Alexander Wettstein

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Alexander Wettstein at the age of 25
The Alexander stone on a drawing by Rudolf Ringger
The Alexanderstein 2013
Plaque

Alexander Wettstein (born December 9, 1861 in Hedingen , † July 15, 1887 in Lauterbrunnen ) was a Swiss geologist .

Life

Alexander Wettstein was the third child of secondary school teacher Heinrich Wettstein from Fällanden , who later became director of the seminar in Küsnacht. His mother was Elisabeth Wettstein, née Baumann. He got his first name in honor of the natural scientist Alexander von Humboldt . The family with nine children, three of whom died in childhood, lived on the top floor of the main seminary building.

Although Alexander originally wanted to become a farmer, after high school he entered the seminary to become a teacher. Wettstein was very active in sports, was interested in astronomy, built reliefs and apparatus, achieved top grades, especially in natural science subjects, and learned German and French as well as Latin and English. In April 1881 he received the certificate of proficiency as a primary school teacher, but took over an assistant position for physics in Neuchâtel . In the autumn of 1882 he began studying geology at the Zurich Polytechnic . In his dissertation at the University of Zurich “The geology of Zurich and its surroundings”, he also dealt with the geological peculiarities of the Küsnachter Tobel . For over a year he devoted himself to mineralogical and palaeontological studies in Munich. Several study trips, often accompanied by his former teacher Albert Heim , took him abroad.

Alexander Wettstein worked on several scientific projects, including the post-processing and documentation of the Glarus fish fossils and the creation of the first geological map of the Canton of Zurich . In 1987 a facsimile edition was published.

death

Alexander Wettstein died in a mountain accident at the age of 25. Together with his older brother Heinrich, the teachers Wilhelm Bär, Gottfried Kuhn, Karl Ziegler and the pharmacist Gustav Bider, he climbed the Jungfrau on July 14, 1887 , not least to study the effects of lightning strikes in the rocks.

All six were good mountaineers and Alexander, an experienced member of the SAC , led the expedition. The group wanted to get to the summit from the Rottalhütte via the route over the south-west ridge, which was first climbed the previous year and described in the SAC yearbook, then descend to the Rottalsattel and then spend the night in the Konkordiahütte . Despite a weather change, the group reached the summit. After a bivouac below the summit, the mountaineers came off the path the next morning in a storm, fog and blizzard and fell to their death.

Six days after leaving, their bodies were found, still connected by the rope, at the so-called trowel at the southern foot of the Jungfrau peak. On July 25th, more than 2,000 people followed the coffins of the five climbers from Zurich in the Realp cemetery.

Alexander stone

Together with the two seminar teachers Naef and Pfenninger, Alexander Wettstein was one of the co-founders of the patriotic Küsnacht association "Wulponia". At the suggestion of the members, the boulder in the lower part of the Küsnachter Tobel, which was previously called Wöschhüsli-Stei (wash house stone) because of its shape , was renamed Alexanderstein . In 1966 a memorial plaque was put up: Alexanderstein - Taveyannaz sandstone, boulder from the Glarus Alps, named in honor of the patron of Zurich geology: Dr. Alexander Wettstein, 1861 - 1887.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ ngzh.ch
  2. ↑ e-rara
  3. ^ Beautification Association Küsnacht ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Wettstein, Alexander
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss geologist
DATE OF BIRTH December 9, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Hedingen
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1887
Place of death Lauterbrunnen