Gottfried S. Fraenkel
German-American entomologist
Gottfried Samuel Fraenkel (April 29, 1901 – October 27, 1984) was a German-born American insect physiologist and a professor of entomology at the University of Illinois. He is considered a founding figure in the field of insect nutrition and endocrinology. He also studied insect behavior and wrote an influential book along with D.L. Gunn, The Orientation of Animals (1940, 1961).
Biography
Fraenkel was born in Munich in a Jewish family. His father was a Justizrat (councillor of justice). He trained to play the piano at home and went to obtain a teaching degree at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and attended the course of R. C. Hertwig, Karl von Goebel, Richard Willstatter, W. K. Rontgen, and Karl von Frisch. He was interested in aquatic biology and maintained specimens in a tank but when they all died he had to visit the Marine Zoological Stations in Naples. He examined jellyfish that had blown into Naples during a storm and hypothesized that medusa statocysts acted as gravity sensors. He then returned to the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and wrote his thesis on the subject under professor Otto Koehler. He received a doctorate in 1925.
“Gottfried S. Fraenkel” enters the record as german-American entomologist. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Gottfried, Fraenkel and German-American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Gottfried S. Fraenkel” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Gottfried, Fraenkel and German-American provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q23830008. VIAF identifies the subject as 91477213. The Library of Congress control number is n80131161. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1901, 1984, 1940 and 1961.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Gottfried S. Fraenkel”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Gottfried S. Fraenkel primary sources, Gottfried S. Fraenkel archive and Gottfried research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gottfried S. Fraenkel”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gottfried S. Fraenkel” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.