Carl Friedrich Kielmeyer (October 22, 1765 – August 14, 1844) was a German biologist

Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...

 and naturalist

Naturalist

Naturalist may refer to:* Practitioner of natural history* Conservationist* Advocate of naturalism * Naturalist , autobiography-See also:* The American Naturalist, periodical* Naturalism...

 born in Bebenhausen

Bebenhausen

Bebenhausen is a village in the Tübingen district, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Since 1974 it is a district of the city of Tübingen, its smallest one. It is located 3 km north of Tübingen proper , in the southeastern part of the protected landscape of the Schönbuch, a dense forest...

, today part of the city of Tübingen

Tübingen

Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...

.

He initially studied at Karlsschule Stuttgart

Karlsschule Stuttgart

Hohe Karlsschule was the strict military academy founded by Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg in Stuttgart, Germany.Politically the duke was quite unimportant and with this school he wanted to enhance his prestige. In 1770, it was moved to Castle Solitude, and in 1775 into the city...

, then furthered his education at the University of Göttingen (1786-88), where he had as instructors Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach

Johann Friedrich Blumenbach was a German physician, physiologist and anthropologist, one of the first to explore the study of mankind as an aspect of natural history, whose teachings in comparative anatomy were applied to classification of what he called human races, of which he determined...

, Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin

Johann Friedrich Gmelin was a German naturalist, botanist, entomologist, herpetologist and malacologist.- Education :Johann Friedrich Gmelin was born as the eldest son of Philipp Friedrich Gmelin in 1748 in Tübingen...

 and Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany...

. Afterwards he returned to Karlsschule Stuttgart

Stuttgart

Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....

, where in 1792 he was appointed professor of chemistry

Chemistry

Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....

.

In 1796 he became a professor of chemistry and botany

Botany

Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...

 at the University of Tübingen, where he established the Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen

Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen

The Botanischer Garten der Universität Tübingen, also known as the Botanischer Garten Tübingen or the Neuer Botanischer Garten Tübingen, is a botanical garden and arboretum maintained by the University of Tübingen...

 in 1804. In 1816 he returned to Stuttgart as scientific director of the Royal Library, Botanical Garden

Botanical garden

A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

, et al.

Kielmeyer was a pioneer of Naturphilosophie

Naturphilosophie

Naturphilosophie is a term used in English-language philosophy to identify a current in the philosophical tradition of German idealism, as applied to the study of Nature in the earlier 19th century...

, and was a major influence on the career of philosopher Friedrich Schelling. He was a prominent figure in pre-Darwinian evolutionary science, and is remembered for development of an early theory of biological recapitulation

Recapitulation theory

The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—and often expressed as "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a disproven hypothesis that in developing from embryo to adult, animals go through stages resembling or representing successive stages...

. He published little in his lifetime, and much of what is known about his scientific philosophy is derived from lectures he gave.

Publications

• 1793 'Ueber die Verhaltnisse der organischen Krafte,' On the Relationships of Organic forces, his major work
• c.1938 'Gesammelte Schriften,' collected minor writings

Footnotes

• This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia.

External links

• Evolution and Adaptation by Thomas Hunt Morgan