200 years of marine research at Senckenberg: selected highlights

Abstract

A history of the Marine Zoology Department at the Senckenberg Society for the Study of Nature (Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft) has not yet been published. Still, there is no lack of documentation of research activities at the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum. Marine zoology studies began with Eduard Rüppell (1794–1884) after his admission to the Senckenberg Society in 1818, one year after its foundation, and his collections of fishes, molluscans and crustaceans from the Mediterranean made in 1820. During the nineteenth century, further progress in marine zoology studies was slow and serious interest in the study of marine organisms expanded significantly only during the twentieth century after the foundation of the marine station at Wilhelmshaven in 1928. The amount of marine biology and geology literature originating from researchers associated with the Senckenberg has become overwhelming and the dwarfs once standing on the shoulder of giants have become giants themselves. In this article, we present the Marine Zoology Department, its sections and assess the most important researchers associated with the Senckenberg Research Institute including the founders of the sections and their place in two centuries of history since the foundation of the Senckenberg Society in 1817.