Eng Hans-Joachim Zillmer
Hans-Joachim Zillmer | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | German |
| Alma mater | Bergische Universität Wuppertal; Technische Universität Berlin |
| Known for | Expanding Earth advocacy and catastrophism; Darwin's Mistake |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geology, geophysics, palaeontology (independent research) |
Hans-Joachim Zillmer (born 1950) is a German civil engineer and independent author known for popular books that challenge mainstream geology, geophysics, palaeontology and evolutionary biology. He is listed in The Worldwide List of Dissident Scientists.
Background
Zillmer studied civil engineering at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal and the Technische Universität Berlin, graduating in 1977, and subsequently founded and ran a structural-engineering firm. He works as an independent private scholar, and several of his books have been translated into multiple languages.
Ideas
Zillmer argues for a form of catastrophism in the tradition of Immanuel Velikovsky, proposing that although the Earth is an old planet, its crust was decisively reshaped by one or more global catastrophes only a few thousand years ago. In Mistake Earth Science (Irrtümer der Erdgeschichte) he advocates an Expanding Earth model in place of plate tectonics, and in Darwin's Mistake (Darwins Irrtum) he disputes macroevolution and argues for rapid, catastrophic processes in the fossil and geological record.
These positions are rejected by the mainstream earth-science and biology communities, which regard plate tectonics and evolutionary theory as well established. Zillmer presents his claims as hypotheses that, in his view, resolve inconsistencies he identifies in conventional accounts of Earth history.