Adam August Krantz

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Adam August Krantz (born December 6, 1808 in Neumarkt , Silesia , † April 6, 1872 in Berlin ) was a German mineralogist , mineral dealer and fossil collector .

Krantz attended grammar school in Breslau , went to Goldberg in the Giant Mountains to become a pharmacist and from 1832 studied at the Freiberg Mining Academy . There he was a student of Ferdinand Reich . He collected minerals and made it his job as a student. From 1833 he began his mineral and fossil trade there and moved to Berlin in 1837. He was successful and moved to Bonn in 1850 , where he later founded the Rheinische Mineralien-Kontor . There he had contact with Alexander von Humboldt , Robert Bunsen , Carl Remigius Fresenius , Guido Sandberger and Gerhard vom Rath and international customers. His company still exists today. He was a member of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors .

Krantz also later visited many sites himself and published about them, including about the mineral sites on Elba . In addition to minerals, he also dealt with fossils , especially from the area around Bonn (many of the fossils there were named in his honor with the addition krantzi ).

The knocking of rocks onto a hand-sized specimen shape is called canting .

He first described orangite (an orange-colored thorium-containing mineral found in Norway). The fossil resin Krantzit is named after him.

After his death, his son-in-law Theodor Hoffmann took over the company and sold Krantz's private collection of 14,000 copies to the Mineralogical Museum of the University of Bonn . Hoffmann managed the company until 1888 and was supported by the mineralogist Carl Hintze . Krantz's nephew, Friedrich Ludwig Robert Krantz (1859–1926) then took over. He also changed the company name to Dr. F. Krantz. Rheinisches Mineralien-Kontor .

literature

  • F. Krantz: Dr. Adam August Krantz, 1808–1972 - a picture of life. Aufschluss, Vol. 9, No. 12, 1958, pp. 334-336.
  • W. Fuchs: 150 years of mineral trading, anniversary of the Dr. Krantz. Lapis, Vol. 8, No. 11, 1983, pp. 21-23.
  • 150 years of KRANTZ: From mineral comptoir to largest geo-specialist trade in the world! Magma, No. 1, 1983, pp. 38-39.
  • R. Krantz: 150 years of Dr. Krantz. The oldest German mineral dealership. Der preparator, vol. 30, no. 1, 1984, pp. 221-226.
  • 175 years of Dr. F. Krantz Rheinisches Mineralienkontor. Lapis, Vol. 34, No. 2, 2009, pp. 42-43.
  • J. Dietrichs: Vivat, floreat, crescat! 175 years of “Dr. Krantz Rheinisches Mineralien-Kontor “: 200th birthday of Adam August Krantz - viewed in the mirror of the mineral labels. Mineralien-Welt, Volume 20, No. 1, 2009, pp. 31-45.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Members of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors 1857
  2. ↑ Mindat, Orangit
personal data
SURNAME Krantz, Adam August
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mineralogist, fossil collector and mineral dealer
DATE OF BIRTH December 6, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Neumarkt , Silesia
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1872
Place of death Berlin