Oscar Hertwig

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Oscar Hertwig (1906)
Plaque for Oscar Hertwig in Jena, Teichgraben 7
From: Textbook of the evolutionary history of humans and vertebrates. Eighth revised and expanded edition, 1906. Original legend at the bottom of the illustration. 'Triton' is the water salamander. The 'germinal vesicle' is the nucleus of the ovary egg. In today's terminology, the “ lamp brush chromosome ” shown in FIG. 5 is called.

Oscar Wilhelm August Hertwig (born April 21, 1849 in Friedberg (Hesse) , † October 25, 1922 in Berlin ) was a German anatomist , zoologist and developmental biologist . With his textbook General Biology , he opened a line of thought in biology in which the focus was no longer on the variety of forms and processes, but on the common characteristics of all living things.

Life

Oscar Hertwig was born the son of a wealthy businessman. Shortly after the birth, the parents moved to Mühlhausen in Thuringia , where Oscar and his younger brother Richard attended school and grammar school and in 1868 passed the Abitur.

Both brothers went to Jena in 1868 to take up medical studies with Ernst Haeckel . They also went on excursions with him, at least once to Dalmatia . In 1869 there was a semester abroad in Zurich, in 1870 both passed the physics course at Haeckel.

From 1871 both continued their studies with Max Schultze in Bonn, where they qualified as Dr. med. have been awarded a doctorate . Oscar's doctoral thesis from 1872 was entitled "On the development and construction of elastic tissue in network cartilage". The work of both brothers appeared in the same volume of the “Archive for Microscopic Anatomy” published by Schultze. Both then became assistants at the Anatomical Institute in Bonn, where they passed their medical state examination in 1873. Schultze died suddenly in 1874, and in 1875 both brothers again accompanied Haeckel on a long research trip to the Mediterranean. There Oscar Hertwig carried out studies on the fertilization of sea urchin eggs, which became the basis for his habilitation in Jena in 1875.

Thanks to financial support from their parents, the brothers were able to work as freelance researchers for several years. Together they were elected members of the Leopoldina on January 28, 1881 . In the same year, Hertwig was appointed full professor of anatomy at the University of Jena in 1881 . Also in 1881 "The Coelom Theory" was published, a joint work of the brothers.

In 1888 he went to Berlin as the founding director of the Anatomical-Biological Institute, where he stayed until his death. From 1889 he was a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences , 1894/95 and 1908/09 dean of the medical faculty and 1904/05 rector of the university. In 1911 he was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences . He retired on April 1, 1921.

After the First World War he lived in Grunewald at Wangenheimstrasse 28. Oscar Hertwig had only a few students and doctoral students, but gained a great influence on German biology through his textbooks and monographs.

plant

Fertilization of the sea urchin egg

On the voyage of 1875, Hertwig first observed the fertilization of a female egg by a male sperm cell in its individual stages under the microscope on the almost transparent sea urchin egg . In the same year he completed his habilitation in Jena for anatomy and the history of the development of the fertilization of animal eggs.

Later he researched the fertilization process in more detail, fixing his microscopic specimens with osmium tetroxide . He was able to show that the nuclei of both germ cells are retained during fertilization and later fuse to form the syncarion. So there is no new formation of the cell nucleus, as was maintained for a long time by Eduard Strasburger . He thought the chromosomes were the carriers of the genetic make-up.

Hertwig epithelial sheath

The Hertwig epithelial sheath (HES), the area of ​​the fold between the inner and outer enamel epithelium of the tooth enamel organ (Organon enameleum), was named after its discoverer Oscar Hertwig, who discovered it in amphibians in 1874 .

Coelom theory

In the years after 1875, Oscar Hertwig could not do research - often together with his brother - with any office. They worked on the nervous system and the sensory organs of the coelenterates and followed the fate of the individual cotyledons . In 1881 they published their coelom theory , according to which a "coelom larva" develops from the gastrula in many animals by folding the mesoderm out of the endoderm .

Opponent of social Darwinism

Hertwig distanced himself from vitalism as well as from an unreflected physicalism and the influence of atomism on cellular theory.

Nonetheless, his teacher Ernst Haeckel labeled him a vitalist because he had criticized his deterministic selection theory , the basic biogenetic law and monism . Hertwig broke off all relations with Haeckel, while his brother Richard remained on friendly terms with him. In his last works "To defend against ethical, social, political Darwinism" and "The state as an organism", he turned against the increasing social Darwinism .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Günter Tembrock: Oscar Hertwig . In: Hugo Freund and Alexander Berg (ed.): History of microscopy. Life and work of great researchers. tape 1 , biology. Umschau Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1963, p. 207-215 .
  2. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 112.
  3. ↑ Berlin address book from 1920. p. 1042. Max Planck (Wangenheimstrasse 21) and Karl Bonhoeffer (Wangenheimstrasse 14) lived in the same street that year .
  4. ^ X. Luan, Y. Ito, TG Diekwisch: Evolution and development of Hertwig's epithelial root sheath. In: Developmental Dynamics . Volume 235, Number 5, May 2006, pp. 1167-1180, ISSN  1058-8388 . doi: 10.1002 / dvdy.20674 . PMID 16450392 . PMC 2734338 (free full text). (Review).
  5. ↑ O. Hertwig, About the dental system of the amphibians and its importance for the genesis of the skeleton of the oral cavity. Arch. Mikrosk. Anat. DevMech. 11 (suppl): 55-56 (1847)

Works (selection)

  • The problem of fertilization and isotropy of the egg. A theory of inheritance. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1884
  • Textbook of the evolutionary history of humans and vertebrates. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1886 (1st edition) to 1915 (10th edition)
  • Textbook of the evolutionary history of humans and vertebrates. 5th edition, Gustav Fischer, Jena 1896 digitized
  • Time and Issues of Biology. 1894, new edition 2016. ISBN 9783741153792
  • "The doctrine of the organism and its relationship to social science. Speech to celebrate the birthday of His Majesty the Keizer and King in the auditorium of the Royal Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin on January 27, 1899". W. Büxenstein, Berlin 1899
  • Handbook of the comparative and experimental evolutionary history of vertebrates . First volume, first part, first half, Gustav Fischer, Jena 1906 digitized
  • The struggle over core issues of development and heredity , Gustav Fischer, Jena 1909 digitized
  • The becoming of the organisms. To refute Darwin's theory of chance by the law in development Gustav Fischer, Jena 1916 (1st edition), 1918 (2nd edition) digitized , 1922 (3rd edition) digitized .
  • General biology. Second edition of the textbook “The Cell and the Tissues” . Gustav Fischer, Jena 1906.
  • The elements of the evolutionary theory of humans and vertebrates: instructions and revision course for students and doctors . - 5th edition - Jena: Fischer, 1915. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • To defend against ethical, social and political Darwinism. Gustav Fischer, Jena 1918. Online edition from 1921

literature

Web links

Commons : Oscar Hertwig  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Oscar Hertwig  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Hertwig, Oscar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hertwig, Oscar Wilhelm August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German zoologist and anatomist
DATE OF BIRTH April 21, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Friedberg (Hesse)
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1922
Place of death Berlin