Karl Ernst von Baer

Karl Ernst von Baer (. * 17 Februarjul / February 28 1792greg on Good Beep (Estonian:. .. Piibe ), now the town Rakke, Estonia; † 16 Novemberjul / November 28 1876greg in Tartu, Estonia ) was a Baltic German naturalist, zoologist, embryologist, anthropologist, geographer, explorer and discoverer of the human egg. He formulated the Baer- rule of the embryos similarity as well as the eponymous law of different erosion of river banks by the Coriolis force. He is considered one of the most important scientists of the 19th century and is sometimes called because of its scientific achievements in many areas as the " Alexander von Humboldt of the North". His botanical and mycological author abbreviation is " Baer. ".

• 4.1 Books
• 4.2 Papers (selection)
• 4.3 Speaking ( selection)
• 4.4 obituaries and memory talk about Baer

Life

Training

The son of the Baltic German politician and manor owner Johann Magnus von Baer (1765-1825) and Julie Marie von Baer (1764-1820), daughter of a Russian officer, attended from 1808 to 1810 the German -speaking Cathedral School in Reval, now Tallinn. Subsequently, he studied until 1814 medicine at the time also German, founded 1802 University of Dorpat, now Tartu. His most important teacher was here a native of Leipzig anatomist and physiologist Friedrich Burdach, who later took him as an employee to Königsberg. His medical studies continued Baer after the doctorate ( on endemic diseases of Estonians: De morbis inter esthonos endemicis, 1814) then in Vienna and later in Würzburg continue where Ignaz Dollinger was an important stimulator for him. In Vienna Baer was clear that he did not want to work as a doctor but as a scientist, in Berlin he completed 1816/17 his scientific training. In 1816 he took a job as a prosector in Burdach at the University of Königsberg and was habilitated also there. From 1817 to 1834 Baer lived in Königsberg, his most productive period. He was, inter alia, with the astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel friends and stood with eminent scientists in correspondence, such as the discoverer of the " gills investments" in man, Martin Heinrich Rathke or with Alexander von Humboldt, whom he later a worthy obituary devoted.

1819 Baer married Auguste von Medem († 1864) from Königsberg; from this marriage were born six children. In the same year Baer was appointed associate professor, two years later he took over from Königsberg polymath Karl Gottfried Hagen, the chair of Zoology, 1826 for the anatomy.

Embryological research

The services provided by Baer, who devoted himself mainly in the first years of his career in embryology, include

• The discovery of the human ovum in 1827,
• The justification of comparative embryology based on the cotyledon concept,
• The knowledge of the notochord as a basic, homologizable feature of all vertebrates and
• A systematic critique of the Rekapitulationsthese.

In Konigsberg, Baer began his research on the embryology, the 1827 discovery of the ovum, actually the egg of mammals, especially humans, have taken him. ( From an egg one can speak only after the formulation of the cell theory 1838/39. ) So Baer successfully completed a centuries-long search for the " human egg ". This his important discovery he made in the same year in a letter written in Latin to the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences is known ( De ovi et hominis genesi mammalium, Leipzig 1827) and 1828 in a German essay ( commentary, in Heusinger Journal of Organic Physics ) is known.

Baer described in 1828 as first the notochord, he notochord (later vortex or Spinalsaite ) called, as a common feature of vertebrates (or the later so-called chordates ): " This string is not only the axis around which the first form part of the embryo, but also the real Maass bar for the whole body and all major systems. " ( so Baer 1828). This conceptualization also meant the expansion of the family relationship of man to the lamprey, a brilliant and therefore more fruitful idea.

Baer's embryological research are set out in his two-volume monograph Over evolutionary history of animals (1828/1837), a book which even the British obituary of 1876 conceded that it was the most important biological book of the 19th century. Baer showed in this work, which include, in addition to mammals and birds to reptiles, amphibians, fish and invertebrates that embryonic development in animals and humans from general to increasingly specific characteristic values ​​progresses ( Perch rule). The vertebrate features appear in the embryonic first ( such as the notochord ), then a bird, then a chick bird, the last of a domestic chicken. This law of increasing differentiation is in strict contrast to the idea of ​​recapitulation, as it was represented by Lorenz Oken, Friedrich Meckel the Younger and many others. Corresponding stages of development between different groups of animals, there are not a vertebrate, for example, appear already from the beginning ( namely with the appearance of the notochord ) as a vertebrate, but never as a "worm", Mollusk, or the like. So Baer practiced (especially in the 5th Scholion the history of development, Vol 1 ) vehement criticism of this Rekapitulationshypothese, which was later developed by Ernst Haeckel to the biogenetic principle.

