Hoppe:Fritz Haas

Fritz Haas was born in 1886 in Frankfurt am Main to Jewish parents. Even during his school years, he collected river and pond mussels in the Frankfurt area, guided and encouraged by his biology teacher. After graduating from high school in 1905, he studied biology in Heidelberg until he earned his doctorate and subsequently took a position at the Senckenberg Museum in 1910. In 1922, he was appointed curator, and in 1931 he participated in the Schomburgk expedition to Africa. Although the Senckenberg could operate as a civil society institution during the National Socialist regime, unlike municipal and state institutions, the renowned scientist was ultimately dismissed in 1936, forcing him to seek work abroad. In 1938, he emigrated with his family to the USA, where he conducted research at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History and established the malacological department there. Fritz Haas's monograph on the superfamily Unionacea (a family of large freshwater mussels) is still regarded as a standard work today.