biology

Max Hartmann

Max Hartmann is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Max Hartmann rather than just read about it. In short: Max Hartmann (7 June 1876 – 11 October 1962) was a German biologist, alluded to in the book Phylogenetic Systematics by Willi Hennig for his investigations into divisions of sciences, most notably into descriptive and explanatory. He was a philosopher of science and the author of Allgemeine Biologie [General Biology].

Key takeaways

Max Hartmann belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Max Hartmann to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Max Hartmann from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Max Hartmann (7 June 1876 – 11 October 1962) was a German biologist, alluded to in the book Phylogenetic Systematics by Willi Hennig for his investigations into divisions of sciences, most notably into descriptive and explanatory. He was a philosopher of science and the author of Allgemeine Biologie [General Biology]. The publicly available abstract of an article in Nature Magazine (1946) presents him, as a student of the sexuality and fertilization in Protozoa and Algae; that "he can look back upon a fine record of original research... His investigations of ‘relative sexuality’ [which] have led to very important biochemical studies of the substances produced and released by gametes and essential for fertilization in Algae, echinoderms, molluscs and fishes"; and he was an outspoken critic of Nazism. Hartmann was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut für Biologie.

Biography During the National Socialist era, he became an honorary professor at the University of Berlin in 1934. In 1937, his son Hans was killed in an accident during a German Nanga Parbat expedition. From 1939, Hartmann was co-editor of the journal Der Biologe, which was taken over by the SS-Ahnenerbe that year. Max Hartmann worked until 1955 at the Max Planck Institute of Biology in Tübingen, which had been created from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute after World War II, and whose headquarters had been moved to Hechingen in 1944 and then to Tübingen in 1952. In 1931, Hartmann became president of the German Zoological Society. The German Academy of Natural Sciences Leopoldina accepted him as a member in 1932. In 1934 he became a full member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. From 1935 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences.

References

"Dr. Max Hartmann". Nature. 158 (4008): 265. 24 August 1946. Bibcode:1946Natur.158Q.265.. doi:10.1038/158265a0. Full text of Allgemeine Biologie at https://archive.org/stream/allgemeinebiolog00chun/allgemeinebiolog00chun_djvu.txt

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Max Hartmann

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Max Hartmann claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Max Hartmann before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Max Hartmann ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Max Hartmann

In research: Max Hartmann appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Max Hartmann in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Max Hartmann is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1876 births, 1962 deaths, 20th-century German biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Max Hartmann outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Max Hartmann in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Max Hartmann means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Max Hartmann out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Max Hartmann in simple terms?

Why does Max Hartmann matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Max Hartmann?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Max Hartmann.