Otto Köstlin

Otto Köstlin (born November 19, 1818 in Stuttgart ; † September 1, 1884 ibid) was a German physician and high school professor of natural sciences .

Live and act

Otto Köstlin, son of the chief medical officer Karl Heinrich Gotthilf von Köstlin and Mathilde, born. Otto (1794–1835), followed his father's example early on and decided to pursue a medical career. Through the care of poetry in the Köstlin house and numerous related contacts, he was also fond of literature and the fine arts.

Köstlin was initially taught by the botanist Georg Friedrich Jäger at the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium Stuttgart . He then continued his studies at the University of Tübingen , where he was taught by the natural scientists Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer and Wilhelm Ludwig Rapp , Christian Gottlob Gmelin , Friedrich August von Quenstedt and Hugo von Mohl not only in the field of medicine, but also botany , Train zoology and chemistry.

Between the first and second state medical exams , Köstlin undertook a major scientific study trip to Paris, London, Dublin, Vienna and Berlin to meet well-known scholars of his time such as the Parisian zoologists Henri Marie Ducrotay de Blainville and Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and the Londoner Paleontologist Richard Owen and the geologist Leopold von Buch continued to train in many fields of the natural sciences.

After completing his state exams, Köstlin opened a practice in Stuttgart, which he kept into old age. In addition, he took over a professorship for natural sciences at the Stuttgart grammar school and taught the subjects chemistry , mineralogy , botany and zoology as well as anatomy and osteology in particular . He fulfilled this task for a full 35 years. In addition, Köstlin was a long-time editor at the medical correspondence sheet of the Württemberg Medical Association .

Köstlin wrote several scientific publications in which he represented a theological conception of nature. So he stuck to the standpoint of the immutability of the species according to Georges Cuvier and therefore rejected the theory of Charles Darwin . Kostlin found it difficult to recognize innovations in the field of medicine.

Nevertheless, Köstlin was an extremely respected doctor and a popular doctor for the poor who made great contributions to the organization of the medical profession. This is honored in a special way with a necrology in the 42nd year of the annual books of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg from 1886. In 1876 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

Fonts (selection)

• The construction of the bony head in the four classes of vertebrates , Stuttgart 1844
• Microscopic research in the field of human physiology , Stuttgart 1840
• God in nature. The phenomena and laws of nature as described in the Bridgewater books as works of God , 2 volumes, Stuttgart 1851
• On the immutability of organic species , Stuttgart 1860
• About the reliability of the concept of purpose in the natural sciences , Stuttgart 1854
• About the limits of natural science , Tübingen 1874.
• The unity of the human race. In: Zeitschrift Freya , Vol. 03 (1863), pp. 146–151, pp. 308–313.

literature

• Kurt Lampert:  Köstlin, Otto . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, p. 344 f.
• W. Steudel: Necrology of Professor Dr. Otto Köstlin . In: Annual notebooks of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg , 42 (1886), pp. 29–36
• B. Arnold: The correspondence sheet and its editors . In: Medical correspondence sheet of the Württemberg Medical Association , 70 (1900), pp. 2–5, 70, 347, 376
• Maria Köstlin (ed.): The book of the Köstlin family , Stuttgart 1931, p. 21, 155–156
• Stefan J. Dietrich: Köstlin, Otto (1818-1884). In: Schwabenspiegel. Literature from the Neckar to Lake Constance 1800–1850. Edited by Manfred Bosch , Ulrich Gaier, Wolfgang Rapp a. a., Vol. 1.2., Biberach / Riß 2006, pp. 88-89, 213 (list of works and references).

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Köstlin in the catalog of the German National Library