German biologist, philosopher, physician, and artist (1834–1919)
"Haeckel" redirects here. For other uses, see Haeckel (disambiguation).
Ernst Haeckel
Born
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel
(1834-02-16)16 February 1834
Potsdam, Kingdom of Prussia
Died
9 August 1919(1919-08-09) (aged 85)
Jena, Germany
Alma mater
University of Berlin
University of Würzburg
University of Jena
Known for
Recapitulation theory
Spouse(s)
Anna Sethe, Agnes Huschke
Awards
Linnean Medal (1894)
Darwin–Wallace Medal (Silver, 1908)
Scientific career
Fields
Zoology
Natural History
Eugenics
Philosophy
Marine Biology
Institutions
University of Jena
Author abbrev. (botany)
Haeckel
Author abbrev. (zoology)
Haeckel
Signature
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (German:[ɛʁnstˈhɛkl̩]; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919)[1] was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms and coined many terms in biology, including ecology,[2]phylum,[3]phylogeny,[4] and Protista.[5] Haeckel promoted and popularised Charles Darwin's work in Germany[6] and developed the influential but no longer widely held recapitulation theory ("ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny") claiming that an individual organism's biological development, or ontogeny, parallels and summarises its species' evolutionary development, or phylogeny.
The published artwork of Haeckel includes over 100 detailed, multi-colour illustrations of animals and sea creatures, collected in his Kunstformen der Natur ("Art Forms of Nature"), a book which would go on to influence the Art Nouveau artistic movement. As a philosopher, Ernst Haeckel wrote Die Welträthsel (1895–1899; in English: The Riddle of the Universe, 1900), the genesis for the term "world riddle" (Welträtsel); and Freedom in Science and Teaching[7] to support teaching evolution.
Haeckel was also a promoter of scientific racism[8] and embraced the idea of Social Darwinism.[6][9] He was the first person to characterize the Great War the "first" World War, which he did as early as 1914.
^Ernst Haeckel at the Encyclopædia Britannica
^Haeckel, Ernst (1866). Generelle Morphologie der Organismen [The General Morphology of Organisms] (in German). Vol. 2. Berlin, (Germany): Georg Reimer. From p. 286: "Unter Oecologie verstehen wir die gesammte Wissenschaft von den Beziehungen des Organismus zur umgebenden Aussenwelt, wohin wir im weiteren Sinne alle "Existenz-Bedingungen" rechnen können." (By "ecology" we understand the comprehensive science of the relationships of the organism to its surrounding environment, where we can include, in the broader sense, all "conditions of existence".)
^Haeckel, Ernst (1866). Generelle Morphologie der Organismen [The General Morphology of Organisms] (in German). Vol. 1. Berlin, (Germany): G. Reimer. pp. 28–29. Haeckel noted that species constantly evolved into new species that seemed to retain few consistent features among themselves and therefore few features that distinguished them as a group ("a self-contained unity"). "Wohl aber ist eine solche reale und vollkommen abgeschlossene Einheit die Summe aller Species, welche aus einer und derselben gemeinschaftlichen Stammform allmählig sich entwickelt haben, wie z. B. alle Wirbelthiere. Diese Summe nennen wir Stamm (Phylon)." (However, perhaps such a real and completely self-contained unity is the aggregate of all species which have gradually evolved from one and the same common original form, as, for example, all vertebrates. We name this aggregate [a] Stamm [i.e., race] (Phylon).)
^(Haeckel, 1866), vol. 1, p. 29: "Die Untersuchung der Entwicklung dieser Stämme und die Feststellung der genealogischen Verwandtschaft aller Species, die zu einem Stamm gehören, halten wir für die höchste und letzte besondere Aufgabe der organischen Morphologie. Im sechsten Buche werden wir die Grundzüge dieser Phylogenie oder Entwicklungsgeschichte der organischen Stämme (Kreise oder "Typen") festzustellen haben." (The investigation of the evolution of these phyla and the identification of the genealogical kinship of all species that belong to a phylum—we deem [this] the highest and ultimately specific task of organic morphology. In the sixth book, we will have to establish the outline of this "phylogeny" or history of the evolution of the organic phyla (groups or "types").)
