Wilhelm Kattwinkel

Wilhelm Kattwinkel ( born March 27, 1866 in Kierspe ( Westphalia ), † January 21, 1935 in Partenkirchen ) was a German neurologist and paleontologist. He was known in particular by the discovery of fossils deposits at Olduvai Gorge, which provided, among other things, many discoveries of hominins in the subsequent period.

Life

The son of the merchant William Kattwinkel († 1877) and Henriette Kattwinkel born, Bancklotz ( 1833-1898 ), first studied natural sciences in Bonn and Strasbourg, from 1894 Medicine in Bonn, Königsberg and Erlangen. He received his Ph.D. in 1892 in Erlangen, MD and was in 1894 in Munich, the state exam. In 1895 he married in Schwelm the daughter Martha (* 1872), the factory owner Julius Schmidt. After his military service Kattwinkel volunteer assistant was at Hugo of Ziemssen and an intern from 1900 to 1905 at the Salpêtrière and Bicêtre on in Paris. In 1902 he qualified as a professor in Munich, was appointed in 1909, associate professor of neurology and earned passing knowledge of paleontology, especially of the German Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory by Karl Alfred von Zittel and Johannes Ranke.

1910-1911 undertook Kattwinkel together with his wife, a privately funded research trip to German East Africa to the study of sleeping sickness. In 1911 he took on the southeastern edge of today's Serengeti National Park, a rich fossil finding site that he ehrenbergii after the Maasai word for there widespread "wild sisal " Sansevieria or Sansevieria suffruticosa (according to other sources after until 1893 in Africa introduced sisal agave ) Olduvai gorge (English or Olduvai gorge Olduvay ) called. As a result, another expedition of the Geological Institute in Munich and Berlin was supported by Ernst Freiherr Stromer von Reichenbach (Munich ), August Rothpletz ( 1853-1918, Munich) and Wilhelm von Branca (Berlin), prepared in the Olduvai Gorge. The expedition found 1912/13, under the direction of geologist Hans Reck, of 1913, the first fossils of hominins. This expedition should other states follow a funded, among others, 1914 by Kattwinkel itself. The outbreak of the First World War, the skillful forward expedition WB Sattler and G. Schulze were interned. Kattwinkel even withdrew its travel and visited the Olduvai Gorge ever again.

Kattwinkel headed until 1918 a military hospital and then took up teaching in Munich again. He is guided in the course catalogs of the Ludwig- Maximilians- University until the winter semester 1934/35 as not scheduled an associate professor of internal medicine and neurology. Since the 1920s he also worked as a doctor at the sanatorium " Wiggers Sanatorium " in Partenkirchen.

Trivia

Louis Leakey, who was especially known for his discoveries in Olduvai Gorge, Wilhelm Kattwinkel designated erroneously as a " butterfly collector " who accidentally found the fossil deposit. Why is informed Leakey unspecified about the discoverer is unknown. His misrepresentation was taken partly in the later literature.

Works

  • WK (1907 ): A case of primary systemic degeneration of the pyramidal tracts. ( Spastic paraplegia ). German Journal of Neurology 33: 1-13. pdf
  • WK & L. Neumayer (1907 ): Over the course of the so-called Helwegschen three edges railway or Bechterew olive bundle ( fasciculus parolivaris ). German Journal of Neurology 33: 229-237 & Table V. pdf
  • WK & L. Neumayer (1910 ): About the origin and course of the Türck 's bundle. German Journal of Neurology 39: 183-192 & Plates III -IV. pdf
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