Karl Bělař
microbiologist (1895-1931)
Karl Franz Josef Bělař (Czech pronunciation: [ˈbjɛlaːr̝̊] lit. "whitewasher" in Bohemian-Czech; October 14, 1895 – May 24, 1931) was an Austrian microbiologist. He was among the first to demonstrate that cell division by protists involved mitosis.
Background
Bělař was born in Vienna where his father Franz worked as a lawyer. An older sister became a mathematician while another sister was married to scientist who had a laboratory setup at home. Young Karl made use of this home laboratory, especially the microscope to study microscopic life forms even before he went to the University of Vienna and apart from his interest in protists made use of his skills in drawing, cartooning and photography. His first publication was on a flagellate Prowazeckia josephi which he described at the age of 19. During World War I he served on the Italian front as an artillery lieutenant. He returned to studies in 1919 and received a doctorate in zoology. He then joined the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Biology in Berlin under Max Hartmann.
The public source identifies “Karl Bělař” as microbiologist (1895-1931). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Karl, Bělař and microbiologist.
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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 Jan 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11735783. VIAF identifies the subject as 25345174. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1895, 1931 and 1919.
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This entry incorporates text from “Karl Bělař” 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.