Othmar Kühn

Othmar Kühn (5 November 1892 – 26 March 1969) was an Austrian geologist and paleontologist at the University of Vienna who was a member of the Nazi Party, serving in the Wehrmacht as a military geologist during World War II. He worked mainly on Cretaceous stratigraphy and began a catalogue of the fossils of Austria, Fossilium catalogus Austriae.

Kühn in 1965

Life and work

Kühn was born in Vienna in a business family. After schooling, he joined a business school and worked at a brewery from 1914 before joining the University of Vienna. He served in Italy during World War I and was wounded, receiving a medal for bravery. He studied botany under Richard Wettstein and Carl Diener, receiving a doctorate in 1919. He then worked as a school teacher while also spending time at the Natural History Museum in Vienna. He became a member of the NSDAP and served as a military geologist in eastern Europe. At the end of the War, he had been found to be uninvolved and rehabilitated. He became a rector of the University of Vienna.[1][2]

He died at Vienna and is buried at the Döblinger Friedhof.

References
  1. Thenius, Erich (2013). "100 Jahre Paläobiologie an der Universität Wien – die Jahre 1912 bis 1973". Schriften Verein zur Verbreitung naturwissenschaftlicher Kenntnisse (151–152): 7–37.
  2. Zapfe H. (1969). "Othmar Kühn" (PDF). Österreichische Hochschulzeitung (in German). 21 (9): 7.
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