Johann Georg Grimpe (16 February 1889, in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

– 22 January 1936) 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, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

and

malacologist Malacology is the branch of invertebrate zoology that deals with the study of the Mollusca (mollusks or molluscs), the second-largest phylum of animals in terms of described species after the arthropods. Mollusks include snails and slugs, clams, ...

. He studied zoology 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 t ...

at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

, where under the influence of

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 ...

(1852–1914), he focused his energies towards research of marine fauna, especially

cuttlefish Cuttlefish or cuttles are marine molluscs of the order Sepiida. They belong to the class Cephalopoda which also includes squid, octopuses, and nautiluses. Cuttlefish have a unique internal shell, the cuttlebone, which is used for control of ...

. He conducted studies at

marine biology Marine biology is the scientific study of the biology of marine life, organisms in the sea. Given that in biology many phyla, families and genera have some species that live in the sea and others that live on land, marine biology classifies s ...

stations in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

Villefranche-sur-Mer Villefranche-sur-Mer (, ; oc, Vilafranca de Mar ; it, Villafranca Marittima ) is a resort town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region on the French Riviera and is located south-west of the Principality of ...

Helgoland Heligoland (; german: Helgoland, ; Heligolandic Frisian: , , Mooring Frisian: , da, Helgoland) is a small archipelago in the North Sea. A part of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein since 1890, the islands were historically possessions ...

and

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

. In 1912 he obtained his doctorate with a dissertation on the

vascular system The blood circulatory system is a system of organs that includes the heart, blood vessels, and blood which is circulated throughout the entire body of a human or other vertebrate. It includes the cardiovascular system, or vascular system, tha ...

of Octopoda.Grimpe, Johann Georg
@ NDB/ADB Deutsche Biographie After graduation, he worked as an assistant at the

Leipzig Zoo Leipzig Zoological Garden, or Leipzig Zoo (german: link=no, Zoologischer Garten Leipzig) is a zoo in Leipzig`s district Mitte, Germany. It was first opened on June 9, 1878. It was taken over by the city of Leipzig in 1920 after World War I and no ...

, being tasked with scientific design issues concerning its

aquarium An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...

and

terrarium A terrarium (plural: terraria or terrariums) is usually a sealable glass container containing soil and plants that can be opened for maintenance to access the plants inside; however, terraria can also be open to the atmosphere. Terraria are ofte ...

. From 1915 he was an assistant in the zoological institute at the university. In 1922 he began work as a lecturer at Leipzig, and in 1928 became an associate professor. He is the

taxonomic authority In biology, taxonomy () is the scientific study of naming, defining ( circumscribing) and classifying groups of biological organisms based on shared characteristics. Organisms are grouped into taxa (singular: taxon) and these groups are given ...

of numerous taxa, including the

cephalopod A cephalopod is any member of the molluscan class Cephalopoda (Greek plural , ; "head-feet") such as a squid, octopus, cuttlefish, or nautilus. These exclusively marine animals are characterized by bilateral body symmetry, a prominent head ...

order Vampyromorpha and the families Stauroteuthidae and

Chtenopterygidae ''Chtenopteryx'' is a genus of small, muscular, midwater squid in the monotypic family Chtenopterygidae. Four species are presently recognized in the genus, but more are believed to exist. These squid occupy tropical to subtropical The subt ...

. In 1933 Grimpe signed the ''

Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State Bekenntnis der Professoren an den Universitäten und Hochschulen zu Adolf Hitler und dem nationalsozialistischen Staat officially translated into English as the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Ad ...

''.

Published works

With

ichthyologist Ichthyology is the branch of zoology devoted to the study of fish, including bony fish ( Osteichthyes), cartilaginous fish (Chondrichthyes), and jawless fish (Agnatha). According to FishBase, 33,400 species of fish had been described as of Octobe ...

Erich Wagler Erich Wagler (7 September 1884 in Zwickau – 29 August 1951) was a German ichthyologist and malacologist. He studied natural sciences in Leipzig and Jena, obtaining his doctorate in zoology at Leipzig in 1912. From 1920 to 1926 he worked a ...

(1884–1951), he collaborated on a textbook of marine biology titled "''Die Tierwelt der Nord- und Ostsee''" (Fauna of the

North North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden and the North and Central European Plain. The sea stretches from 53°N to 66°N latitude and from ...

s), and beginning in 1927, he was editor of the journal "''Der Zoologische Garten''". He also made significant contributions towards "'' Brehms Thierleben''" (Brehm's Animal Life), a popular zoological encyclopedia. Other noted works by Grimpe include: * ''Zur Kenntnis der Cephalopodenfauna der Nordsee'', 1925 - To the knowledge of cephalopods of the North Sea. * ''Die Cephalopoden des arktischen Gebietes'', 1933 - Cephalopods of Arctic regions.Google Books
(publications)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grimpe, Georg 1889 births 1936 deaths Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of Leipzig University Scientists from Leipzig German malacologists 20th-century German zoologists