Rudolf Sophus Bergh (1859-1924)
Associate professor of zoology 1889-1903, MSc natural history 1882, DSc 1885, specialist in invertebrates including earthworms and leeches.
Rudolf Bergh introduced Ernst Haeckel’s phylogenetic work at the university and lectured on comparative embryology from 1885. He was the first university teacher to base his lectures on evolutionary principles, and he also introduced microscopy in the university laboratories. Bergh was a great inspiration for his students including the writers J.O. Bøving-Petersen and Johannes Jørgensen. He published his lectures in the textbook Forelæsninger over den almindelige Udviklingshistorie [Lectures on the General History of Evolution] (Copenhagen: P.G. Philipsens Forlag, 1887), which was translated into German and Russian. In 1903 he left academia in order to pursue a musical career.
Hans Henrik Hjermitslev