University career

Baer went in 1834 as a successor to his student and friend, the embryologists Christian Heinrich Pander, at the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences and at the University of Saint Petersburg, where he worked from 1834 to 1846 as a zoologist and from 1846 to 1862 as an anatomist and physiologist. Here he was long regarded as the "soul of the Academy". In 1862 he became an adviser to the Ministry of Education. In 1820 he was inducted into the Leopoldina in 1845 Baer was a founding member of the Russian Geographical Society.

Baer's research trips

In 1837 he collected plants and animals on Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. On other expeditions he explored traces of the Ice Age on the south coast of Finland ( 1838/1839 ). On the North Sea coast, on the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus, he examined from 1851 to 1856 fisheries and fish stocks. These studies led in 1856 to the first law for the protection of fish stocks in Russia.

Work on anthropology and Darwinism

In St Petersburg, Baer turned to anthropology, geography, ecology and fisheries customer. Together with Gregory of Helmersen he founded in 1839 the first scientific books series of Russia, the German contributions to the knowledge of the Russian Empire (Saint Petersburg from 1839 to 1900, a total of 45 volumes ).

Before Darwin and excited by Pander (who had already held in the 1820s an unlimited transformation of species possible ) Baer shares his thoughts on evolution. In his essay On Papuans and Alfuren (1859 ), he spoke out against the Artkonstanz and for a transformation of species within a certain framework. Of emergence of new types of evolution, he was hostile to, ultimately, he never saw the question of the origin of man as probably solvable problem. His ideas he presented yet 1859 ( ie before the publication of Origin of Species ) on a trip to England, including Thomas Henry Huxley, with whom he was friends, and of which he was still in 1882 compared to Darwin: " From Bear what another man of the same stamp as Darwin. "

In 1861 he organized with Rudolf Wagner in Göttingen the first anthropologists Congress, in which the skull measurement should be standardized in humans. He occupied himself with historical and recent skull and built the St. Petersburg kraniologische collection from.

Baer has been first in the Russian magazine Naturalist (1865-1867) and then in the Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung (1873 ) expressed publicly and critically to Darwinism. In his 250 -page essay about Darwin's theory (1876 ) Baer criticized less Charles Darwin and the concept of evolution, as is often claimed, but rather the theory of natural selection, which should serve as an explanatory model, Huxley's concept of the Apes relationship between man and the far-reaching philosophical conclusions that were drawn from the theory of evolution. Darwinism he saw as innovative research hypothesis, a descent of man from ape-like forms, the abandonment of teleology in the interpretation of nature and far-reaching " evolutionist " conclusions he refused.

Ambivalence and fascination with the theory of evolution took Baer 1876 itself as follows: " First of all I have the unusual luck that I both as a promoter of Darwin 's theory, as well as an opponent of the same 'll cited. In fact, I think for the same reasons some material to have delivered, although the time and Darwin have even a building listed on the foundation, I feel strange. "

Retirement

Baer promoted younger scientists and physicians, so in addition to Nikolai Ivanovich Pirogov Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov and also Alexander O. Kowalewski. With the latter, there was a discussion about the evolution of sea squirts ( ascidians ), who looked at Kowalewski as relatives of vertebrates, which Baer denied. Nevertheless Baer Kowalewski and Mechnikov recognized to the 1869 donated Baer Medal, which was awarded for significant achievements in the field of embryology.

From 1867 until his death in 1876 lived Baer in Dorpat, the city where he had once studied. Here he dealt with Darwinism and wrote numerous articles (some book-length ) to biological, anthropological, scientific and cultural history (eg to ancient history, to Homer or to Ophir ).

Baer was established in 1869 corresponding member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory. 1867, the major Copley Medal he was awarded. The Baltic fraternity Dorpat Estonia awarded him the honorary Philistines dignity. In addition, he was taken on August 17, 1849 in the Prussian Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts.

Baer died, blind, but until recently working scientifically, in the late autumn of 1876 and was buried in the Old St. John's Cemetery Dorpat ( Tartu Raadi Cemetery ). On Toompea in Dorpat a monument to him was erected in 1886, which still stands in the center of university events and student rites today. The living and death house Baers in Tartu ( Veki 4, ie windmill alley ) has been preserved and is now a museum and research facility. The numbers that appear at irregular intervals volumes of the journal Folia Baeriana (Tartu ) deal since 1975 continuously with Baer's work.

