ABSTRACT
Ernst Heinrich Haeckel was born at Potsdam in 1834. His father had taken part as a volunteer in the Prussian War of Independence against Napoleon, and afterwards, having adopted a public career, he advanced to the rank of "Regierungsrat." His mother was the daughter of a Civil Servant, who had been dismissed from his post and arrested for having opposed the French conqueror. His parents' home, in spite of its bureaucratic character, had nevertheless preserved the liberal-minded traditions of earlier times and the literary interests acquired in the days of greatness of the German world of letters. Young Ernst received his school education in a provincial gymnasium, where, as he himself says, mathematics were neglected for philosophy and the classical languages. Even when grown up, he still enjoyed reading Homer in the original and throughout his life delighted in interlarding his writings with Greek terms. His greatest pleasure, however, he found in nature, both in reality and in poetry; he was a keen botanist and at the same time read Goethe's works, Humboldt's travels, and Schleiden's popular writings. He was especially interested in Schleiden and was very anxious to go to Jena in order to be trained as a botanist under him. After he had matriculated, in 1852, however, his father insisted upon his going to Würzburg to study medicine. He spent two years there and, in spite of his dislike for professional studies, devoted himself with interest to anatomy and histology under Kölliker and to pathology under Virchow. He then spent one year in Berlin studying under J. Müller, whom he regarded as his true master and who inspired him with a love for marine research, particularly in regard to the lower animals. Having been for some time assistant to Virchow, he went on an expedition to the Mediterranean at the suggestion of Kölliker and Gegenbaur and collected at Messina material for his first important work, Die Radiolarien, which resulted in his being called, upon the recommendation of Gegenbaur, to the chair of zoology at Jena in 1862. There he worked until his resignation, in 1909, after which he lived for another ten years, continuing his literary work until he died, in 1919.
