Oskar Kuhn

Oskar Kuhn (* 7. March 1908 in Munich , † 1. May 1990 in Munich) was a German vertebrate - paleontologist .

Life

Kuhn went to school in Dinkelsbühl and Bamberg and studied natural sciences and especially geology and paleontology at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich , where he received his doctorate in 1932. There he worked on the Fossilium Catalogus (department of reptiles and amphibians) and went to the University of Halle in 1938 , where he worked on the fossils of the Geiseltal . Between 1933 and 1936 he was a member of the SA . In 1939 he received his doctorate in Halle on the fauna of the Keuper von Halberstadt . In 1940 he became a private lecturer, but was dismissed with his boss and former mentor Johannes Weigelt in 1941 after a heated argument (partly for political reasons) (revocation of teaching qualification) and was a soldier for a short time until he was dismissed in February 1942 because of a lung disease. After the war in 1947 he became an associate professor at the Philosophical-Theological University of Bamberg , but left there soon after. Later he was in Munich.

Oskar Kuhn wrote numerous books on paleontology. He worked on the section reptiles and amphibians in the Fossilium Catalogus (25 Partes from 1933 to 1965).

In 1955, Kuhn published the oldest leaf in the world ( Sassendorfites benkerti ) discovered in the Sassendorf quarries west of Bamberg (whose rocks document the turn of the Triassic to the Jura and were formed on a freshwater lake ). In 1958 he published dinosaur tracks from the same layers ( attributed to Coelurosaurichnus sassendorfensis ). Dinosaur finds from this period are rare.

In 1938 he recovered the remains of an originally complete skeleton of a predatory dinosaur of the genus Liliensternus of the Triassic near Halberstadt (for unknown reasons, the recovery was previously neglected).

Kuhn was a staunch Catholic and supporter of alternative theories of evolution ( typostrophic theory ), which were previously widespread in German paleontology . So he explained z. B. 1965: "Whether we are allowed to include all animals and plants in a single evolutionary process, we cannot decide, especially because the first two thirds of evolution are not documented by paleontological documents". And further: "The mere fact that almost all Precambrian documents are missing is reason enough to be careful about the question of whether we are dealing with a single, all-encompassing evolutionary process."

Fonts

• Geology and mineral resources of the Bavarian Ostmark , Borntraeger, Stuttgart 1938
• Vertebrate Phylogeny , 1938
• Invertebrate Tribal History , 1939
• Pictures of life from the prehistoric animal world in Germany , publications by the Association for the Promotion of the Central German Museum of Earth History in Halle, Vowickel 1940
• Paleozoology in tables , G. Fischer, Jena 1940
• Germany's prehistoric fauna , Borntraeger, Stuttgart 1941
• Geology of Bavaria , 86 p., Verlag Bamberger Reiter GmbH, Bamberg 1949
• Textbook of paleozoology , Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1949
• The geology of the Bamberg area , CC Buchner, Bamberg 1950
• The theory of descent. Basics of holistic biology , Meisenbach, Bamberg 1951 (and Kösel Verlag, Munich 1951)
• Geology of Bavaria , 2nd edition, 125 pages, Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag, Munich 1954
• The amphibians and reptiles of the past , Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1958
• The animal world of the Bundenbacher Schiefer , Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1961
• with Hartmut Haubold Life pictures and evolution of fossil dinosaurs, amphibians and reptiles , Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1961 (2nd edition 1981)
• Geology of Bavaria , 3rd edition, Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag, Munich 1964
• The animal world of the Mansfeld copper slate , Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1964
• The amphibians. System and tribal history , Oeben, Krailing 1965
• The reptiles. System and tribal history , Oeben, Krailing 1966
• The ancient invertebrates. System and Evolution , Oeben, Krailing 1966
• Amphibians and reptiles: catalog of the subfamilies and higher taxa with evidence of the first appearance , G. Fischer, Jena 1967
• The prehistoric fish species and fish , Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1967
• The German Saurians , Oeben, Krailing 1968 ( supplement I , 1974)
• The mammal-like reptiles (therapsids) Neue Brehm Bücherei, Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1970
• The refutation of materialism , Gebrüder Geiselberger, Altötting 1970
• The dinosaurs of the German Triassic , Gebrüder Geiselberger, Altötting 1971
• The dinosaurs of the German Jura , Gebrüder Geiselberger, Altötting 1971
• The prehistoric birds Neue Brehm Bücherei, Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1971
• The animal world of Solnhofen slate , 5th edition, Neue Brehm Bücherei, Ziemsen, Wittenberg 1977
• Editor and founder Handbuch der Paläoherpetologie / Handbook of Paleoherpetology , G. Fischer, Jena from 1978 (continued by Hans-Dieter Sues , Peter Wellnhofer and others)

literature

• Henrik Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism. Mdv, Halle 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X , pp. 420f.

Web links

• Entry on Oskar Kuhn in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis

Remarks

1. ↑ In the clay pit, which became known through Otto Jaekel's excavations of plateosaurs , which were found there from 1909. Many of the specimens came to the Natural History Museum in Berlin via Jaekel. The last excavations took place in 1938.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Norbert Hauschke, Oskar Kuhn, in: Friedemann Stengel (Ed.), Excluded. In memory of the professors at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg who were dismissed from 1933–1945, Universitätsverlag Halle-Wittenberg 2013, p. 261
2. ↑ He had brought him to Halle after Kuhn had been refused his habilitation in Munich. Hermann-Josef Rupieper, contributions to the history of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg 1502–2002, Halle, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2002, section The Kuhn case . According to Henrik Eberle, The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism 1933–1945, Halle, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, 2002, there was a dispute with Weigelt about Kuhn's opposition to the theory of evolution, which weigelt assumed was Catholic-motivated.
3. ↑ He was a collaborator in Grzimeks Tierleben (Band Kriechtiere 1971) and is listed there with his place of origin Munich and as a professor, formerly Halle / Saale
4. ^ Probst, Windolf Dinosaurier in Deutschland , Bertelsmann 1993, p. 133
5. ^ New Yearbook for Geology and Paleontology, 1958, p. 437
6. ↑ Oskar Kuhn, "The theory of descent - facts and interpretations", Krailling b. Munich 1965, pp. 7 and 23