Philosophical positions: between teleology and materialism criticism

In the center of Baer's thinking is the concept of teleology: Natural processes are characterized by purpose and Zielstrebigkeiten, for model model here is the embryonic development. The main criticism of Darwinism is its non- recognition of a tele only logically explainable nature. At the same time, however, nature is constant change ( of individuals, and the species, indeed, of the entire cosmos ), resistance is only an illusion. Baer's thought experiment with changing times and process forms of natural processes has a long history of influence that extends well into the 20th century in philosophy and literature.

From the denial of any "higher" purpose also Baers materialism critical attitude, a more constant feeding of his thinking. Embryonic development is not sufficiently causally explained mechanically, but aims from the outset a goal (viz. the developed organism ) to. Also psychic phenomena or mental processes - from Baer called the " longing for immortality " - are not materialistic explanation. Here Baer was close to the materialism involved in the dispute in 1854 anatomist Rudolf Müller, but the disclosure of which faith he refused. The modern science justified for Baer not materialism, but on the contrary led to recognition " idealistic " positions. At the same time Baer insists also on the rejection of " metaphysical " interpretation of nature: the " first cause " proclaimed by his nature is not accessible to the research.

Reviews, obituaries, criticism

• A new and great ally for you.

Thomas Henry Huxley to Darwin, 1860.

• The greatest among the naturalists of our time, one of the greatest that have ever lived.

Georg Dragendorff (1836-1898), a pharmacist, in 1876.

• A founder of modern embryology, a naturalist of first order, to uncompromising opponent of Darwinism.

Anonymous obituary in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1876.

• A scientific polymath, larger than Carl Linnaeus and Georges Cuvier.

Emil Rosenberg (1842-1925), anatomist and biologist.

• Baer's defense of the purposiveness of nature, his theory of the development of the organism from internal causes, his criticism of Darwinism, its recognition of the spirit in man and in nature, its vitalistic oriented thinking, his fight against materialism, his deep respect and appreciation of the religion found its time energetic rejection or ridicule höhni -tion. That has changed today.

Remigius Stoelzle (1856-1921), philosopher and historian of philosophy, in 1907.

• I want many, the today after he has so hineingerochen a bit in Haeckel, Darwin's books, advise, before he goes out to establish a branch for a Monistenverein, various other things to do before: for example, when Haeckel Ernst von Baer leads to take himself once Karl Ernst von Baer in the hand and read. The world body, the earth is the seed bed, and into it are sunk the intellectual prop- germs so that they envelop themselves. The plain truth is that Baer said at the beginning of the 19th century!

Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), founder of anthroposophy, 1916.

• An evolutionist, (...), the transmutation was of course also for him a perfect natural process, is not to doubt its existence. (...) Inconsistent, but a practicing atheist who, as is well known, rejects the teachings of the Church.

Boris Jewgenjewitsch Raikov (1880-1966), Soviet historians of science, 1968.

• Yet von Baer had Achieved more of the victory than modesty allowed him to state, for he had posited a general law of all biological development and, through it, thought he had glimpsed the essence of all development: the homogenous, coursely structured, general, and potential Develops into the heterochronous, finely built, special and deterministic mined. (...) This law of differentiation is the unifying theme of von Baer 's Entire work.

Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002), 1977

• The most brilliant opponents of Darwinian orthodoxy.

Stephen Jay Gould, 1984.

• An explicitly set against the idea of ​​evolution scientists.

Ernst Mayr (1904-2005), biologist

Works

• Over evolutionary history of animals, 2 vols Königsberg, 1828/1837 ( the epoch-making work on comparative embryology ) doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.6303
• Studies on the embryology of the fish. Leipzig 1835 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.5773
• Caspian Studies. 4 parts. St. Petersburg 1855-1860 (reprint: Saarbrücken 2006)
• About the extinction of animal species in physiological and non- physiological point of view at all. 1863 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.42322
• The construction of the central nervous system of the tailless batrachians. Dorpat 1864 doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.46901
• Studies from the field of natural sciences. Speeches at scientific meetings and smaller essays mixed content. 3 vols Vieweg, St. Petersburg 1864-1876 (reprint: Hildesheim, Zurich, New York 2003-2006) and Braunschweig 1886 ( digitized ) doi: 10.5962/bhl.title.1791
• News about the life and writings of Lord privy councilor Dr. Karl Ernst von Baer, ​​communicated by himself, privately printed in 1864, then to St. Petersburg in 1866 and passim (reprint: Hannover- Doehren 1972) ( autobiography Baers to 1834, the year its relocation to St. Petersburg)
• Письма Карла Бэра ученым Петербурга, ed. by T. A. Luka's. Leningrad 1976 ( Baer letters mainly from the St. Petersburg Time)
• Development and sense of purpose in nature, ed. K. Boegner. Stuttgart 1983 ( Includes speeches Baers to Teleologieproblem, with anthroposophic list )
• Materials to the knowledge of the immortal ground - ice in Siberia. Unpublished typescript of 1843 and first Permafrost Soil Science, ed. of Lawrence King, casting 2001 ( digitized )

