Wilhelm Haacke

Who was Wilhelm Haacke?

Johann Wilhelm Haacke was a German zoologist born in Clenze, Lower Saxony.

He studied zoology at the University of Jena, earning his doctorate in 1878. Afterwards he worked as an assistant at the Universities of Jena and Kiel. In 1881 he emigrated to New Zealand, and during the following year moved to Australia, where he was director of the Natural History Museum in Adelaide.

From 1888 to 1893 he was director of the zoo in Frankfurt-am-Main, and afterwards was a lecturer at Darmstadt University of Technology. Later, he worked as a private scholar and grammar school teacher. He died in Lüneburg on December 6, 1912.

Haacke is remembered for research of oviparity in monotremes, and studies involving the morphology of jellyfish and corals. In 1893 he coined the evolutionary term "orthogenesis". He also conducted investigations in the field of animal husbandry.