From Aquatic Biology to Weismannism: Science versus Ideology

Abstract

August Weismann (1834–1914) was one of the most influential experimental biologists and theorists of the 19th century (Figure 1). Although he is best known today as the founder of the Neo-Darwinian theory of biological evolution (Weismannism) [1], the refutation of Lamarck’s idea of an “inheritance of acquired characteristics”, the concept of the mortal soma versus the potentially immortal germ line, the role of sexual reproduction with respect to the generation of variability, and the hypothesis of a “cell division limit” [2,3], his work is also relevant for marine scientists and limnologists. During his long career as a Professor at the University of Freiburg i. Br., Germany, Weismann repeatedly corrected his theories to accommodate new facts and data. Hence, he was an open-minded, non-dogmatic thinker, as well as a philosopher of science.