Heinrich Hiltermann was born 14 June 1911 in Osnabrück, Germany, where he grew up. In 1931 he registered at the University of Münster to study natural sciences. He moved later to the universities of Innsbruck and Freiburg/Breisgau and finally to Kiel, where in 1937, he obtained his Ph.D. degree.

His first practical work was not in micropaleontology, but in hydrology, for the Atlas works in Bremen. But in 1938, he joined the Preussische Geologische Landesanstalt in Berlin as a micropaleontologist. There he became an assistant to C. A. Wicher. During the war years, from 1939 until 1944, Hiltermann was stationed in Polish Galicia, where he organized and directed the oil industry micropaleontological laboratories in Jaslo and Boryslow. From 1945 until his early retirement in 1972, caused by progressive multiple sclerosis, Heinrich Hiltermann was in charge of biostratigraphy and paleontology at the Bundesanstalt für Bodenforschung in Hannover. Since 1967, he held the rank of a science director. Beginning in 1952, he also lectured in micropaleontology at Göttingen University, where he became a professor in 1964. As recipient of a Fulbright grant, in 1955, Hiltermann spent several months in the U.S.A.

His long publication list, which to date numbers more than 150 titles, shows that Heinrich Hiltermann is a micropalcontologist of unusually wide interests, covering phylogeny, ecology, biostratigraphy, nomenclature, classification, and population studies, mostly using smaller benthic foraminifera. The subject of his first research on phylogenies, the theme of his Ph.D. thesis, was not microfossils, however, but ammonites from the Dogger. Best known of his foraminiferal phylogenetic investigations are his studies on evolutionary trends in Bolivinoides and Neoflabellina. Much of his research is of biostratigraphic nature; he did basic work, particularly in the Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary of NW Germany and in the Karpatian flysch deposits. In applying the method of Braun-Blanquet for plant sociology, Hiltermann not only succeeded in distinguishing living and fossil benthic foraminiferal biocoenoses, but also tested them in different environments.

Apart from his scientific contributions, Hiltermann is well known for his continuous effort to disseminate the value of micropaleontology as applied to biostratigraphy. For many years he regularly summarized research results of the two Germanies, added bibliographic notes, and published them in the Paläontologische Zeitschrift. Until 1970 he reviewed newly published papers on foraminifera in the Zentralblatt für Geologie und Paläontologie, and also organized over 50 annual progress meetings on micropaleontology in Germany. To readers of The Micropaleontologist, now Micropaleontology, Hiltermann was known for his news reports on Germany, extending from 1946 to 1969. Freund's Handbuch der Mikroskopie in der Technik contains several chapters by Hiltermann, including "History of Applied Micropaleontology," and "Application of Micropaleontology in Geology as Developed in Petroleum Geology." His major bibliographic contribution is the 403-page annotated Bibliography of Stratigraphically Important Micropaleontological Publications from about 1830 to 1958.

Heinrich Hiltermann has also contributed significantly as an organizer. Together with Jean Cuvillier, Manfred Reichel and others, he was one of the founders, in 1954, of the European Micropaleontological Colloquium, which since 1955 has been held without interruption, every second year, in a different European country. To make micropaleontological literature and specimens more accessible to researchers and commercial micropaleontologists, Hiltermann, with the support of micropaleontologists the world over, founded a center for micropaleontology in Hannover. Its collection houses some 4,000 reference types.

In 1949 Heinrich Hiltermann was one of the refounders of the Paläontologische Gesellschaft, which became defunct during the second world war. He was presented in 1972 with the Bundesverdienstkreuz, in recognition of his work for paleontology, including his untiring efforts to disseminate knowledge in natural sciences. One of the activities in this field was his chairmanship for many years of the Naturhistorische Gesellschaft Hannover, which also resulted in the publication of numerous micropaleontological papers in the periodical of that society. Hiltermann's interest in the historical development of micropaleontology is manifested by the numerous obituaries and life histories he wrote to portray outstanding researchers, such as J. A. Cushman, Helen Plummer, L. Rhumbler, J. G. Egger, A. Earland and others.

Heinrich Hiltermann maintains contacts with micropaleontologists all over the world. That he is not only an outstanding micropaleontologist, but also a person of great integrity and kindness, may be shown by the following: As mentioned above, he was stationed in Poland during World War II. When, in 1967, I attended with him the 10th European Micropaleontological Colloquium in that country, it was touching to see how he was greeted by Polish friends he had made during the occupation years. I was told that during that time he was helpful to many of them.

Since 1972, Heinrich Hiltermann has lived in Bad Laer, the home town of the Hiltermann families. Though confined to a wheelchair, he actively follows progress in micropaleontology worldwide and, at the same time, continues to publish. Papers that have appeared since his early retirement now number more than twenty.

The Board of Directors of the Cushman Foundation is honored to present the 1986 Cushman Award to Heinrich Hiltermann in recognition of his life-long engagement in micropaleontology, as a scientist, as a teacher and as a person who has contributed much to spread the application of microfossils and to make them an integrated tool in biostratigraphy and paleoecology.

HANS M. BOLLI

Paleontological Institute and Museum
University of Zijrich
Kiinstlergasse 16
CH 8006 Ziirich, Switzerland

Journal of Foraminiferal Research, v. 17, no. 3, p. 185-186, July 1987