Othenio Abel

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Othenio Abel
Born(1875-06-20)20 June 1875
Vienna
Died4 July 1946(1946-07-04) (aged 71)
Mondsee
AwardsBigsby Medal (1911)
Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal (1920)
Scientific career
FieldsPaleontology

Othenio Lothar Franz Anton Louis Abel (20 June 1875 – 4 July 1946) was an Austrian paleontologist and evolutionary biologist. Together with Louis Dollo, he was the founder of "paleobiology" and studied the life and environment of fossilized organisms.[1]

Life

Abel was born in Vienna, the son of the architect Lothar Abel. Abel earned a PhD, after studying both law and science, from the University of Vienna. He remained there as an assistant to Alpine geologist Eduard Suess, before being appointed a professor of paleontology. Three years later, he finished his habilitation thesis as a paleontologist at the University of Vienna. From 1900 to 1907, he worked at the Geologische Reichsanstalt.

In 1907, Abel became an extraordinary professor in Vienna, and from 1917 to 1934 he was a regular professor of paleontology in Vienna. As such, he led several expeditions that gave him broad recognition, such as the Pikermi-expedition to Greece in 1912, an American expedition (1925) and one to South Africa (1929).

Abel became a member of the

Göttingen University, after which he was retired, age 61. In 1942, he was appointed an honorary member of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft
.

Scientific activity

Abel mainly studied

vertebrates. He was a supporter of Neo-Lamarckist evolution. His main contribution to the field, however, was the formulation, together with Louis Dollo, of paleobiology, which combines the methods and findings of the natural science biology with the methods and findings of the earth science paleontology. From 1928 onwards, Othenio Abel was the publisher of a journal dedicated to paleobiology
, Paläobiologica.

In 1914, Abel proposed that fossil

Mixnitz
.

Abel was an advocate of orthogenesis, he believed that there were trends in evolution that were internally programmed.[4]

Political attitude and National Socialism

Already as a student, Abel took part in

Austrofascist board.[7]
This caused him to emigrate to Germany and accept the post in Göttingen.

He visited Vienna again in 1939, after the

Second World War, in 1945. A letter of recommendation for the Goethe Prize points out how Abel had always "fought in the first line" against the "Judaification" of the university.[6][8][9]
After the war, he was once again forced into retirement along with other prominent Nazi professors and spent his last days in Mondsee, then known as something of a "Nazi colony".

Selected writings

References

  1. ^ Othenio Abel in Austria-Forum (in German) 
  2. ^ Adrienne Mayor, The First Fossil Hunters: Paleontology in Greek and Roman Times (Princeton University Press) 2000.
  3. ^ "Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal". National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 16 February 2011.
  4. ISBN 978-0226069210
  5. ^ "Hochburg des Antisemitismus", Der Standard, 12. Juni 2012
  6. ^ a b Klaus Taschwer, "Othenio Abel, Kämpfer gegen die "Verjudung" der Universität", Der Standard, 9. Oktober 2012
  7. ^ Klaus Taschwer (2014), "Der Inkor-Rektor. Eine kurze politische Biografie des Paläontologen Othenio Abel (1875–1946)". Academia.edu (Accessed 29 January 2023).
  8. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8
    .
  9. ^ Taschwer, Klaus (2015). “Othenio Abel. Paläontologe, antisemitischer Fakultäts- und Universitätspolitiker,” In Universität - Politik - Gesellschaft, edited by Mitchell G. Ash, and Josef Ehmer, 287–92. Vienna University Press.

Further reading

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