Bruno Würschmitt
Adolf Bruno Würschmitt (born December 6, 1790 in Mainz , † December 5, 1851 in Speyer ) was a German Catholic priest , cathedral capitular, natural scientist, academic book author and founding member of Pollichia .
Life
Origins and priesthood
Bruno Würschmitt was the son of Ivo Franz-Xaver Würschmitt, Elector of Mainz Court Court and Government Councilor and his wife Susanna Theresia Fritz and one of the couple's 16 children. On the occasion of the French conquest of Mainz , the family fled to Erfurt in 1792 or 1793 . The boy grew up there and attended grammar school, then the university there to study philosophy and science. He then entered the Aschaffenburg Lyceum and was ordained a priest on July 6, 1814 in Mainz. In Aschaffenburg he took up his first position as chaplain at the St. Agathenkirche. On February 5, 1818, Matthäus Georg von Chandelle , the then head of the Vicariate in Aschaffenburg , was appointed Bishop of Speyer , but it took until 1821 for the new formation of this diocese to become legally binding and for the new bishop to take office. In the course of Chandelle's move from Aschaffenburg to Speyer , he also took some of the priests he knew with him. One of those priests was Bruno Würschmitt. From 1819 brief pastor of Haßloch , he worked from 1820 to 1826 as an "zealous city pastor and prudent district school inspector" in Neustadt an der Haardt , as it is said in a contemporary article. After the canon Kraus' death, the cathedral chapter - at the suggestion of Bishop Chandelle - unanimously elected him to the cathedral capital. The introduction to the new office took place on September 23, 1827 by Chandelle's successor, Bishop Johann Martin Manl von Speyer. In addition to his work as a canon, the young canon also held the professorship for dogmatics and homiletics at the clerical seminary in Speyer, and he was a sought-after and widely known preacher. Bishop Manl regularly chose him as his companion to the meetings of the Bavarian bishops in Würzburg . This relationship of trust probably also prompted the pastor to propose Würschmitt to the state government in Munich as a candidate for the dogmatics professorship at the theological faculty planned in Speyer. It should enable the young theologians to complete their studies completely in Speyer without having to go to a foreign university. Therefore, Würschmitt readily gave his consent to take on the responsible and labor-intensive office; but the plan was ultimately not implemented.
Activity as a natural scientist
On the other hand, the year 1839 brought an important change in the teaching activities of the clergyman. The annual report of the Lyceum Speyer confirms the appointment of the cathedral chapter, famous for his “knowledge of natural history and his collections”, as “professor of the natural history of the three realms” in the institute's philosophical courses. As the annual reports continue to report, the Canon read oryctognosy (= mineralogy ), geology and geognosy (= geological history and rock science), as well as zoology and botany . Its rich collections and numerous excursions into nature supported and supplemented the lessons. An obituary says about him: “He knew how to study the relationships with his young friends on the spot, to explore the relationships between the individual living beings, to sharpen the senses of studying nature lovers and to make them receptive to the beauty of creation ". In this regard, Professor Würschmitt maintained a lively exchange of ideas with like-minded friends of nature near and far; in Speyer especially with the entomologist Linz , with the subregens at the clerical seminar in Laforet and with the rain at the school teacher seminar with the later Bishop Konrad Reither , who was also an enthusiastic naturalist. Abroad, he frequented the Heidelberg University Professors Gottlieb Wilhelm Bischoff and Heinrich Georg Bronn . On November 6, 1840, 26 nature lovers and naturalists met in Dürkheim and followed the suggestion of Carl Heinrich Schultz from Deidesheim to found the "Natural Science Association of the Bavarian Palatinate", named "Pollichia" after the famous researcher and doctor Johann Adam Pollich from Kaiserslautern “Received. In addition to the scholars Dr. Friedrich Wilhelm Schultz from Bitsch, Professor Gottlieb Wilhelm Bischoff from Heidelberg , also the tax inspector Johann Michael Linz ( entomologist and botanist ), as well as the clergyman and cathedral capitular Bruno Würschmitt from Speyer, who is particularly respected in scientific circles as an ornithologist and mycologist pleased. The Pollichians saw in Würschmitt, "the ingenious, undemanding researcher with the almost inconspicuous appearance, whose objectivity, firmness of judgment and pure cheerfulness - the fruit of noble world and self-conquest - pleasantly touched and attracted", as it was in an old publication of the Speyer local group the Pollichia is. Würschmitt was considered to be the most precise connoisseur of the native acotyls (= cryptogams , i.e. ferns, horsetail, moss, algae, lichens and mushrooms). In general, the priest had turned his very special inclination towards mushrooms . In all weathers he roamed nature in order to capture the native sponges, whereby he was said to have a "keen power of observation", "with which he saw the smallest thing without losing the connection with the whole". His book The Sponges of Home was published as the fruit of his many years of fungal studies .
