Anatol Heintz, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetAnatol Heintz
Norwegian paleontologist
Date of Birth: 
Place of Birth: Saint Petersburg
About Anatol Heintz
- Anatol Heintz (9 February 1898 – 23 February 1975) was a Norwegian palaeontologist. He was born in Petrograd to the geophysicist Yevgeniy Alfredovich Heintz (1869–1918) and Olga Fyodorovna Hoffmann (1871–1958).
- He had two older siblings.
- In 1919 the family fled to Norway.
- He studied at the Norwegian National Academy of Craft and Art Industry from 1919 to 1920 and at the Royal Frederick University from 1920, where he graduated in palaeontology in 1928.
- He was then hired as a curator at the Paleontological Museum of Tøyen.
- He took the dr.philos.
- degree in 1932 on the thesis The Structure of Dinichthys.
- A Contribution to our Knowledge of the Arthrodira.
- As a researcher he was inspired by Johan Kiær, and specialized in ancient fish, conducting paleontological expeditions to Svalbard.
- In 1939 he published Cephalaspida from Downtonian of Norway, about cephalaspida excavated at Ringerike.
- He was appointed professor at the University of Oslo and director of the Paleontological Museum in 1940.In 1940 Norway was occupied by Nazi Germany.
- Open protests ensued when the Nazi authorities were about to change the rules for admission to the university in autumn 1943.
- In retaliation, the Gestapo arrested 11 staff, 60 male students and 10 female students.
- The staff Johannes Andenæs, Bjørn Føyn, Johan Christian Schreiner, Eiliv Skard, Harald K.
- Schjelderup, Odd Hassel, Ragnar Frisch, Carl Jacob Arnholm, Endre Berner and Anatol Heintz were sent to Grini concentration camp.
- Heintz was incarcerated at Bredtveit from 15 October to 22 November, then at Berg until 8 December, then at Grini until 24 December 1944.
- While at Grini he held numerous popular science lectures for the other inmates.After the war he assumed his positions as professor and director, which he held until retiring in 1966.
- He was also chairman of Norsk Geologisk Forening from 1945 to 1946, and co-founder and first chairman of Norske naturhistoriske museers landsforbund from 1938 to 1949 and 1958 to 1961.
- He was also a fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and an honorary member of the Geological Society of London.Since 1928 he was married to Mary Solnørdal (1901–1991).
- Their daughter Natascha Heintz became a notable palaeontologist.
- Anatol Heintz died in February 1975 in Bærum.
Read more at Wikipedia