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Otakar Nickerl

physician and entomologist (1838-1920)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMay 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ12773223 ↗
Source-derived summary

Otakar Nickerl (22 January 1838 – 3 September 1920) was a Czech medical doctor and entomologist who contributed to the entomology collections at the National Museum in Prague. Along with his father František Antonín Nickerl (1813–1871) and his son Otakar Nickerl Jr. (1873–1904), the three generations of Nickerls were involved in establishing the entomological collections at the National Museum. He was also a pianist and composer of some choral and solo piano pieces.

Life

Nickerl was born in Prague, Bohemia, Austrian Empire, in the German speaking household of entomologist František Antonín Nickerl (1813–1871) and Emilie, born Sieglová (born 1815). He studied at the local schools and went to study medicine in Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. He studied botany under Philipp Maximilian Opiz and worked as an assistant from 1864 at the University of Prague. In 1869 he became a professor of natural science at the Prague Polytechnic. In 1871 he married Christina, born Hennevogel von Ebenburg (1839–1911) and they had sons Francis (born 1872) and Otakar (born 1873, who also became an entomologist). He collected and exchanged insect specimens with others and added to the collection of his father.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Otakar Nickerl” as physician and entomologist (1838-1920). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1838, 1920, 1813, 1871—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1838-01-22. The account is most persuasive where Otakar, Nickerl and physician can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as physician and entomologist (1838-1920). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

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 May 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q12773223. VIAF identifies the subject as 83840942. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1838, 1920, 1813 and 1871.

Critical limits

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Otakar Nickerl” 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.