 The Institute was founded by German zoologist Otto Zacharias as "Hydrobiologische Station zu Plön".Working in Italy in the 1880s, Zacharias was inspired by the highly recognised Stazione Zoologica in Naples, founded in 1870 by Anton Dohrn, to set up the first "Biological Station" for freshwater research in Germany.He secured financial support from the Prussian government and several private individuals to establish it on Großer Plöner See in 1891, as a private research institute.