Walther Horn

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Walther Hermann Richard Horn (born October 19, 1871 in Berlin ; † July 10, 1939 there ) was a German entomologist and director of the German Entomological Institute in Berlin-Dahlem .

Life

Walther Horn was the son of Wilhelm Horn (1835-1911), who founded the "Telegraphenbauanstalt und Pendeluhrenfabrik Wilhelm Horn" in Glashütte in 1862 , and his wife Elisabeth, née Rößner (1845-1931), whose father founded the "Tower Clock Factory C. Rößner ”owned. In 1870 Walther Horn's father went to Berlin and named his company "Internationale Telegraphenbauanstalt Berlin". Due to health problems, he handed the company over to his partner Carl Lorenz in 1880 . At the age of eight, Walther Horn already owned an insect collection and set up an entomological library. Horn studied medicine and zoology in Berlin since 1889, received his doctorate in medicine in 1893 on the subject of " Laparotomy in the case of intergrowth of the network " and passed the medical state examination in 1885 to obtain his license to practice medicine. Medically active he was, however, only in the First World War as a field physician at the eastern front .

Walther Horn has been working intensively with tiger beetles since 1891 , initially with the native species. In 1895 39 publications with him as the author on this group of beetles had appeared, and by the end of his life there were 284 works. A great promoter of his interest in entomology was the first director of the German National Entomological Museum, Gustav Kraatz, founded in 1886 . When Kraatz died in 1909, Walther Horn was his successor. Horn showed great talent in developing the museum into an institution with an international reputation. In 1920 he renamed the museum the "German Entomological Institute" (DEI). In 1922 Horn succeeded in incorporating the DEI into the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science (KWG).

Horn married Agnes (1881–1953), the daughter of the Chief Public Prosecutor Hermann von Ditfurth, in Kassel in 1904 . The marriage produced a son and a daughter.

From 1926 to 1936, Walther Horn was the permanent secretary of the "Wandering Assembly of German Entomologists". In 1938, as a member of the Executive Committee of the International Entomological Congresses, he brought the 7th Congress to Berlin, where he was made an honorary member. Horn was also an honorary member of several international societies, such as the Swiss Entomological Society. He was the editor of several entomological journals. Walther Horn did not attach importance to the appearance and always turned down offers to give him the title of professor.

Works (selection)

  • together with Hans Roeschke : Monograph of the Palearctic Cicindelen: analytically processed with special consideration of the ability to vary and geographical distribution . Self-published, Berlin 1891. doi : 10.5962 / bhl.title.9205
  • 1908. Coleoptera Adephaga. Fam. Carabidae Subfam. Cicindelinae . In: Philogène Auguste Galilée Wytsman (ed.), Genera Insectorum . Fascicule 82A. P. Wytsman, Brussels. Pages 1-104, panels 1-5.
  • 1910. Coleoptera Adephaga. Fam. Carabidae Subfam. Cicindelinae. In: P Wytsman (ed.), Genera Insectorum . Fascicule 82B. P. Wytsman, Brussels. Pages 105-208, panels 6-15.
  • 1915. Coleoptera Adephaga. Fam. Carabidae Subfam. Cicindelinae. In: P Wytsman (ed.), Genera Insectorum . Fascicule 82C. P. Wytsman, Brussels. Pages 209-486, panels 16-23.
  • 1926. Pars 86. Carabidae: Cicindelinae. In: Sigmund Schenkling (ed.), Coleopterorum Catalogus . W. Junk, Berlin. 345 pages.
  • 1928-1929. together with Sigmund Schenkling: Index Litteratuae Entomologicae . Berlin-Dahlem.

The whereabouts of the collections

Horn's worldwide collection of tiger beetles including the larvae and the beetle collections from North Africa (1896), Ceylon (1899), North and South America (1902) and from the region around the Persian Gulf (1926, collector H. Schmidt) are located in Senckenberg German Entomological Institute .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Heinrich Schmid: Lexicon of the German Watch Industry 1850-1980. Volume 2: Company descriptions, bibliography. German Society for Chronometry. Historical watch books publishing house , Berlin 2012. Page 187. ISBN 978-3-941539-99-0
  2. ↑ a b c d e Ursula Göllner-Scheiding:  Horn, Walther. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1972, ISBN 3-428-00190-7 , p. 632 f. ( Digitized version ).
  3. ^ Anton von Schulthess (1939): Dr. Walther Horn 1871–1939. Honorary member of the SEG communications of the Swiss Entomological Society 17 (12): 617–618
  4. ↑ Walther Horn: Laparotomy when the network is fused. Berlin: Vogt's Buchdruckerei 1893. 48 pages.
  5. ↑ a b Albrecht Hase (1939): Walther Horn †. Pest indicator 15 (8): 95-96.
  6. ↑ Walther Horn & Hans Roeschke: Monograph of the Palearctic Cicindelen: processed analytically with special consideration of the ability to vary and geographical distribution. Self-published, Berlin 1891.
  7. ↑ Horn, Walther Hermann Richard from the SDEI database (with a portrait from 1926) (accessed December 31, 2016)
personal data
SURNAME Horn, Walther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Horn, Walther Hermann Richard (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entomologist and director of the German Entomological Institute
DATE OF BIRTH October 19, 1871
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1939
Place of death Berlin