Fritz Isidore van Emden

Fritz Isidore van Emden (1898 – 1958) also known as Frits van Emden was an entomologist who specialized in Coleoptera and Diptera.

Biography

Fritz Isidore van Emden was born in Amsterdam on 3 October 1898. Van Emden's parents were textile dealer Abraham van Emden (1873-1939) and Konstanze Irma Lippman (1875-1949), who had married at Leipzig on 23 March 1897.

In 1900, the van Emden family moved from the Netherlands to Germany after Abraham's textile business went into bankruptcy, as the law in the Netherlands at that time meant that a person who was declared bankrupt could not begin a new business. Fritz van Emden later recalled to his son Helmut that seeing insects attacking his father's stock had sparked his interest in Entomology. He studied Natural Sciences at the University of Leipzig and received his doctorate in 1921.

Van Emden became a Carabidae specialist and from 1927 worked at the Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde und Völkerkunde in Dresden, In 1932 van Emden attended the 5th International Congress of Entomology at Paris as a German representative. Because Van Emden's mother was Jewish, he faced persecution when the Nazis came to power in 1933 and he was barred from Civil Service employment. Van Emden was reported for his Jewish heritage by the Dresden Museum's director, Arnold Jacobi, who let him continue his private research in the Museum library, though unpaid. Van Emden was interviewed and granted exemption from Internment on 10 October 1939.

Van Emden died of a brain tumour on 2 September 1958 shortly before he was due to retire, Van Emden, Frits [sic]: Zur Kenntnis der Brutpflege von Asellus aquaticus nebst Bemerkungen über die Brutpflege anderer Isopoden, Archiv für Naturgeschichte, Volume 88 Abteilung A, pages 91–133 (1922) Van Emden, Fritz: Die verwandtschaftliche Stellung von Euxestus nebst Beschreibung neuer Arten der Gattung, Tijdschrift voor Entomologie, volume 71, pages 84–110 (1928) Van Emden, Fritz: Vier neue Carabiden des Museums für Tierkunde zu Dresden, Deutsche Entomologische Zeitschrift, pages 375-384 (1928) Van Emden, Fritz: Zur kenntnis der morphologie und ökologie des brotkäfer-parasiten cephalonomia quadridentata duchaussoy. Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Ökologie der Tiere, volume 23, pages 425–574 (1931) Van Emden, Fritz: An Indian Cerambycid damaging Tea Cases. Bulletin of Entomological Research, 28(2), pages 321-323. (1937) Van Emden, F.I.: On the Genus Thaumaphrastus Blaisdell (Coleoptera: Thorictidae). Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, (XLVI), pages 39–41 (April 1951)