Otto Zacharias

Otto Zacharias
Emil Otto Zacharias (January 27, 1846, Leipzig – October 2, 1916, Kiel) was a German zoologist and plankton researcher, asd well as popularizer of science and journalist.
Life
After a training as a mechanic, Otto Zacharias immersed himself autodidactically into the study of astronomy and studied in Leipzig, including mathematics, philosophy and zoology. For many years he worked as a tutor in Italy, where he devoted himself mainly to the popular science presenting complex issues of biology.
Zacharias held a long correspondence with leading researchers and writers in Prussia and elsewhere, including Ernst Haeckel, Charles Darwin, Rudolf Virchow, Joseph Kürschner and Wilhelm Bölsche. In 1891, Zacharias was supported financially by the Prussian government and several private individuals to establish, on Großer Plöner See, the first "Biological Station" for limnology (freshwater research) based on German soil as a private research institute. The inspiration for this was the Stazione Zoologica founded in 1870 in Naples by Anton Dohrn, which was already highly recognized.
Zacharias was an advocate of Darwinism. He supported the evolutionary ideas of Charles Darwin and Ernst Haeckel. In 1877, Zacharias came across a strange monstrosity at a marketplace, a pig with thumbs developed on both forelimbs. Intrigued about the possibility of atavism, he purchased the pig and sent one of the feet to Darwin to ask for his opinion.
As the director Zacharias published research reports from 1893 on the activities at Plön station, which were recorded from 1905 in the Archives of Hydrobiology. In so-called "summer schools" Zacharias trained teachers and laity interested in working with the microscope.
The Centre became known as the Max Planck Institute of Limnology. As of 2008 the Institute is no longer in the original building but still in Plön. It was renamed in April 2007 as part of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology.
Zacharias has a water mite Arrenurus zachariae Koenike, 1886 named after him.
Selected works
Charles Darwin und die kulturhistorische Bedeutung seiner Theorie vom Ursprung der Arten. Berlin 1882.
Über gelöste und ungelöste Probleme der Naturforschung. 2. Aufl. Leipzig 1891.
Katechismus des Darwinismus. Leipzig 1891.
Die Tier- und Pflanzenwelt des Süßwassers. 2 Bde. Leipzig 1891.
Das Plankton. Leipzig 1907.
References
Further reading
Andreas W. Daum, Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998 2nd. ed. 2002.
N. Wetzel, R. Nöthlich: Vom „Homo literatus“ zum „Self made man“ – Der Werdegang des Emil Otto Zacharias. In: Mauritiana, 19 (2006), Heft 3, p. 463–477.
R. Nöthlich, N. Wetzel, U. Hoßfeld, L. Olsson: „Ich acquirirte das Schwein sofort, ließ nach dem Niederstechen die Pfoten abhacken u. schickte dieselben an Darwin“ - Der Briefwechsel von Otto Zacharias mit Ernst Haeckel (1874–1898). Annals of the History and Philosophy of Biology, 11 (2006), p. 177–248.
External links
Das Plankton (1907) by Otto Zacharias
1846 births
1916 deaths
German journalists
German male journalists
20th-century German zoologists
19th-century German zoologists
German limnologists
Planktologists
Scientists from Leipzig
Leipzig University alumni