Walter Arndt

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Walter Arndt (born 8 January 1891 in Landeshut, Silesia, now Kamienna Góra, Poland; died 26 June 1944 in Brandenburg) was a German zoologist and physician.

[edit] Life

At the University of Breslau, Arndt studied medicine and zoology. Even while he was still studying, several companies invited him to take part in various expeditions.

In this way, Arndt ended up exploring the Hohe Tauern, Corsica, and Norway. In 1920, he was appointed as a volunteer of the Zoological Institute at the University of Breslau. There he published his first research findings.

In 1921, Arndt changed jobs and became an assistant at the Zoological Institute in Berlin. In 1923, he was instrumental in the large-scale hydrochemical study of the North Sea. He became curator in 1925 and an "ordinary professor" (ordentlicher Professor) in 1931. From 1926, Arndt acted as publisher of Fauna Arctica. In 1938, he was appointed to the International Zoological Nomenclature Commission.

Having made some criticisms of the Nazi régime, Arndt was denounced in 1944 and sentenced to death. Despite many appeals for clemency from academic quarters, Arndt was executed on 11 May 1944 in Brandenburg. He was fifty-three years old.