Albert Wigand (meteorologist)

Göttingen city cemetery, grave of Albert Wigand

Albert Wigand (born October 21, 1882 in Kassel , † December 18, 1932 in Hamburg ) was a German university professor and meteorologist .

Life

The son of a Catholic apostolic clergyman studied mathematics, natural sciences and philosophy at the universities of Marburg and Munich from 1901 to 1906 . In 1905 he received his doctorate in Marburg. After working as a physical assistant in Marburg, Dresden and Halle for several years, he completed his habilitation in Halle in 1911. During the First World War, Wigand served as a balloon observer and meteorologist for the airship troops. In 1921 he was appointed a non-civil servant associate professor at the University of Halle . From 1925 to 1929 he taught as a full professor for physics and meteorology at the Hohenheim Agricultural University. In 1929 he was appointed full professor of meteorology at Hamburg University . Since 1929 he was also part-time director of the meteorological research institute in Groß Borstel . In the 1931/32 year of office, Wigand was elected rector of Hamburg University.

During his rectorate, Wigand made a name for himself as a sharp opponent of the Weimar Republic and a supporter of the National Socialist-dominated student body. He described the political situation in Germany as an “ Augean stable ” that had to be cleared of “defilement” and “foreign work”, publicly called for a “new empire” and, at the request of the student body, put lectures on “ military science ” on the university's curriculum.

Works

• Scientific rises in a free balloon , 1914,
• Air-electrical investigations during aircraft ascents , 1925,
• The atmosphere as a colloid (with August Schmauß ), 1929.

literature

• Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. Deutscher Wirtschaftsverlag, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 , p. 2032 f. (with photo).
• German Biographical Encyclopedia , Vol. 10, Munich 1999, p. 492.
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar , 4th edition, Berlin / Leipzig 1931, column 3972 f.

Web links

• Rector's speech in 1931
• Newspaper article about Albert Wigand in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Entry on Albert Wigand in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Eckart Krause u. a. (Ed.): Everyday university life in the "Third Reich". The Hamburg University 1933-1945 , Part I, Berlin / Hamburg 1991, p. 39 ff.