Samuel Friedrich Stein

Samuel Friedrich Nathanael (knight von) Stein (1818–1885), German zoologist and entomologist who lived and worked in Prague from 1855. He is one of 72 important personalities whose names are written under the windows of the National Museum in Prague.

Samuel Friedrich Nathaniel Ritter von Stein (November 3, 1818 – January 9, 1885) was a German entomologist. He was Professor at the Royal Saxon Academy of Forestry in Tharandt from 1850–55; and Professor, and later Rector, at the Charles University in Prague, from 1855–76. His scientific work focused on invertebrates, and mainly on Diptera.

Early life, education, and family

Stein was born in Niemegk, near Potsdam, Brandenburg.

He completed his studies in 1841, conducting doctoral work at the University of Berlin.

On May 29, 1844, in Berlin, he married Emma Johanne Couard Ottilie (born December 30, 1823, in Berlin; died 2 September 1903, in Asch). The couple had nine children. The next to last, daughter Adelheid von Stein (born May 25, 1859), married Joseph Neuwirth.

Career

Stein's scientific work focused on invertebrates, and mainly on Diptera, as well as single-celled animals. His work on infusoria became the basis for all subsequent research in this area.

Stein was appointed as Curator of the Zoological Museum at the University of Berlin, in 1849.

From 1850 to 1855, he was professor of zoology and botany at the Academy of Forestry in Tharandt, Saxony, 20 km south-west of Dresden. Tharandt had one of the leading forestry schools in Germany.

Formal education in forestry began about 1840 when private forestry schools were established. These were the outgrowth of the old master schools. The forestry college at Tharandt developed from Cotta Master School. Though not of the same order, Tharandt had close connections with the French National School of Forestry, which had been established in Nancy, France, in 1825.

The work at Tharandt, under Stein's supervision was of a very high order, thoroughly professional and of very high technical standards.

In 1855, he became professor at the Charles University in Prague, where he worked until retirement. He served as Rector of the university in the 1875–76 academic year.

Honors

Stein was ennobled on April 27, 1878, in Vienna by Emperor Franz Josef I.

Works

• De Myriapodum partibus genitalibus, nova generationis theoria atque introductione systematica adjectis. Dissertatio inauguralis zoologica quam [...] in Alma Universitate Litteraria Friderica-Guilielma [... (16.Aug. 1841) ] publice defendet auctor, Berlin: Brandes et Klewert, 1841 OCLC 819304597
• Die lebenden Schnecken und Muscheln der Umgegend Berlins, Berlin: Reimer, 1850 OCLC 1042989804
• Die Infusionsthiere auf ihre Entwicklungsgeschichte untersucht, Leipzig: Engelmann, 1854 OCLC 898417223
• Der Organismus der Infusionsthiere nach eigenen Forschungen in Systematischer Reihenfolge, Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann
  • I. Abtheilung. Allgemeiner theil und Naturgeschichte der Hypotrichen Infusionsthiere, 1859 OCLC 475289589
  • II. Abtheilung. 1) Darstellung der neuesten Forschungsergebnisse über Bau, Fortpflanzung und Entwickelung der Infusionsthiere 2) Naturgeschichte der Heterotrichen Infusorien, 1867 OCLC 469003334
  • III. Abtheilung. Die Naturgeschichte der Flagellaten oder Geisselinfusorien.
    • 1. Hälfte, Den noch nicht Abgeschlossenen allgemeinen Theil nebst Erklärung der sämmtlichen Abbildungen enthaltend, 1878 OCLC 492310978
    • 2. Hälfte, Die Naturgeschichte der arthrodelen Flagellaten, 1883 OCLC 756275227
• Über die Hauptergebnisse der Infusorienforschungen. Ein Vortrag, Vienna: Staatsdruckerei, 1863 OCLC 162277404