Richard Benedict Goldschmidt: April 12, 1878-April 24, 1958

RICHARD BENEDICT GOLDSCHMIDT* April 12, 1878-April 24, igs8 CURT STERNf Richard Goldschmidt left not only a published record of nearly sixty years of scientific activities but also a full autobiography and a detailed sketch of his life written in fulfillment of the traditional request of the National Academy of Sciences. In addition, he preserved many letters which he had received from colleagues all over the world and deposited them in the archives of the Library of the University of California at Berkeley. It would be possible to reconstruct a large part ofthe development of the biological sciences in the twentieth century on the basis of Goldschmidt's publications and their interaction with his contemporaries. It would also be possible to explore in depth the personality of the man as it was formed through the impact ofhis time. These may be worthwhile tasks for future historians. The present Memoir can present only a selection out of the multitude of his activities. Richard Goldschmidt was born on April 12, 1878, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He died in Berkeley, California, on April 24, 1958. His parents came from respected, prosperous local families and the circle of his relatives included an unusually large number ofwell-known scientists, bankers, and philanthropists. In his own words, he grew up in "a typical German bourgeois family, comfortable but strict and even parsimonious in spite ofcooks, nursemaids, and French governesses." The city itselfhad a proud and distinguished history and provided an atmosphere of rich * The final form ofthis Memoir owes much to the critical comments ofF. Baltzer, E. Caspari, E. Hadorn, H. Nachtsheim, Leonie Piternick, J. Seiler, and Evelyn Stern. Th. Bullock and R. B. Clark provided evaluations ofGoldschmidt's early work on the nervous system ofAscaris, and tie late F. Schrader on some of Goldschmidt's cytological investigations. Reprinted, without the Bibliography , from National Academy of Sciences, BiographicalMemoirs, Vol. 39, with permission ofthe Academy and Columbia University Press. t Department ofZoology, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley, California 94720. I79 interest in all cultural pursuits. Simultaneously it was democratic in spirit. There he attended the Gymnasium with its curriculum of nine years of Latin, French, and mathematics and six years ofGreek as the nucleus of education. The young boy was a voracious reader: world literature, Goethe, prehistory, archaeology, and comparative linguistics were the major areas. When he was thirteen years old he began to see himselfas a future naturalist and world traveler and, three years later, the center of his interest permanently became biology. At seventeen he could read rather fluently French, English, Italian, Latin, and Greek and made abundant use ofthese abilities. He also tried to read the works ofphilosophers from Spinoza to Nietzsche, but confesses that he did not succeed in understanding them then or later. When he entered Heidelberg University he enrolled at his parents' request as a medical student. Among his "glorious teachers" were such historical figures as Bütschli, the zoologist, Gegenbaur, the comparative anatomist, and Kossel, the biochemist. After two years ofstudy he passed his premedical examinations and then went to Munich. At this point he abandoned further medical training and became a student of zoology under Richard Hertwig, with minors in botany, physiology, and paleontology . At the age oftwenty-one he completed his first paper, a detailed account ofdevelopmental features in a tapeworm, the result ofa chance finding during course work. Shortly he returned to Heidelberg where he became laboratory assistant to Bütschli, his beloved teacher and later lifelong friend. Under him he worked out his Ph.D. thesis on maturation, fertilization, and early development ofthe trematode Polystomum. For a year the progress of Goldschmidt's zoological research was interrupted by the compulsory period of training in the German Army. When he returned to civilian life he followed an invitation from Richard Hertwig tojoin his staffat Munich, remaining there until 1914. The first seven years of this period show Goldschmidt as the intense worker which he remained throughout his life. However, in contrast to his later periods he had not yet found a great central problem for his studies. Instead he tried his hand—and brain—at histology and neurology, cytology and protozoology, embryology and a monographic treatment ofthe anatomy...