Adolf Franke (paleontologist)

Adolf Franke (born August 17, 1860 near Ettischleben ; † June 19, 1942 in Arnstadt ) was a German pioneer in micropalaeontology .

Franke was the son of a cantor and secondary school teacher, grew up in Ettischleben, attended the teachers' seminar in Sondershausen and from 1885 was a teacher at the community school in Arnstadt. He was unable to complete a natural science course he was aiming for, but did attend three semesters as a guest student at the University of Jena with Ernst Haeckel, among others . He was a teacher in Gehren and Neusalz on the Oder, at the girls 'higher school in Luckenwalde and from 1899 in Dortmund as a senior teacher and later a teacher at the municipal higher girls' school and at the teacher training institute. In 1923 he retired and moved back to Thuringia (Arnstadt). At that time he wanted to catch up on his natural science studies in Münster, but then had to do without it for financial reasons.

In Dortmund he was in contact from 1903 with the mapping geologists of the Prussian Geological State Institute. He published essays on fossil foraminifera and ostracods , especially from the Upper Cretaceous Westphalia, and invented the Franke cells , which are still used today, for storing microfossils .

He was in correspondence with the American micropalaeontologist Joseph Augustine Cushman . In his day, micropaleontology was still neglected in Germany, while in the USA it experienced an upswing due to the search for oil.

In 1939 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena and an honorary member of the Thuringian Geological Association . For many years he was a member of the Natural History Association in Dortmund. His collection is at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg . Further type material is in the collection of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Raw Materials in Berlin-Spandau and foraminifera of the Pomeranian chalk in Greifswald.

literature

• Norbert Hauschke, Sascha Gast, Sophie Kretschmer: Adolf Franke (1860–1942): Pioneer of micropalaeontology and inventor of the Franke cell, in: Arnstadt Castle Museum: Research and Invention from Arnstadt, 2016
• Rolf Schroeder: Adolf Franke and Joseph A. Cushman - an unknown chapter from the history of German micropalaeontology, Geologisches Jahrbuch A, Volume 128, 1991, pp. 17–34
• Heinrich Hiltermann : Adolf Franke, Adalbert Liebus and Ludwig Rhumbler to commemorate, petroleum and coal, Volume 4, 1962, pp. 7-14

Fonts

• The preparation of foraminifera and other microscopic animal remains, in K. Keilhack, Textbook of practical geology, mineralogy and palaeontology, Enke, 4th edition 1922, pp. 509-533
• The foraminifera of the Pomeranian Chalk, Abh. Paleont. Inst. Univ. Greifswald, Volume 6, 1925, pp. 2-96
• Recent experiences with the storage and preparation of microfossils, Paläontologische Zeitschrift, Volume 9, 1927, pp. 109–111
• The foraminifera of the Upper Cretaceous Northern and Central Germany, Abh. Preuss. Geolog. Landesanstalt, NF, Volume 111, 1928, pp. 1-207
• The foraminifera of the German Lias, Abh. Preuss. Geolog. Landesanstalt, NF, Volume 169, 1936, pp. 1-138

Individual evidence

1. ↑ https://www.thueringer-allgemeine.de/kultur/mikropalaeontologe-dr-franke-vor-150-jahren-in-ettischleben-geboren-id217504941.html
2. ^ Honorary members of the TGV