Abstract

A unfavourable notice written by industrial magnate Alfred Krupp has been discovered on the posterior cover sheet of the first volume of the monumental series Fauna und Flora des Golfes von Neapel, edited by the Zoological Station at Naples. Krupp’s handwritten statement affords the opportunity to discuss in more detail the intricate relationship between the founder of the first marine biology station, Anton Dohrn, and the owner of the greatest steel factory in Europe, the Krupp-family at Essen. Although Anton Dohrn did not know about Krupp’s disapproving comment he had a fine unerring instinct for the mentality of his negotiating partner, whose way of thinking rather aimed at the practical success and completion of armament factory, preventing thus a the serious rapprochement between the two personalities. Even when the Krupp-heir, Friedrich Alfred Krupp, later devoted to questions about marine biology in his new built house at Capri, and was willing to support the Zoological Station with high sponsoring, Anton Dohrn maintained a reserved attitude towards the Krupp’s offer to support the marine research financially. Likewise, he remained unimpressed, when the steel magnate was shook by the smear campaign in Capri that ultimately led to Krupp’s death in November 1902.