Background
Jacob Theodor Klein was born on August 15, 1685, in Konigsberg, Duchy of Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Nothing is known of his early life.
1759
Portrait of Jacob Theodor Klein by Jacob Wessel (1759).
University of Konigsberg, Konigsberg, Germany
Klein studied law, natural history, and history at the University of Konigsberg.
Botanist Diplomat historian jurist Zoologist
Jacob Theodor Klein was born on August 15, 1685, in Konigsberg, Duchy of Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia). Nothing is known of his early life.
Klein studied law, natural history and history at the University of Konigsberg.
Between 1706 and 1712, Klein traveled through England, Germany, Holland, and Austria in an educational journey, before returning to Konigsberg. He moved to Danzig after the death of his father, where he was elected city secretary in 1713. Between 1714 and 1716 he served as the city’s representative in Dresden and then Warsaw.
He developed a botanical garden in Danzig, founded and directed a naturalist’s society there, made extensive collections, and published about two dozen monographs, including studies of birds, fishes, reptiles, and invertebrates other than the sea urchins, particularly the mollusks. Fossils are dealt with in various publications, and Klein edited the Sciagraphia lithologica curiosa, seu lapidum nomenclátor (1740) of J. J. Scheuchzer, which was published after Scheuchzer’s death.
Klein’s taxonomic method was based entirely on external characteristics, such as the number and position of limbs and the mouth; and he vigorously opposed any method, including the Linnaean system, based on characters not visible externally.
The 1760 edition of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London published a letter by 18th Century botanist and Fellow of the Royal Society, Peter Collinson, criticizing Klein for his belief that swallows (sand martins) are not migratory birds, and instead "retire underwater" during winters.
Klein was awarded the membership of several scientific societies, including the Royal Society in London, the St. Petersburg Academy, and the Danzig Research Society.
Although well respected by his colleagues, Klein was nonetheless accused by some contemporaries of being unscientific, alleging that he based his beliefs on the hearsay and the claims of "credulous" people.
Klein was married to Anna Katharina Reyger. One of his daughters, Dorothea Juliane Klein, married physicist Darniel Gralath, who would become mayor of Danzig.