19/2/2019 Ernst Haeckel and the Unity of Culture – The Public Domain Review

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Ernst Haeckel and the Unity of Culture

In addition to describing and naming thousands of new species the German biologist and philosopher Ernst Haeckel was behind some of history’s
most impressive meetings of science and art. Dr Mario A. Di Gregorio explores Haeckel’s unique idea of “monism” which lies behind the
mesmerising illustrations of his most famous work, Kunstformen Der Natur.

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Ascidiacea, plate 85 from Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1904) — Source. (Buy as a print or t-shirt)

ew people were better known in the nineteenth century than the German zoologist and Darwinist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919), yet nowadays he is
known to many simply as the man who coined the phrase “ontogeny recapitulates phylogey” – the Biogenetic Law. ere is much more to Haeckel
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F
than this.

Haeckel studied medicine at Würzburg with Rudolf Virchow, who taught him the importance of cell theory, and at Berlin with Johannes
Müller, who remained his inspiration and ideal of a teacher. His main cultural in luences were Alexander von Humboldt, and, like all educated
Germans, J.W. Goethe. Haeckel never wanted to be a physician but aimed for a synthesis of his interest in zoology with his artistic ability and
sensibility. e decisive event for his career was the patronage and friendship he received from the anatomist and morphologist Carl Gegenbaur.
is led to an appointment at the university of Jena, where he stayed all his life, and a scienti c journey to southern Italy where he studied marine
invertebrate zoology, in particluar radiolarians, which rst suggested to him a close connection between the scienti c study of nature and its inner
beauty.

On his return to Jena in 1860, Haeckel read the German translation of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species. He was thoroughly won over by the book to
the extent that he became the most outspoken supporter and propagandist of an evolutionary view, one which combined Lamarckian and
Darwinian elements with the morphological interpretation of the aesthetic aspects of nature – thus ful lling Goethe’s and Humboldt’s ideal of the
unity of culture.

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Photograph of Haeckel by Nicola Perscheid, published in Photographische Gesellscha t in 1906, two years a ter Kunstformen Der Natur — Source.

In 1866, Haeckel published his major theoretical work, Die Generelle Morphologie der Organismen ( e General Morphology of Organisms). It was,
however, a di cult book and seldom read. In response he went on to publish his lectures on evolution in Natuerliche Schpfungsgeschichte ( e History
of Creation) which, on the other hand, in its many editions from 1868 onwards, was a great success.

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Haeckel’s view of evolution can be summarized as follows: at no point did God create anything, whether inorganic or organic. All is originated
through an incessant progressive process leading from the simplest to the most complex – organic matter originating from inorganic matter
through spontaneous generation – a process called Entwicklungsgeschichte, the “history of development”. In this process lower living forms start
from a simple cell and follow a long evolutionary path leading to higher forms. e process of life, in its increasing intricacy, can be represented best
in the branching forms of the tree and Haeckel, an excellent artist, drew many beautiful such trees. In them we nd explained what he believes to be
the fundamental law of natural evolution, the Biogenetic Law, that is “Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”.

Every living form travels in its embryological development (ontogeny) through stages which resemble — recapitulate, in fact — the stages through
which the group to which that animal belongs itself went through in the course of its evolution (phylogeny). e gaps in the geological record of
evolutionary process can be lled by hypothetical passages, and thus embryology and its foundation, cell theory, solves the evolutionary problems
le t unsolved by paleontology. e highest forms are nothing but lower forms which in their history have grown to their higher position in the tree of
life – a new version of Lamarck’s transformism. A worm follows an evolutionary path which takes it to higher and higher forms – man being of
course the highest in its most elevated aspect, educated man. Indeed, we may conclude that a German professor is nothing but a progressed worm.
Natural selection is seen by Haeckel as applicable not so much to individuals but mainly to groups, the Phyla – a word introduced by Haeckel himself
(one of the many new words he invented, although only a few, such as “ecology”, have survived).

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Hackels’s “phylogenetic tree of life” — Source.

is scheme can be applied to any part of the living world, whether fungi, plant, animal or, by consequence, to the highest pinnacle of evolution,
man. In Haeckel’s thought, man is basically an evolved ape and, looking further back, an evolved worm. e main character which distinguishes
man from apes is language and to ll the gaps between speechless apes and speaking man Haeckel hypothesized a link which he called
“Pithecanthropus alalus”, that is “speechless apeman”. He had been interested in languages since the days of his friendship with Jena philologist
August Schleicher, supporter of an evolutionary interpretation of languages, and was aware of the studies performed by his cousin Wilhelm Bleek in
South Africa on the language spoken by the Bushmen which Bleek suggested represented the nearest approximation to the original language of
humankind. Haeckel used Bleek’s studies to claim that there was a hierarchy of languages corresponding to the hierarchy of races which spoke
them. He claimed that this hierarchy of languages showed that the “lower” human races were closer to apes than to the “higher” races – the highest
being the educated man descended from the ancient Greeks. Culture was for Haeckel a much stronger method of studying humans than the physical
anthropology propounded by his former teacher Virchow.

