Langbahn Team – Weltmeisterschaft

Heinrich Frey

Heinrich Frey

Heinrich Frey (June 15, 1822 – January 17, 1890) was a German-born Swiss entomologist who studied Lepidoptera.

Biography

Heinrich Frey was born on June 15, 1822 in Frankfurt. He attended the gymnasium in Frankfurt until he was 16. Here he met Senator Carl Heinrich Georg von Heyden (1793–1866) who introduced him to entomology. He attended the University in Frankfurt, then travelled to Bonn, Berlin, and Göttingen.

When he returned to Frankfurt am Main in 1839 von Heyden showed him Philipp Christoph Zeller's Attempt at a Classification of the Tineinae which had just appeared in Oken's Isis. Until this publication, this group of moths had been hopelessly confused and Frey was impressed by Zeller's orderly arrangement.

Returning to Göttingen in 1847 he first became a private tutor, then an “extraordinary” professor at the University. (An extraordinary professorial chair is one created by a university because of an application from an outside organisation that feels that a certain field is not given enough attention). In 1849, he was offered a professorial post by the University of Zurich, which he accepted.

In 1851, Frey became an ordinary professor in the Medical Faculty, soon after also becoming a Professor at the confederate Polytechnikum. He also became Director of the microscopical anatomical institute and from 1854 to 1856 Rector of the High School. Frey spent the rest of his life in Switzerland. He died in Zürich on January 17, 1890, at the age of 67.

Work

His most important publications were:

Biodiversity Heritage Library [1] has other works by Heinrich Frey