Hermann Engelhard von Nathusius (9 December 1809 – 29 June 1879) was a German animal breeder. Born in

Magdeburg Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river. Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...

to industrialist

Johann Gottlob Nathusius Johann Gottlob Nathusius (April 30, 1760 – July 23, 1835) was a German industrialist. Nathusius was born in Baruth, and learned the trade of a merchant in Berlin, later joining the trading company Sengewald in Magdeburg. After the death of the ...

, Hermann von Nathusius studied the

natural science Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...

s. He took over from his father and turned it to agriculture, particularly cattle breeding. He introduced cattle breeds from England to Germany, and worked to promote the study of cattle breeding. He collected a large amount of information on his herds, whose breeding he personally oversaw, and amassed a collection of domesticated animal

skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

s; his writings became an important reference for the scientific treatment of animal breeding. He was opposed to his contemporary

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

's theory of

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

, but data from his careful study of breeds was nonetheless used as support for that theory. He was a member of the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

n ''Landesökonomiekollegium'' (Land Economic Council), director of the

province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (german: link=no, Provinz Sachsen), also known as Prussian Saxony () was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merge ...

's ''Landwirtschaftlicher Zentralverein'' (Central Agricultural Council), and president of the ''Deutsche Ackerbaugesellschaft'' (German Agricultural Society), among other positions. From the German Society for Züchtungskunde e. V. (

DGfZ The German Society for Animal Breeding in German: ''Deutsche Gesellschaft für Züchtungskunde e.V.'' (DGfZ) is a specialist association which sees itself as a link in the area of livestock science, in that brings together science, administration ...

) was the

Hermann-von-Nathusius-Medaille {{Infobox award , name = Hermann von Nathusius Medal , subheader = , image = , image_size = , alt = , caption = , awarded_for = Those who have excelled in the area of animal ...

donated in his honor in 1928.The Hermann-von-Nathusius-Medaille on the Webpage of the DGfZ
/ref>

Selected works

* ''Ansichten und Erfahrungen über die Zucht von Fleischschafen'' (1856) * ''Über die Konstanz in der Tierzucht'' (1860) * ''Die Rassen des Schweins'' (1860) * ''Über Shorthorn-Rindvieh'' (1861) * ''Vorstudien für Geschichte und Zucht der Haustiere'' (1864; Partly reprinted in the journal "Elemente der Naturwissenschaft" No. 85, 2006) * ''Deutsches Gestütalbum'' (1868–70) * ''Wandtafeln für den naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht'' (1871–73) * ''Vorträge über Viehzucht und Rassenkenntnis'' (1872–80) * ''Über die sogenannten Leporiden'' (1876
digital edition

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nathusius, Hermann von 1809 births 1879 deaths Businesspeople from Magdeburg Scientists from Magdeburg People from the Province of Saxony 19th-century German scientists