KüHN, OTHMAR

(b. Vienna, Austria, 5 November 1892; d Vienna, 26 March 1969)

Paleontology.

Kühn’s father was a watchmaker and goldsmith. Because of the long sickness of his mother, Kühn’s early years were hard. After finishing secondary school in 1911, he started to learn the brewery business, but in 1914 he matriculated at the University of Vienna, where he studied natural sciences (especially botany), aiming for a career in teaching. His studies were interrupted by military service during World War I. In 1919 he received his Ph.D. in botany and paleontology. From 1921 to 1943 Kühn taught in secondary schools in Vienna. His main interests, however, were his paleontological studies as a voluntary scientific collaborator at the Museum of Natural History in Vienna. Following military service in World War II. Kühn became curator in 1944 and then director in 1951 of the geologicalpaleontological section of the Museum of Natural History. From 1951 to 1964 he was full professor of paleontology at the University of Vienna. He served as dean of the faculty and as elected rector. Kühn was married and had one daughter.

Kühn’s professional and scientific activities resulted in many honors, including membership in the academies of science in Athens, Belgrade, Copenhagen, Ljubljana, Vienna, and Zagreb, and honorary doctorates from the universities of Athens and Bucharest.

Kühn’s scientific work covered a wide range of topics. Starting with botanical studies, he soon became interested in systematic paleontology of invertebrate groups, which had not been studied carefully for a long time. For nearly his whole life Kühn was one of the very few leading experts in Mesozoic and tertiary corals and hydrozoans as well as in cretaceous rudist pelecypods. Influenced by his teacher at the University, Carl Diener, Kühn considered systematic descriptions of fossils an absolute necessity for a sound biostratigraphical base of geological studies. Although some results (for example, the biostratigraphical scheme based on rudist evolution) are out of date, Kühn’s studies on cretaceous and tertiary fossils are still fundamental works.

A main feature of Kühn’s scientific work was the publication of precise and up-to-date reviews of the groups he was studying. He wrote catalogs of fossil hydrozoans and rudists, and he summarized his knowledge of various invertebrate groups in review articles. He founded the Fossilium catalogus Austriae, a paleontological treatise that aimed to provide a critical synopsis of all fossils described from Austrian territory. Kühn’s work was focused on the integration of paleontology and geology. Although he emphasized the biological aspect, he was able to understand the needs of geoscientists seeking biostratigraphical and paleoecological data. This is shown by his contribution to F. X. Schaffer’s Geologie von Österreich (Kühn wrote the chapter de scribing the geology of the southern Alps) and by the volume Autriche of the Lexique stratigraphique international (he was the editor and also wrote large parts of the volume).

Most of Kühn’s more than 160 publications describe fossils from Austria and from southeastern and southern Europe. In this he followed the tradition of paleontological research in Vienna, which was strongly directed to the countries formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. Kühn’s personal relations with colleagues in these countries greatly assisted the reorganization of Viennese paleontology after World War II. Clearly recognizing the future trends in paleontology and paleobiology, Kühn promoted the development of micropaleontology, vertebrate paleontology, paleobotany, and biostratigraphy in the Institute of Paleontology at the University of Vienna by establishing new staff positions and research possibilities. Kühn offered assistance and kindness to many colleagues.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

I. Original Works. Important papers on the systematic paleontology of rudist pelecypods, published in Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie und Paläontologie, are “Rudistenfauna und Kreidentwicklung in den Westkarpathen,” 86B (1942), with D. Andrusov; “Rudisten aus Griechenland,” 89A (1945); and “Die borealen Rudistenfaunen,” 90B (1949). Das Danien der äusseren Klippenzone bei Wien (Jena, 1930) presents the first evidence of lowermost tertiary deposits in Austria. Catalogs include Hydrozoa (Berlin, 1928); Hydrozoa (Berlin, 1939); and Rudistae (Berlin, 1932).

II. Secondary Literature. Biographical sketches include F. Bachmayer and H. Zapfe, in Annalen des Naturhistorischen Museums in Wien, 74 (1970); F. Steininger, in Mitteilungen der Geologischen Gesellschaftin Wien62 (1969), with complete bibliography; and H. Zapfe in Almanach der Academic der Wissenschafien in wien. 120 (1970).

Erik FlÜgel