Early life and education Karl Schultze was a son of the Halle city syndic Friedrich Schultze (1765–1806) and his wife Johanna Dorothea Apel (1765–1826). After his father's early death,
August Hermann Niemeyer, chancellor of the
University of Halle, became his guardian and enabled him to attend the Pädagogium Halle. He then studied from 1814 at the University of Halle and was a member of the
Corps Teutonia (I) Halle and the
Corps Guestphalia Halle. In 1817 he took part in the
Wartburgfest. With a doctoral thesis under
Johann Friedrich Meckel he was awarded a
Dr. med. in Halle. His
dissertation Nonnulla de primordiis systematis ossium et de evolutione spinae dorsi in animalibus was translated into French and English at
Georges Cuvier's instigation. Schultze became Meckel's assistant and – in the same year – anatomy demonstrator (
prosector). In 1821 he became director of the anatomical and physiological institutes of the
Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg.
Institute for anatomy, Greifswald In 1831 Schultze moved to the
Royal University of Greifswald. In 1855 he had his own institute for anatomy built on the site of the former Dominican monastery. The Greifswald anatomy building was long considered the best of its kind in Germany; it was restored in 1998. In 1856 Schultze gave up his chair but remained a member of the teaching staff at the University of Greifswald. In 1869, after half a century as a university lecturer, he moved to live with his son
Bernhard Sigmund Schultze in
Jena.
Zoology In 1834, Schulze gave the first formal description of any
tardigrade, specifically
Macrobiotus hufelandi, in a work subtitled "a new animal from the crustacean class, capable of reviving after prolonged asphyxia and dryness". In 1840 he named and described the genus
Echiniscus. File:Echiniscus bellermanni by Karl Schulze 1840.jpg|
Echiniscus bellermanni by Schulze, 1840, dorsal and ventral views File:Echiniscus sp.jpg|
Echiniscus sp., by Schultze, 1861 == Honours and distinctions ==