An Evaluation of Goldschmidt’s Work after Twenty Years

Abstract

Richard Goldschmidt was not the founder of a school. While he was at Munich he trained graduate students and some of these, notably Hans Nachtsheim and Julius Seiler, became prominent zoological geneticists. But after Goldschmidt had joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut in 1914, he did not teach any more nor did he accept graduate students. He held an appointment as honorary professor at the University of Berlin and his colleague at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut, Max Hartmann, made use of his appointment giving a successful lecture course and training numerous prominent biologists. Goldschmidt, however, decided on accepting his position that henceforth he would devote himself exclusively to research. Later on, during his tenure at Berkeley he did indeed train a number of graduate students but few of them continued to carry out full-time research in genetics.