Adolf Watznauer

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Adolf Watznauer (born April 29, 1907 in Reichenberg (Bohemia) , †  March 10, 1990 in Karl-Marx-Stadt ) was a German geologist . From 1947 he was the chief geologist at SDAG Wismut and from 1953 to 1972 he was professor at the Bergakademie Freiberg , whose geological institute he headed from 1957. The focus of his work was the geology of deposits in the Ore Mountains and mountain formation in Central Europe .

Life

Adolf Watznauer was born in Reichenberg in 1907 and began studying natural sciences in 1925 at the German University of Prague , which he completed in 1930 with a doctorate on the geology of the Giant Mountains . He then worked as a teacher at the German Middle School in Preßburg and at the grammar school in Brüx and devoted himself to geological studies in the Sudetes . From 1939 he was an employee of the deposit research center, the successor to the Saxon Geological State Office, and under Kurt Pietzsch dealt with the mineral deposit research of the Ore Mountains .

Having during the Second World War in captivity had fallen, he acted on his return from 1947 as Chief Geologist of the SDAG bismuth , which after its founding the world's third largest mining company for uranium development. As part of this activity, he created a set of 15 geological maps on a scale of 1: 200,000, which represented the entire south of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) in a uniform form . In 1953 he was also appointed professor for petrography and four years later for geology at the Bergakademie Freiberg , where he also took over the management of the geological institute in 1957. He retired in 1972 and died in Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1990 .

Scientific work

Adolf Watznauer's scientific activities included research into the basement , petrography of sediments , historical geology , hydrogeology and geotechnics . In particular, he examined deformation processes in solid rock as well as the structural storeys in the Ore Mountains. The results of his research are particularly important for the understanding of the Variscan orogeny designated phase of orogeny in Europe during the Paleozoic important. In addition, he was involved in the development of a tectonic map of Europe on a scale of 1: 2,500,000.

Awards

From 1957 Adolf Watznauer was a full member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin , which later became the Academy of Sciences of the GDR, and from 1962 he was also a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina and from 1972 of the Saxon Academy of Sciences . In addition, he was made an honorary member of the Society for Geological Sciences of the GDR, the Czechoslovak Society for Mineralogy and Geology and the Hungarian Geological Society.

In 1952 he was the first scientist to receive the honorary title of Outstanding Scientist of the People , which had been donated a year earlier in the GDR , in 1982 he received the Gustav Steinmann Medal of the Geological Association in recognition of his contributions to the understanding of the Variscan mountain structure in Central Europe, and in 1987 the Cothenius Medal in recognition of his life's work. Medal of the Leopoldina. In 1971 the Royal Academy of Sciences and Fine Arts of Belgium awarded him the gold Paul Fourmarier Medal, which had been awarded for outstanding contributions to geology in the previous decade, for his services to the exploration of crystalline .

Works (selection)

  • The geology of the Gablonz district . Series: Local history of the Gablonz district in Bohemia. Issue 4. Gablonz 1935
  • Uranium deposits on earth. Berlin 1957
  • The economic fundamentals of generating energy from uranium as fissile matter. Berlin 1960
  • On the history of the earth and the cosmos. Berlin 1973 (as co-author)
  • Dictionary geosciences German-English, English-German. Berlin 1973, 1981, 1987; Licensed edition Frankfurt am Main and Zurich 1975, 1982, 1989 (as editor)
  • The role of radon (isotope 222Rn) as an environmental factor: an overview. Berlin 1983

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Watznauer, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenberg (Bohemia)
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1990
Place of death Karl Marx City