Historische Rollbilder: Biologie im Blick. Zufallsfund an der Universität Jena

Historical wall charts Different kinds of wall charts (botanical, zoological, human biological), together with the microscope, are important teaching materials for biological education in classrooms and universities. Fallen into oblivion during structural alteration works at the zoological institute, 370 wall charts were sheltered in a special university building (the so‐called “Bunker”). By accident, the collection was rediscovered by members of the research group of Didactics of Biology at the University of Jena at the beginning of 2011. They found 26 zoological wall charts illustrated by the Viennese botanist Paul Pfurtscheller and 28 by the zoologist Rudolf Leuckart from the University of Leipzig.     

Lorenz Oken and Naturphilosophie in Jena,Paris and London

Although Lorenz Oken is a classic example of Naturphilosophie as applied to biology, his views have been imperfectly understood. He is best viewed as a follower of Schelling who consistently attempted to apply Schelling's ideas to biological data. His version of Naturphilosophic, however, was strongly influenced by older pseudoscience traditions, especially alchemy and numerology as they had been presented by Robert Fludd, whose works were current in Jena and available to him. According to those influences, parts of Oken's philosophical conception were communicable even in a non-idealistic scientific culture, for example in Paris, where Oken met Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. Geoffroy however was embedded in a French intellectual tradition, and the correspondence between his views and those of Oken was only superficial. The English anatomist Richard Owen attempted to incorporate the views of Oken and Geoffroy within his own, idiosyncratic system. Although Darwin knew of Oken's ideas, it was Geoffroy who really affected his evolutionary biology, and any influence of Oken must have been attenuated to the point of triviality.