuttgart; ISBN 3-437-20066-6

Publications (posthumous)

  • 1980: Textbook of Zoology. Volume 1: General Zoology , 3rd completely revised edition edited by Rolf Siewing, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart / New York; ISBN 3-437-20223-5
  • 1985: Textbook of Zoology. Volume 1: Systematics , 3rd completely revised edition edited by Rolf Siewing, Gustav Fischer Verlag, Stuttgart / New York; ISBN 3-437-20299-5
  • 1989: Basics of a special zoology ; edited from the estate by Michael Abs and Marianne Dörrscheidt-Käfer, Gustav Fischer, Stuttgart / New York; ISBN 3-437-30585-9

literature

  • Hartmut Bick: Hermann Wurmbach , in: [[Natural History Association of the Rhineland and Westphalia | Decheniana , negotiations of the Natural History Association of the Rhineland and Westphalia]] , Volume 130 (April 1977), p. 23 f., No ISBN

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hermann Wurmbach: Foreword to the second edition . In: Textbook of Zoology. Volume 1: General Zoology and Ecology , 2nd completely revised edition, G. Fischer, Stuttgart 1970, p. VIII
  2. ↑ Vincent Ziswiler in: Quarterly journal of the Natural Research Society in Zurich , 1989/3
  3. ↑ C. Schilling in: Anatomischer Anzeiger , Volume 170, Issue 2/90
personal data
SURNAME Wurmbach, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Müsen , Siegen-Wittgenstein district
DATE OF DEATH September 30, 1976
Place of death Bonn