Bernhard von Cotta

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Bernhard von Cotta, lithographed drawing by Johann Georg Weinhold , 1847
Bernhard von Cotta's grave in Freiberg
Plaque on Cotta's house in Freiberg

Carl Bernhard von Cotta (born October 24, 1808 in the forester's house in Kleine Zillbach ; † September 14, 1879 in Freiberg ) was an important German geologist and mining scientist.

Life

The son of the forest scientist Heinrich Cotta studied mineralogy and geology at the Bergakademie Freiberg from 1827 , where he joined the Corps Montania in 1829 . From 1831 he studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg , where he received his doctorate in 1832, and at the Tharandt Forestry Academy . After completing his studies Cotta got a job as a secretary at the Forest Academy in 1839.

As early as 1832 he worked on the publication of the geognostic map of Saxony. Initially under the direction of Carl Amandus Kühn , Cotta took over the management of the work from 1835 together with Carl Friedrich Naumann .

In 1842, after Naumann left for Leipzig , he took over his chair for geognosy in Freiberg and in 1845 also completed the geognostic map of Saxony. Inspired by the Ice Age theory disseminated by Louis Agassiz , he found glacier traces near the Hohburg Mountains east of Leipzig that made a big impression on him: “Should the Nordic glaciers really have reached from the Scandinavian mountains to the Wurzen hills? The thought freezes me. ”Cotta expanded his lecture to include the areas of petrification theory and theory of ore deposits. In 1846 Cotta founded the Tambacher Steinkohlen-Actien-Verein, which he chaired. In 1848 he was one of the founding members of the German Geological Society . He also ran for the Frankfurt National Assembly and was active on the board of the Vaterlandsverein and the gymnastics club in Freiberg.

As a participant in the March Revolution , Cotta was pardoned in 1849. While his father Heinrich Cotta had always refused to renew the family's original title of nobility, it was re-awarded to his three sons Bernhard, Wilhelm and August in 1858 on application.

Bernhard von Cotta's investigations were by no means limited to Germany. From 1854 he also described the ore deposits in Transylvania , Hungary , the Banat , Serbia , the Bukovina and in the Eastern Alps . On behalf of the Russian Tsar Alexander II , he traveled to the Altai in 1868 . In 1863 he was elected a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and in 1864 a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

Cotta, who had been Bergrat since 1862, retired in 1874. His successor was Alfred Wilhelm Stelzner . Cotta died in Freiberg in 1879 and was buried in the Donatsfriedhof .

The Dorsum Von Cotta on the Earth's moon is named after him.

Fonts

  • The dendroliths in relation to their internal structure. Dresden and Leipzig 1832.
  • Geognostic map of Saxony. 1832-1845
  • Tharand and its surroundings. Leipzig / Dresden 1834 ( digitized ).
  • Geognostic walks
    • Volume 1: Geognostic description of the Tharandt area. A contribution to the knowledge of the Ore Mountains. Dresden / Leipzig 1836 ( digitized ).
    • Volume 2: The storage conditions at the border between granite and cuboid sandstone near Meissen, Hohnstein, Zittau and Liebenau. Dresden / Leipzig 1838
  • Instructions for studying geology and geognosy. Especially for German foresters, farmers and technicians. Dresden (among others) 1839
  • Geognostic map of Thuringia. 1843-1848.
  • Bernhard von Cotta, Joseph Fournet : The ore veins and their relationships to the igneous rocks, proven in the Departement de l'Aveyron by Fournet, Prof. in Lyon, freely translated and provided with comparative remarks about the Saxon veins. Dresden / Leipzig 1846.
  • Guide and Vademecum of Geognosy. Dresden and Leipzig, Arnoldische Buchhandlung 1849.
  • (Compilation): Geognostic maps of our century. Freiberg 1850.
  • The inner structure of the mountains. Freiberg 1851.
  • Gait studies or contributions to the knowledge of the veins. Volumes 1-4, Freiberg 1850-1862.
  • Geological letters from the Alps. Leipzig 1850.
  • Letters about Humboldt's cosmos. A commentary on this work for educated laypeople. Leipzig 1850–1860 (several editions).
  • Geological pictures. Leipzig 1852 (several editions).
  • Rock theory. Vol. 1–2, Freiberg 1855, 1866 (English).
  • Doctrine of the seam formations. Freiberg 1856.
  • Germany's soil, its geological structure and its impact on human life. Volume 1–2, Leipzig 1854 and 1858.
  • Doctrine of the ore deposits. Volume 1–2, Freiberg 1854 / 1859–1861, 1870 (English).
  • Geological issues. Freiberg 1858.
  • Catechism of Geology. Leipzig 1861.
  • Hungarian and Transylvanian mountain towns. Leipzig 1862.
  • together with Edmund von Fellenberg : The ore deposits of Hungary and Transylvania. Freiberg 1862.
  • Geology of the present. Leipzig 1865 (several editions).
  • Ore deposits in the Banat and Serbia. Vienna 1865.
  • The Altai , its geological structure and ore deposits. Leipzig 1871.
  • Contributions to the history of geology. Volume 1, Leipzig 1877.

literature

  • Wilhelm Haan : Bernhard von Cotta . In: Saxon Writer's Lexicon . Robert Schaefer's Verlag, Leipzig 1875, pp. 40-41.
  • Karl Müller: Bernhard v. Cotta . In: Die Natur 28 (New Series 5), 1879, p. 562.
  • Karl Alfred von Zittel :  Cotta, Bernhard von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, p. 538 f.
  • Erich Krenkel :  Cotta, Carl Bernhard von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 381 ( digitized version ).
  • Otfried Wagenbreth : Bernhard von Cotta. Life and work of a German geologist in the 19th century. Freiberg research booklets; D36. German publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1965. p. 314 ff.
  • Otfried Wagenbreth: B. v. Cotta, his geological and philosophical life's work , reports Geolog. Ges. DDR, special issue 3, 1965, pp. 111–118.
  • Collective of authors: The importance of Bernhard von Cottas for the geological sciences. Commemoration colloquium on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his death. Lectures for the Miners and Hüttenmännischen Day 1979 in Freiberg. Freiberg research booklets. D / 137: Marxism-Leninism, History of the Productive Forces. Publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1980.

Web links

Commons : Bernhard von Cotta  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ 100 years of Weinheim Senior Citizens' Convention , p. 139.Bochum, 1963
  2. ↑ Bernhard von Cotta 1844. Quoted from: Geological Society in the German Democratic Republic (ed.): Reports of the Geological Society in the German Democratic Republic for the entire field of geological sciences . Volume 5. Akademie-Verlag, 1961, p. 179.
  3. ^ Andreas W. Daum: Science popularization in the 19th century. Civil culture, scientific education and the German public, 1848–1914 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2002, p. 481 .
  4. ^ Member entry by Bernhard von Cotta (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 3, 2016.
  5. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 62.
personal data
SURNAME Cotta, Bernhard von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cotta, Carl Bernhard von (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geologist and mining scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1808
PLACE OF BIRTH Forsthaus Kleine Zillbach
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1879
Place of death Freiberg