HAECKEL, ERNST

born Feb. 16, 1834, Potsdam, Prussia died Aug. 9, 1919, Jena, Ger. in full Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel German zoologist and evolutionist who was a strong proponent of Darwinism and who proposed new notions of the evolutionary descent of man. Additional reading Wilhelm Blsche, Haeckel: His Life and Work (1906), provides data on his life and writings. Discussions of Haeckel's thought may be found in Daniel Gasman, The Scientific Origins of National Socialism: Social Darwinism in Ernst Haeckel and the German Monist League (1971), which describes Haeckel's influence on German social and political thought under National Socialism; and Gavin De Beer, Embryos and Ancestors, 3rd ed. (1958), which discusses the recapitulation theory.