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A vital aspect of Haeckel’s programme of a “unity of culture” was his attempt to provide a bridge between biological science and art, the result of
which was the visually dazzling Kunstformen der Natur, the Art Forms of Nature, published in 1904. With the assistance of Jena artist-lithographer
Adolf Giltsch, Haeckel produced one hundred plates depicting the forms of animal life, mainly marine animals. With this book Haeckel wanted to
create an “aesthetics of nature” and to show how the incessant struggle for existence he had learnt from Darwin was in fact producing an endless
beauty and variety of forms – Darwin and Humboldt combined together.

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Actiniae, plate 49 from Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1904) — Source. (Buy as a print)

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Mycetozoa, plate 93 from Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1904) — Source. (Buy as a print or a t-shirt)

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Trachomedusae, plate 98 from Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1904) — Source. (Buy as a print)

In all his works Haeckel focused on the aspects of knowledge that pointed to a general unitarian outlook, a unity he believed to underlie the
super cial diversity of all things. Haeckel called his view of unity “monism”, a term coined in juxtaposition to dualist conceptions, which postulated
gaps or oppositions in the explanation of reality in all its aspects. His hostility to dualism was such that over time he would come to label anything he
disliked as dualist. In perfect Orwellian fashion, he held the motto “monist good – dualist bad” as his main guiding mantra. is monism became a
real philosophy, a theology and an ideology. In it there was no room for the traditional Christian God, which science, Haeckel said with dubious
humour, had reduced to a mere “gaseous vertebrate”.

Rather than an atheism, however, Haeckel saw a unity of God and nature in a conception reminiscent of Spinoza’s Pantheism. Following his main
theological in luence, David Friedrich Strauss, Haeckel believed that science had killed the traditional concept of God and replaced it with the forces
of nature which were best made sense of by the modern theory of evolution. us evolution – Darwinism combined with Lamarck – was the
foundation that made possible the modern worldview. No dualism, no divine creation, no a terlife, just the eternal existence of force and matter in
incessant change. Individuals were the ephemeral means for the maintenance of force and matter, and into the eternal substance of the universe
from which they had come they would return: from here to eternity. Monism became a true movement and the Monist League became a major
reference for the educated free-thinkers around the turn of the century, Haeckel being openly advocated as the “anti-pope”.

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Trochilidae , plate 99 from Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur (1904) — Source. (Buy as a print)

e very beginning of the twentieth century saw the publication of Die Welträtsel ( e Riddle of the Universe), which served to summarise and
expound all his main views. e book was widely read and translated into many languages. It made Haeckel possibly the most famous scientist of
the time. It was the triumph of progress and monism, the light for the new path that mankind had to follow in order to build a brave new world. But
a tragic event seemed to destroy that plan – the First World War. Haeckel was devastated, blaming it all on British greed. When the war was over,
however, he did regain some of his optimism, not realizing though that with the war his dream of progress through evolution and the nal marriage
of scienti c and artistic truth was smashed, and with it too the fame of Professor Ernst Haeckel.

Dr Mario A. Di Gregorio is Professor of the History of Science at the University of L’Aquila, Italy, and Visiting Academic at the University of Cape Town, South Africa. His main
publications include: T.H.Huxley’s Place in Natural History, New Haven-London: Yale University Press 1984; Charles Darwin’s Marginalia (with N.W. Gill), vol.1, New York: Garland 1990;
and From Here to Eternity. Ernst Haeckel and Scienti c Faith, Göttingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht 2005.

Public Domain Works

All 100 plates from Kunstformen der Natur / Artforms of Nature (1904)

wikimedia commons
e History of Creation (1876) translation by E. Ray Lankester of Natürliche Schöpfungsgeschichte (1868)

Vol I txt / Vol II txt

Vol I pdf online / Vol II pdf online
Vol I pdf download / Vol II pdf download
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Further Reading

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY: ERNST HAECKEL AND SCIENTIFIC FAITH (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2005)

by Mario A Di Gregorio

An examination of the origin, sources, structure, signi cance and consequences of the theory of the German biologist, philosopher, and artist Ernst Haeckel.

ART FORMS IN NATURE: THE PRINTS OF ERNST HAECKEL (Prestel, 2008)

by Ernst Haeckel, Olaf Breidbach, Richard Hartmann, Irenaeus Eibl-Eibesfeldt

A reprint, in English, of Ernst Haeckel’s groundbreaking Kunstformen der Natur. With the assistance of artist-lithographer Adolf
Giltsch, Haeckel produced one hundred stunning plates, depicting his vision of an “aesthetics of nature”.

Books link through to Amazon who will give us a small percentage of sale price (ca. 6%). Discover more recommended
books in our dedicated section of the site: FURTHER READING.

More than 50 images from Haeckel’s Kunstformen der Natur available as museum-quality ne art prints in
our online shop

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