Max Fürbringer

Max Carl Anton Fürbringer (January 30, 1846 – March 6, 1920) was a German anatomist, known for his anatomical investigations of all types of vertebrates; he specialized in ornithology particularly avian morphology and classification. He was responsible for the first major phylogenetic ordering of bird groups based on a large scale study of a combination skeletal, morphological and anatomical characteristics.

Max was the first son of Karl Fürbringer, and Hermine. Although he was born in Wittenberg, his father's work in the government involved travel and he was raised by relatives in Gera. Max was taught and influenced by Karl Theodor Liebe, a bird enthusiast who kept many kinds of birds. Max spent his early childhood collecting butterflies, bees, mosses and ferns. He was also interested in coins. Max's brother Paul would later become an eminent physicist. Max studied at the universities of Berlin and Jena, where he was a student of Karl Gegenbaur. Fürbringer would be one of Gegenbaur's most ardent disciples and supporters. One of Fürbringer teachers was Ernst Haeckel about whom he wrote glowingly: "He stepped into the auditorium, not with the measured step of the professor, but with the triumphant charging-along of an Apollonian youth, hurrying toward the cathedra, a tall, slender, impressive form; ... golden, flying locks, large, blue, flashing eyes—probably the most beautiful man that I had ever seen, and it seemed to me as if the room, which had already been bright, became noticeably brighter..." He obtained his doctorate with a thesis on the muscles and bones of dinosaurs. He later worked as a prosector under Gegenbaur at the University of Heidelberg, followed by professorships in Amsterdam, Jena (from 1888) and Heidelberg (from 1901). In 1901 he replaced Gegenbaur at Heidelberg as professor and stayed on until 1912 when his student (and later son-in-law) Hermann Braus took over. He then served as an außerordentliche (=extraordinary) professor at the University of Marburg.

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