Leopoldina

(full name: Leopoldina German Academy of Naturalists; Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher “Leopoldina”), oldest German society of naturalists. It was founded in 1652 by the physicist J. L. Bausch in Schweinfurt and was patterned after the Italian academies for the humanities. In 1687, Emperor Leopold I approved the school as the Emperor Leopold Academy of the Holy Roman Empire for the Study of Nature (from which the name “Leopoldina” was derived) and granted the academy extensive rights and privileges. The academy changed its location depending on the place of residence of its president. Since 1878 the academy has been located in the city of Halle (now in the German Democratic Republic). In 1972, Leopoldina had among its members more than 900 prominent scientists from both German nations and from other countries, including more than 20 Soviet scientists. Its president since 1954 has been K. Mothes, a biochemist and an academician of the Academy of Sciences of the German Democratic Republic.