Wilhelm Friedrich Georg Behn


Wilhelm Friedrich Georg Behn was a German anatomist and zoologist. For eight years he was president of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.
From 1828 he studied medicine at the Universities of Göttingen and Kiel, afterwards continuing his education in Paris, where he made the acquaintanceship of famed scientists that included Dupuytren, Flourens, Poiseuille and Chevreul. In 1837 he was named an associate professor of anatomy and physiology as well as director of the anatomical institute and the zoological museum at Kiel.
In 1845–47 he participated in a circumnavigation of the globe aboard the Danish ship "Galathea". As a result of the expedition, he collected valuable natural history material for the zoological museum in Kiel. After his return to Kiel, he was appointed a full professor of anatomy and zoology. In 1867 he resigned his professorship at Kiel as a protest against the annexation of Holstein by Prussia and the formation of the Prussian province of Schleswig-Holstein. He then relocated to Dresden, where from 1870 until his death in 1878, he served as president of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

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