Fritz Römer

Who is Fritz Römer?

Hermann Joseph Fritz Römer was a German zoologist.

From 1889 he studied natural sciences at the University of Jena, later graduating with a dissertation on the development of an armadillos' carapace. In 1892 he began work as an assistant to Ernst Haeckel at Jena, where he focused on studies involving skin and hair formation of vertebrates. In April 1898 he became an assistant at the zoological museum in Berlin.

In the summer of 1898, with zoologist Fritz Schaudinn and a group of sportsmen led by explorer Theodor Lerner, he embarked on a scientific expedition to Svalbard aboard the trawler Helgoland. In the waters around Svalbard, the scientists gathered a large and diverse collection of marine fauna. These zoological specimens, along with knowledge gained on the expedition, served as a focal point towards Römer and Schaudinn's publication of Fauna Arctica, an important work on Arctic fauna that eventually ran to six volumes. The mission also had significance from a geographical standpoint; Kapitän Rüdiger of the Helgoland made a number of corrections and additions to the map of Svalbard, which included charting the first accurate map of Kong Karls Land. Also, the Helgoland is credited as the first vessel to circumnavigate Nordaustlandet in a counterclockwise direction.