Cuvier Achieved Academic Success In German

Cuvier attended the Caroline Academy in Stuttgart for an additional four years, where he excelled in all of his classes. Despite having no prior knowledge of German upon arriving, he was able to take home the school prize for it after just nine months of study. The geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (1750–1817), whose Neptunism and emphasis on the significance of careful, direct observation of three-dimensional, structural relationships of rock formations to geological understanding provided models for Cuvier's scientific theories and methods, was introduced to Cuvier through his German education.

A fascinating fact about Georges Cuvier is that he won a school competition in the German language only after more than nine months of intense study. As a result, he had access to the writings of the German geologist, Abraham Gottlob Werner. He graduated with little money to live on as he waited for a job at an academic office. He accepted a position as tutor for the Comte d'Héricy, a Protestant nobleman, at the Fiquainville château in Normandy in July 1788. He started comparing fossils to current forms there in the early 1790s.