death
An early death put an end to his busy life. When he - as he used to do for 30 years - climbed the cathedral pulpit in Speyer, he suffered a "heart cramp" (as the original expression at the time), from which he died on the night of December 5th to 6th, 1851. He was buried in the old cemetery in Speyer. His brother Bernhard Würschmitt - also a priest and famous sculptor - made a very unusual tombstone for him with depictions of animals and plants. Because of his special knowledge of cryptogams, a chiselled fern sprouts from the stone on the left. He chose the ambiguous tomb: “The rock was Christ” as a hidden reference to the simultaneous theological (dogmatic) and natural history (also geological) skills. The only surviving picture of the cathedral capitular comes from the hand of his older artist brother Bernhard Würschmitt. It is a silhouette that depicts him as a 14 year old boy. The grave monument of Bruno Würschmitt is unfortunately only available as a torso and is currently in the cathedral chapter cemetery near St. Bernhard, Speyer. Yet it is still impressive and extraordinary. A (moderately qualitative) photo of the stone in its original condition can be found in Bernhard Würschmitt's biography by Otto Abel, where the silhouette is also shown. An obituary from the Lyceum Speyer poetically describes Bruno Würschmitt: "Everyone who knew him will preserve the memory of him, whose soul lived between flowers and blossoms, with beneficial fruit for their lives." The Hambach pastor Franz became Würschmitt's direct successor Xaver Remling , a famous historian, elected to the Speyer Cathedral Chapter.
literature
- A spiritual scientist: On the 100th anniversary of the death of the Speyer canon Bruno Adolph Würschmitt. Karl Lutz, Pilger , Speyer 1951, p. 765.
- On the 100th anniversary of the death of an important man from Speyer: Adolph Bruno Würschmitt, Canon and natural scientist (1790–1851). Karl Lutz, Die Rheinpfalz , Speyer 1951, no.282.
- Canon and natural scientist: The life and work of the Palatinate biologist Bruno Adolf Würschmitt. Alois Gruber, Pfälzische Heimatblätter No. 1 (1952/53), pp. 36–38.
- The Würschmitt brothers. Theodor Josef Scherg in Dalberg's university town of Aschaffenburg. Vol. 3, 1951, pp. 342-348.
- Search for traces of the founding fathers of Pollichia , the graves of CH Schultz and AB Würschmitt. Hans-Dieter Zehfuß, Pollichia-Kurier, 2001, No. 1, pp. 7-10.
- Dr. Bernhard Gottfried Josef Würschmitt, Catholic pastor, a sculptor in the Palatinate. (Biography of the brother), Otto Abel, Landau 1938.
- The ornithologists of Central Europe - 1747 remarkable biographies from the Middle Ages to the end of the 20th century. Ludwig Gebhardt, publishing group AULA-Verlag, source Meyer Verlag, Limpert Verlag | ISBN 3-89104-680-4 , 2006, with num. Fig., Volume I / 389, Volume II / 195.
Web links
- Obituary Bruno Würschmitt, from "New Nekrolog der Deutschen", Volume 29, 1853
- Obituary Bruno Würschmitt, from the communications of Pollichia, 10th Annual Report, 1852, page 14
- Scan from the "Zeitschrift für die Geschichte des Oberrheins", 1859, with a reference to Roman antiquities that Cathedral Chapter Würschmitt had received from Pastor Magel from Rheinzabern for his collections.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Würschmitt, Bruno |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Würschmitt, Adolf Bruno (full name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German Catholic priest, cathedral capitular and scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 6, 1790 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mainz |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 5, 1851 |
| Place of death | Speyer |