Ludwig Graff de Pancsova

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Ludwig Graff de Pancsova

Ludwig Bartholomäus Graff de Pancsova (born January 2, 1851 in Pantschowa , Austrian Empire , † February 6, 1924 in Graz ) was a Hungarian-Austrian zoologist . He was rector at the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz and an expert in the study of the vortex worms .

Life

Ludwig von Graff was born on January 2, 1851 in Pantschowa ( Hungarian Pancsova ) near Belgrade as the eldest son of the pharmacist, banker, landowner and mayor Wilhelm Hermann Graff de Pancsova and Elisabeth Zoldy de Zold. From 1868 he studied medicine at the University of Vienna , where he passed the Tirocinal exam in 1871 so that he could later take over his father's pharmacy if necessary.

From 1871 to 1873 Graff studied zoology in Graz from 1871 to 1873 with Oskar Schmidt . In the summer of 1872, Professor Schmidt was appointed to Strasbourg , and Graff followed him in 1873 as an assistant at the Zoological Institute. On the basis of a treatise on turbellariums , entitled “To the finer anatomy of the Rhabdocoelen”, Graff acquired a doctorate in philosophy in Strasbourg in 1873. He became an assistant to the physician and zoologist Carl von Siebold in Munich. Here Graff developed into an expert in the field of turbellariums (strudelworms, today comprising over 16,000 known species). Here he completed his habilitation in 1874 with the thesis "To the knowledge of the turbellariums".

In 1876 Graff was appointed professor at the Königlich Bayerische Forstlehranstalt Aschaffenburg , where he taught forest zoology until 1884. In 1884 Graff was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1884 Graff accepted an appointment at the Karl-Franzens-University in Graz as full professor for zoology, where he held a chair until 1920. It was also he who expanded the Institute of Zoology and its library. In order to expand his knowledge of the thousands of unknown types of turbellaria, he undertook numerous study trips during his time in Graz: in 1893/94 to Ceylon and Java . This was followed by Norway (Northern Arctic Ocean) in 1902 and North America in 1907 . In 1888/89 Graff was dean of the Philosophical Faculty in Graz and in 1896/97 rector of the university.

Graff was a member of numerous learned societies. He was a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, initiated the establishment of the German Zoological Society together with colleagues in 1890 and founded the Society for Morphology and Physiology with Viktor von Ebner-Rofenstein and others in 1907 . 1908/1909 he was President of the German Zoological Society . The 8th International Zoological Congress in Graz in 1910 elected him honorary president. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from St Andrews University in Scotland and Cambridge University in England .

On August 5, 1874 Graff married the industrialist daughter Eugénie Pauline Karoline Emilie (Jenny) Schorisch in Lundenburg. The couple had two daughters and two sons, including the later gynecologist and radiologist Erwin von Graff. Ludwig von Graff died at the age of 73 on February 6, 1924 after a long illness of mental derangement in Graz.

Works

Graff recorded the results of his research trips in his works, e. B. in the two-volume “Monograph of the Turbellariums” (Vienna 1882, 1889). In addition to the numerous articles in specialist journals, the following works followed: “The Turbellarians as Parasites and Hosts” (Graz 1903) and “The parasitism in the animal kingdom and its significance for speciation” (Graz 1907). Between 1859 and 1862 the Heidelberg professor Heinrich Georg Bronn published three volumes of the "Classes and Orders of the Animal Kingdom". The fourth volume ("Turbellarians") was written and edited by Graff in 1904–1908 and 1912–1917. This work has remained a reference work that has continued to the present day.

literature

  • Graff de Pancsova. In: Genealogical pocket book of the noble houses of Austria. Vienna 1905.
  • Helmut Dolezal:  Graff de Pancsova, Ludwig Bartholomäus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 733 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Alois Kernbauer: Ludwig Graff von Pancsova. The zoologist from Graz in the heyday of Darwinism, the world's leading pioneer in worm research, bon vivant and cosmopolitan. In: Historical yearbook of the city of Graz. Vol. 31 (2001) pp. 273-286.
personal data
SURNAME Graff de Pancsova, Ludwig
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Graff de Pancsova, Ludwig Bartholomäus (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Hungarian-Austrian zoologist and anthropologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 2, 1851
PLACE OF BIRTH Pancsova
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 1924
Place of death Graz