Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller

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Fritz Mueller

Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller (born March 31, 1821 or 1822 in Windischholzhausen ; † May 21, 1897 in Blumenau , Brazil ), also called Fritz Müller , was a German biologist who emigrated to Brazil, where he worked as a farmer, teacher and naturalist and made significant contributions to the natural history of the rainforest. He was one of the earliest adherents of Darwinism .

The "Müller'sche mimicry " is named after him: Different species, often poisonous or inedible insects, have a similar appearance (warning costume). The predators learn faster to avoid animals with this appearance.

Life

Johann Friedrich Theodor Müller was born on March 31, 1821 or 1822 in Windischholzhausen, today a district of Erfurt, as the son of pastor Johannes Friedrich Müller and the daughter of the pharmacist Johann Bartholomäus Trommsdorff , Caroline Trommsdorff. After attending grammar school in Erfurt from 1835 to 1840, the beginning of an apprenticeship as a pharmacist, which he broke off shortly afterwards, he studied mathematics and natural sciences in Berlin and passed the senior teacher examination in 1845. For reasons of conscience he gave up his position as a teacher as an official of a Christian state because he was convinced that natural laws and “Christian belief in miracles” did not go together and he rejected all hypocrisy. After that, Müller started studying medicine. As an atheist, he refused to take the oath with the religious formula “so help me God” and therefore had to finish his studies without a degree. He was disappointed with the outcome of the March Revolution in 1848. Because of poor career prospects in Germany, he emigrated in 1852, newly married, with his wife (with whom he had been living for a while; the prospects as an emigrant seemed more favorable to him as a married man, so that he was married against his convictions - one of the few compromises in his life), his first baby daughter (five more daughters to follow) and his brother August after by Hermann Blumenau newly founded colony of Blumenau in the southeast of Brazil from. In 1852 he took a job as a science teacher in Desterro (today's Florianópolis ) on the Atlantic coast. After the Jesuits took over the school, he lost his job in 1864.

Fritz Müller's tombstone in the Protestant cemetery in Blumenau

He returned from Desterro to Blumenau and from 1865 was employed as a "naturalist in the province of Santa Catarina ". Strokes of fate forced him to start over: his favorite daughter Rosa took her own life in Berlin, his house was flooded by a flood and he lost his furnishings. Out of modesty, he declined help, which Darwin had offered him so that he could get books and microscope again.

From 1874 to 1891 he worked as a traveling naturalist for the Brazilian National Museum. When he was supposed to move to Rio de Janeiro in 1891, he refused and was then deposed. On May 21, 1897, he died impoverished in Blumenau, Brazil.

job

"A detailed examination of a single animal is more enjoyable than an entire zoological museum."

- Fritz Mueller

Müller was an excellent observer ( Charles Darwin called him the 'Prince of Observers') and had the talent for drawing to put his observations on paper.

His research areas were crabs, jellyfish, flatworms and annelids, flower pollination, convertible florets, orchids, stingless bees, termites and bromeliads . He discovered the symbiosis between Cecropia trees (ant trees) and ants: the animals defend the plant against enemies and epiphytes or climbing plants. For this purpose, the plant offers them a dwelling and special fodder bodies, the " Müllerian bodies " named after Fritz Müller . He was able to prove that the stomachs of leaf cutter ants do not contain any plant material and that the animals feed on the mushrooms they "cultivate", which break down the plant substances that ants cannot use. This was by Thomas Belt previously been indeed guessed little; the exact proof goes back to Müller.

In 1864 he wrote his only book "For Darwin". In it he provided a lot of data and justified by observations on crabs that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection was correct. His observations on crabs inspired Ernst Haeckel to develop his basic biogenetic law . Darwin's work " The Origin of Species " (Eng. "About the origin of species") had been published five years earlier. Müller was one of the first German scientists to grapple with the ideas of Charles Darwin, which he was one of the few to understand immediately and ultimately. As a result, he became an ardent advocate and defender of Darwin's theory of evolution. In the concluding remark (p. 91) to his book, Müller writes: “One thing, I hope, I shall have succeeded in convincing impartial readers that DARWIN'S doctrine really is, as for so many other facts inexplicable without it, so also for the The history of the development of Kruster provides the key to understanding. "

He shared many of his observations with Darwin, who then either forwarded them to a publication or referred to them in his own work, quoting Müller's name. Many examples of heterostyly (flowers of the same species with different stylus or stamina lengths) go back to him. Darwin dedicated his own book to this phenomenon ("The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species"; 1877).

Although he lived “at the end of the world”, he corresponded with Charles Darwin , Hermann Müller (his brother, who was a biologist in Lippstadt), Alexander Agassiz , Ernst Krause (alias Carus Sterne) and Ernst Haeckel . In addition to German, he also spoke Swedish, English, Portuguese and French and was able to read ten other languages.

In total, he published around 250 works in German, English and Portuguese. Many of his observations can be found in his extensive correspondence, excerpts of which were published by his nephew Alfred Möller . Unfortunately only a few of his letters have survived in the original.

In 1868 he was awarded the " Doctor Honoris Causa " by the University of Bonn on the same day as Charles Darwin . In 1874 the University of Tübingen also awarded him this title. Fritz Müller was a corresponding member of the “Sociedad Zoologica Argentina” and the “Sociedad Nacional de Ciência de Buenos Aires”. In 1884 he became an honorary member of the " Entomological Society " in London. In the same year 1884 he was also elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Works

  • Twelve handwritten poems in 1859; posthumously translated into Portuguese and published in two languages ​​in História Natural de Sonhos / Natural History of Dreams (Poemas de Fritz Müller) by LC Puff and D. Radünz, Blumenau-SC, Brazil; 2004; ISBN 85-87648-56-X
  • For Darwin , Engelmann: Leipzig 1864 ( full text in the Google book search); translated into English in 1869 under the title "Facts and Arguments for Darwin"
  • The stink bulbs of female passion fruit butterflies. , 1878
  • About Rumors of Butterflies , 1878
  • On the advantages of mimicry in butterflies. , 1878
  • Remarkable cases of acquired resemblance in butterflies. Separate print from "Kosmos", 5th year, 1881

literature

See also

Web links

Commons : Fritz Müller  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Call for support . In: Naturwissenschaftliche Wochenschrift , Volume 6, 1891, No. 43, p. 440. Retrieved on November 1, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Müller, Johann Friedrich Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Müller, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biologist
DATE OF BIRTH March 31, 1821 or 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Windischholzhausen
DATE OF DEATH May 21, 1897
Place of death Blumenau , Brazil