KARL ALFRED VON ZTTTEL.. 



781 



In ]Sr)'2 Zittel wa< a voliinlccr assistant to the ii^eolDiri^^'iil siirvev of 

 Austria, being associated with I*\ \()n TIaucr and (}. Stache in map- 

 ping- the coast region of Dalniatia. 



In 1S()3 he Avas oU'ercMl the position of pi'otVssor ordinarius at 

 Ijem])erg, but declined it to accej^t a far less well-endowed ])()sition 

 as assistant in the Koyal IMineral Cabinet of Vienna, now known as 

 the Royal Natural History jNIuseuni. This determination on the {)art 

 of the idealist, Zittel, caused much surj^rise, yet to him the great 

 paleontologic collections of Vienna were of far greater interest than 

 the salary attached to the professorshi}). His decision was fortunate 

 for j)aleontology : he here began his paleontologic career in his studies 

 of the bivalves of the Gosau formation — his hrst extensive work. 



In 1S()3 he I'eturned to his home in liaden. and accepted the pro- 

 fessorship of minei'alogy, geognosy, and paleontology at the Poly- 

 technic School at Karlsruhe. Here he remained three years, during 

 which, time he married Miss Ida Schirmer, a daughter of I. W. Schir- 

 mer, the landscape painter, and director of the Karlsruhe Art School. 



At the age of -27 years, or in the autunni of 1S(')(), he was callen to 

 Munich, to the distinguished position of professor of paleontology 

 and conservator of the i)aleont()logical collections of Bavaria. This 

 position had lieen made vacant by the early death of All)ert Oppel. 

 In 1S80 he declined a call to (i(")ttingen as successor to von Seebach, 

 and was made })rofessor of geology; also, after the death of Schaf- 

 hiiutle in 1890, he was appointed conservator of the Bavarian geolog- 

 ical collections. 



" Munich l)ecame Zittel's second home. Here he taught and labored 

 for more than thirty-seven years. These were years rejjlete with con- 

 tinuous and fruitful investigation and instruction — a long period of 

 labor which was only occasionally interrupted by grudgingly allowed 

 vacations and these were not infrequently devoted to sc-ientific joui-- 

 neys. Strict and loyal in the fulfillment of duty, and an example to 

 all as a lover of work, Zittel could be found day after day in his 

 simple workroom in the grey Alte Akademie in Neidiauserstrasse. 

 During his last months of illness it was very hard for him to be kejit 

 from the daily walk to his Institute and from the treasures of his col- 

 lections. Ceaseless work was the motto of his life — o\m on his last 

 sick bed he wrote for the completion of the second iMlition of his 

 (Jrundziige dei- Balaeontologie — till d(>ath i)ut an end to his life and 

 to his labors. 



'•At Munich Zittel entered the held of work to which he was emi- 

 nently fitted. Here he was held in highest esteem, established a ^ 

 world-wide reputation, and created for himself and for Munich the 

 greatest renown l)y his brilliant worlcs. the chief being the Handbucli 

 der Palaeontologie. The Munich Paleontoloa-ic Museum — ZitteFs col- 



