Othenio Abel was an Austrian artist and paleontologist. Othenio is widely acclaimed as the founder of paleobiology. He was also a founder of the journal "Palaeobiologica" and of the Paleobiological Society in Vienna.
Background
Othenio Abel was born on June 20, 1875, in Mondsee, Upper Austria, the son of the architect Lothar Abel. For several generations his ancestors on his father’s side had been gardeners. His grandfather had taken his examination in botany under Nicolaus Jaquin and had received summa cum eminentia; his father was a teacher at the horticulture school and Dozent at the Institute of Agriculture in Vienna.
Education
As a sixteen-year-old Gymnasium student Abel eagerly collected fossils. To please his parents, however, he continued his education at the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna. Soon, though, he devoted more time to the natural sciences, especially botany: his first publications were several papers on orchids.
In 1898, while still a student, Abel became an assistant at the Geological Institute of the University of Vienna under Eduard Suess. He took his major examination in geology and paleontology in 1899 and received the Ph.D. Abel then attended the school of mining in Leoben for a short while.
Career
After receiving his Ph.D., Othenio Abel accepted a position as Mitarbeiter at the Imperial Royal Geological State Institute in Vienna in 1900, where he was active until 1907. At the very beginning of this period he published the result of his studies on Cetacea, “Untersuchungen fiber die fossilen Platanistiden des wiener Beckens,” which he had begun while still a student. This paper brought him an invitation to investigate the fossil whales of Belgium. From 1900 on, Abel was collaborateur étranger of the Royal Museum of Natural History of Belgium, and several times he traveled to that country. There he met Louis Dollo, who became his teacher of paleontology and his friend. Abel was stimulated by Dollo’s teachings, as well as by the writings of Vladimir Kovalevsky and Henry Fairfield Osborn, which were influential in the founding of paleobiology.
In 1901 Abel was appointed Privatdozent in paleontology at the University of Vienna; in 1907, associate professor; and in 1912, full professor. He became professor of paleobiology and director of the paleobiology department, later the Paleobiological Institute of the university, in 1917.
Abel’s important work Grundziige der Paldobiologie der Wirbeltiere appeared in 1912, Die vorzeit lichen Sail get iere in 1914, and Palâobiologie der Cephalopoden in 1916. By then he had published over 100 papers. The stream of writings continued. Die Stamme der Wirbeltiere (1919) was followed by Lehrbuch der Palciozoologie (1920), Lebensbilder aus der Tierwelt der Vorzeit (1922), and Geschichte und Methode der Rekonstruktion vorzeitlicher Wirbeltiere (1925). Many shorter works were published as well. During this period Abel was in charge of extensive paleozoological excavations in the Drachenhohle near Mixnitz, Slyria; he had previously (1912) undertaken similar excavations at Pikermi, Greece.
He was also dean (1927/1928) and rector (1932/1933) of the University of Vienna. In 1928 Abel founded the journal Palaeobiologica, and most of his shorter papers appeared in it.
Abel had been at the University of Vienna for twenty-eight years and had published more than 250 papers when, in 1935, he accepted a post at the University of Gottingen. He spent five years at Gottingen, amassing new collections and turning his attention to newer subdivisions of paleontology that had not yet been extensively investigated. In 1940 he retired and returned to Austria, where, in Salzburg, he founded a short-lived institute for biological natural history. Despite this failure, he continued his scientific activities until very shortly before his death.
After the war, he was once again forced into retirement along with other prominent Nazi professors and spent his last days in Mondsee. He died in Mondsee, Upper Austria on July 4, 1946.
Politics
A leader amongst German paleontologists, Abel supported efforts of the Deutsche Palaeontologische Gesellschaft to align paleobiology with Nazi ideology ("National–Socialism is politically applied biology") to secure more support for the discipline. After seeing how the Nazi flag was shown at the Vienna university building, he pronounced this the "Happiest moment of his life". His National–Socialist sympathies, which he shared with fellow paleobiologist Henry Fairfield Osborn from the American Museum of Natural History, resulted in his forced retirement from the University of Vienna in 1934. Abel secured subsequent employment at the University of Gottingen, later sought help from Nazi officials to create his own institute in Salzburg.
The new regime honored him with the newly created post of "Honorary Senator" of the University - an honour that was rescinded after the Second World War, in 1945. A letter of recommendation for the Goethe Prize points out how Abel had always "fought in the first line" against the "Judaification" of the University.
Views
Abel is known as a supporter of Neo-Lamarckist evolution. He attempted to unify paleontology with biology under a universal law of nature – the Law of Biological Inertia – that itself was anchored in classical physics. Abel was also an advocate of orthogenesis, he believed that there were trends in evolution that were internally programmed. He also showed great interest in cave bear remains at the so-called "Dragon's Cave" near Mixnitz.
Membership
Abel was a member of the Paleobiological Society in Vienna.