Karl Erich Correns

Correns, Karl Erich 

Born Sept. 19, 1864, in Munich; died Feb. 14, 1933, in Berlin. German botanist.

Upon graduating from the University of Munich, Correns received a doctoral degree in 1889. He was a professor at the University of Tubingen from 1897, the University of Leipzig from 1903 to 1907, and the University of Munster from 1909 to 1914. From 1914 to 1933 he served as director of the Institute for Biology in Berlin. His principal contribution was the rediscovery and confirmation (simultaneously with H. de Vries and E. Tschermak) of the laws of heredity established by G. Mendel. Correns’ works were devoted to the further study of the phenomena of inheritance in plants: xenias, sex determination, variegation, and cytoplasmic inheritance. He anticipated the concept of linkage and exchange of genetic factors in chromosomes (1902) and of Mendelian sex inheritance in plants.

WORKS

Gesammelte Abhandlungen zur Vererbungswissenschaft aus periodischen Schriften, 1899–1924. Berlin, 1924.
Bestimmung, Vererbung und Verteilung des Geschlechtes bei den hoheren Pflanzen. Berlin, 1928.
Nicht Mendelnde Vererbung. Berlin, 1937.

REFERENCES

Roberts, H. F. Plant Hybridization Before Mendel. Princeton, 1929. Pages 335–43.
Rizhkov, V. “Karl Erikh Korrens.” In K. Correns, Pro nemendelistychnu spadkovist’. Kiev, 1934. Pages 5–14.
Gaisinovich, A. E. Zarozhdenie genetiki. Moscow, 1967.

A. E. GAISINOVICH