^(Haeckel, 1866), vol. 1, pp. 215 ff. From p. 215: "VII. Character des Protistenreiches." (VII. Character of the kingdom of Protists.) From p. 216: "VII. B. Morphologischer Character des Protistenreiches. Ba. Character der protistischen Individualitäten. Der wesentliche tectologische Character der Protisten liegt in der sehr unvollkommenen Ausbildung und Differenzirung der Individualität überhaupt, insbesondere aber derjenigen zweiter Ordnung, der Organe. Sehr viele Protisten erheben sich niemals über den morphologischen Werth von Individuen erster Ordnung oder Plastiden." (VII. B. Morphological character of the kingdom of protists. Ba. Character of the protist Individualities. The essential tectological character of protists lies in the very incomplete formation and differentiation of individuality generally, however particularly of those of the second order, the organs. Very many protists never rise above the morphological level of individuals of the first order or plastids.)
^ abCite error: The named reference Watts et al., 2019 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Freedom in Science and Teaching. German 1877, English 1879, ISBN 1-4102-1175-4.
^Hawkins, Mike (1997). Social Darwinism in European and American Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 140.
^Hawkins, Mike (1997). Social Darwinism in European and American Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 137.
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (German: [ɛʁnst ˈhɛkl̩]; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher...
biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—often expressed using ErnstHaeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is an historical hypothesis...
in the bosom of the mystical body of Christ". The term was used by ErnstHaeckel in his book The Wonders of Life where (p. 342) the phronema is the name...
as seven castes. Like most of Darwin's supporters,[citation needed] ErnstHaeckel (1834–1919) put forward a doctrine of evolutionary polygenism based...
Four-kingdom system. The taxon Monera was first proposed as a phylum by ErnstHaeckel in 1866. Subsequently, the phylum was elevated to the rank of kingdom...
Challenger expedition, various species of siphonophores were collected. ErnstHaeckel attempted to conduct a write up of all of the species of siphonophores...
been a source of quite some controversy, both now and in the past. ErnstHaeckel at the University of Basel pioneered in this field. By comparing different...
Welträthsel in several of his writings) and with the biologist-philosopher ErnstHaeckel, who, as a professor of zoology at the University of Jena, wrote the...
Nature) is a book of lithographic and halftone prints by German biologist ErnstHaeckel. Originally published in sets of ten between 1899 and 1904 and collectively...
which Jean-Baptiste Lamarck expanded into 14 phyla by 1809. In 1874, ErnstHaeckel divided the animal kingdom into the multicellular Metazoa (now synonymous...
subcontinent but not in continental Africa or the Middle East. Biologist ErnstHaeckel's suggestion in 1870 that Lemuria could be the ancestral home of humans...
production. The term ontogeny was coined by ErnstHaeckel, a German zoologist and evolutionist in the 1860s. Haeckel, born in Germany on February 16, 1834,...
Gegenbaur, ErnstHaeckel and others publishing detailed theories at the time of Darwin's "Origin of Species" (1858). The later fame of ErnstHaeckel eclipsed...
ecology (German: Ökologie) was coined in 1866 by the German scientist ErnstHaeckel. The science of ecology as we know it today began with a group of American...
self-improvement which could be inherited. A proponent in Germany was ErnstHaeckel, who popularized Darwin's thought and his personal interpretation of...
the timing of embryonic development), which had been neglected since ErnstHaeckel's theory that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny had been largely discredited...
formulate the concept of a minimal surface. The German biologist and artist ErnstHaeckel painted hundreds of marine organisms to emphasise their symmetry. Scottish...
that existence has no telos - no final cause from purposeful design. ErnstHaeckel (1834-1919) invented and popularized the term dysteleology (German:...
articulata (including insects and annelids) and zoophytes or radiata. ErnstHaeckel, in his 1866 Generelle Morphologie der Organismen, asserted that all...
swim) through a water column. The term was proposed by German biologist ErnstHaeckel to differentiate between the active swimmers in a body of water, and...
Wonders of Life by ErnstHaeckel. The Evolution of Man: A Popular Scientific Study, Volume 2 by Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel. "Review: Giacomo...
anti-Darwinist, he called Charles Darwin an "ignoramus" and his own student ErnstHaeckel a "fool". He described the original specimen of Neanderthal man as nothing...
modern birds as well as all other descendants of that common ancestor. ErnstHaeckel coined the name in 1866 and included in the group all "true birds" with...