Carl Heinrich Apstein (19 September 1862,

Stettin Szczecin (, , german: Stettin ; sv, Stettin ; Latin: ''Sedinum'' or ''Stetinum'') is the capital and largest city of the West Pomeranian Voivodeship in northwestern Poland. Located near the Baltic Sea and the German border, it is a major s ...

– 14 November 1950,

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

) was a German

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

(over a wide variety of animal life) and botanist (with a focus on

phytoplankton Phytoplankton () are the autotrophic (self-feeding) components of the plankton community and a key part of ocean and freshwater ecosystems. The name comes from the Greek words (), meaning 'plant', and (), meaning 'wanderer' or 'drifter'. P ...

and

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) are any of a large and diverse group of photosynthetic, eukaryotic organisms. The name is an informal term for a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from ...

). In 1889 he earned his doctorate from the

University of Kiel Kiel University, officially the Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, (german: link=no, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel, abbreviated CAU, known informally as Christiana Albertina) is a public research university in the city of Kiel, G ...

with a dissertation on the

spinnerets A spinneret is a silk-spinning organ of a spider or the larva of an insect. Some adult insects also have spinnerets, such as those borne on the forelegs of Embioptera. Spinnerets are usually on the underside of a spider's opisthosoma, and are ...

of the

orb-weaver spider Orb-weaver spiders are members of the spider family Araneidae. They are the most common group of builders of spiral wheel-shaped webs often found in gardens, fields, and forests. The English word "orb" can mean "circular", hence the English name ...

. Afterwards, he worked as an assistant to

Karl Brandt Karl Brandt (8 January 1904 – 2 June 1948) was a German physician and ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) officer in Nazi Germany. Trained in surgery, Brandt joined the Nazi Party in 1932 and became Adolf Hitler's escort doctor in August 1934. A member of ...

(1854–1931) at the zoological institute in

Kiel Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

. As a young man he carried out studies of freshwater

plankton Plankton are the diverse collection of organisms found in water (or air) that are unable to propel themselves against a current (or wind). The individual organisms constituting plankton are called plankters. In the ocean, they provide a cr ...

Holstein Holstein (; nds, label= Northern Low Saxon, Holsteen; da, Holsten; Latin and historical en, Holsatia, italic=yes) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost state of Germ ...

lakes (1890–95). In May 1898 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

at Kiel for

zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and ...

and

comparative anatomy Comparative anatomy is the study of similarities and differences in the anatomy of different species. It is closely related to evolutionary biology and phylogeny (the evolution of species). The science began in the classical era, continuing in ...

, and a few months later took part as a zoologist in the ''Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition'' (German Deep Sea Expedition) aboard the steamship "Valdivia". In 1906 he was appointed associate professor in Kiel, and in 1911 became a scientific officer at the Preußischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in

. In this position he worked as a publisher of scientific journals in the field of zoology, which included editorship of ''Das Tierreich'' ("The Animal Kingdom"; from 1927). He was a member of the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

, and from 1918 to 1945 was secretary of the ''Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft'' (German Zoological Society). In addition to his research involving the 1898–99 ''Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition'', he was tasked with processing material taken from the ''Plankton-Expedition'' (1889) and the ''Deutschen Südpolar-Expedition'' (1901–03). In his investigations, Apstein distinguished himself in research of

Thaliacea The Thaliacea comprise a class of marine animals within the subphylum Tunicata. Unlike their benthic relatives the ascidians, thaliaceans are free-floating (pelagic) for their entire lifespan. The group includes species with complex life cycle ...

Written works

* ''Bau und Function der Spinndrüsen der Araneida'', 1889 – Structure and function of the spinnerets of

Araneida Araneida is a subgroup of Tetrapulmonata. It was originally defined by Jörg Wunderlich in 2015 as a subgroup of Araneae, including all true spiders, with Wunderlich also including Uraraneida within Araneae., cited in Araneida was redefined by Wu ...

, dissertation. * ''Das Süsswasserplankton: Methode und Resultate der quantitativen Untersuchung'', 1896 – On freshwater plankton. * ''Tierleben der Hochsee: Reisebegleiter für Seefahrer''. Lipsius und Tischer, Kiel 1905. * ''Die Thaliacea der Plankton-Expedition. B. Vertheilung der Salpen''. (=

Victor Hensen Christian Andreas Victor Hensen (10 February 1835 – 5 April 1924) was a German zoologist and marine biologist ( planktology). He coined the term '' plankton'' and laid the foundation for biological oceanography and quantitative studies. Fami ...

editor): Ergebnisse der Plankton-Expedition der Humboldt-Stiftung, Bd. 2), 1894, S. 1–68. –

of the "Plankton Expedition". * ''Die Salpen der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition''. (=

Carl Chun Carl Chun (1 October 1852 – 11 April 1914) was a German marine biologist. Chun was born in Höchst, today a part of Frankfurt, and studied zoology at the University of Leipzig, where from 1878 to 1883 he was privat-docent of zoology and an a ...

editor): Wissenschaftliche Ergebnisse der Deutschen Tiefsee-Expedition auf dem Dampfer "Valdivia" 1898–1899, Bd. 12), Fischer, Jena 1906, S. 245–290. – Thaliacea of the German "deep-sea expedition". * ''Die Salpen der Deutschen Südpolar-Expedition''. (=

Erich von Drygalski Erich Dagobert von Drygalski (; February 9, 1865 – January 10, 1949) was a German geographer, geophysicist and polar scientist, born in Königsberg, East Prussia. Between 1882 and 1887, Drygalski studied mathematics and natural science a ...

editor): Deutsche Südpolar-Expedition 1901–1903, Bd. 9), 1906, S. 155–203. – Thaliacea of the German "South Polar expedition". * ''Nordisches Plankton'' (eight volumes). Lipsius und Tischer, Kiel und Leipzig 1901–1942. (edited with Karl Brandt) – Nordic plankton.

References

Deutsche Biographie
Apstein, Carl Heinrich
Google Books
(list of published works) {{DEFAULTSORT:Apstein, Carl 19th-century German zoologists Scientists from Szczecin Academic staff of the University of Kiel 1950 deaths 1862 births People from the Province of Pomerania 20th-century German zoologists