Papers (selection)

• About a universal law in the design of river beds. In: Caspian Studies 1860, VIII, pp. 1-6.
• About the climate of Sitka and the Russian possessions on the north-west coast of America in general, together with an examination of the question of what items you can of agriculture in these regions thrive. Bull sci. , 1839, 5, pp. 129-141, 146-152.
• Crania selecta ex thesauris anthropologicis Acad. Imp Petropolitanae. Cum tabulis lithograficis XVI. / Overview of Papua and Alfuren In: Mémoires de l' Académie des Sciences de St. - Imperiale Pétersbourg, Vime série, Volume 19, Part 2, Vol 8, 1859, pp. 241-268 and 269-346 (Latin work about craniology with German comments on the evolution and humans )
• Develops the larva of simple ascidians during the first period after the type of Vertebrates? . In: Mémoires de l' Académie de St - Pétersbourg VII série 1873, Vol 8, pp. 1-35.
• To dispute about Darwinism. In: Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung in 1873, No. 130, Supplement, pp. 1986-1988.
• Cuvier's life story. Braunschweig 1897.
• On the Genesis of the Ovum of Mammals and of Man. Introduction by Bernard Cohen. In: Isis Vol 47 (1956 ), pp. 117-153 (English translation of Baer's work on the egg - discovery 1827).

Speeches (selection)

• The general law of nature in all development. A lecture. In: Speeches and smaller essays vol 1 St. Petersburg in 1864 and 2006, pp. 35-74.
• About the ratio of the Prussian state to evolutionary history of mankind. On January 18, 1834 presented in the Royal German Society. In: Historical and literärische treatises of the Royal. German Society at Konigsberg, 3rd Collection, Vol 8, 1834, pp. 229-247.
• Views on the development of science *. Presentation at the public meeting of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg on 29 Dec. In 1835. Speeches and smaller essays vol 1 St. Petersburg in 1864 and 2006, respectively, p 75-160.
• What is your view of living nature is the right one? and how this conception is applied to the entomology? Spoke at the opening of the Russian Entomological Society in October 1860. In: Speeches and smaller essays vol 1 St. Petersburg in 1864 and 2006, pp. 237-284 ( Here Baer unfolds his famous critique of the waiver of the purpose and Zielstrebigkeitsbegriff in the natural sciences )

Obituaries and memory talk about Baer

• Leopold von Schrenck: Speech delivered at the grave of academics Dr. v. Schrenck. In: Talking to Memories CE von Baer 's, held at the funeral ceremony in Dorpat. Dorpat in 1876.
• Alexander Graf Keyserling: commemorative speech on Karl Ernst von Baer, ​​held on Dec 18, 1876 in the literary society to Reval. In: From Baltic spirit world. Speeches and essays, Volume 1, Riga 1908, pp. 3-17.
• Gustav Zaddach: Karl Ernst von Baer. Memorial speech, delivered at the extraordinary meeting of the physicalisch -economic society on February 16, 1877. Königsberg in 1877.
• Gregory of Helmersen: Karl Ernst von Baer 's last hours of life. In St. Petersburg newspaper No. 151, 1877, pp. 1-8.
• Karl Johann von Seidlitz: Commemorative lecture by Karl Ernst von Baer, ​​November 25, 1876 In: . Proceedings of the Naturalists Society to Dorpat Vol 4, 1878, pp. 285-305.
• Georg Dragendorff: commemorative speech on Baer; Life demolition Baers. In: Proceedings of the Naturalists Society to Dorpat (or at the University of Yuriev ) Vol 4, 1878, pp. 282-285; and Vol 10, 1895, pp. 27-40.
• Emil Rosenberg: speech on the day of the unveiling of the monument erected in Dorpat for Karl Ernst von Baer in the auditorium of the University on 16 ( 28 ) November 1886 held. Dorpat in 1886.