Carl Abraham Gerhard

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Carl Abraham Gerhard (1786)
Memorial plaque in Berlin-Mitte

Carl Abraham Gerhard (born February 26, 1738 in Lerchenborn ; † March 9, 1821 in Berlin ) was a Prussian mineralogist , mining official and founder of the Bergakademie Berlin .

Life

Gerhard came from a Silesian pastor's family and studied medicine at the Brandenburg University in Frankfurt . In 1760 he received his doctorate there with a treatise "De Granatis Silesiae et Bohemiae" (on the garnets of Silesia and Bohemia). In addition to his medical profession, he conducted physical, chemical and mineralogical studies. He owed his excellent knowledge in these subjects to his appointment as a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in 1768 and an appointment to Berlin as chief mining and accountant, at the same time as commissioner in the mining and smelter administration. In 1770 he arranged for Frederick II.the establishment of the Bergakademie in Berlin. Also in 1770 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina and appointed as senior building officer to the newly founded building department . In 1783 he was elected a foreign member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . In 1810 he was succeeded by his son Johann Carl Ludewig Gerhard as chief miner and head of the Prussian mining, metallurgy and salt works.

A memorial plaque on the family home in Berlin-Mitte, Neue Grünstraße 27. The eleven- axis three-storey plastered building was built in 1790 by the architect Carl Gotthard Langhans .

In his attempt at a history of the mineral kingdom , he argued for the earth to be much older than usual at the time (Volume 1, p. 221). He wrote early textbooks on mineralogy with his own mineral systematics according to chemical and physical properties, similar to Abraham Gottlob Werner , whose more consistent systematics became better known.

His extensive mineral collection was bought by the Prussian state in 1781.

Fonts

  • Brief instruction on the cure of the most noble internal diseases: designed for the use of his lectures . Berlin: Rüdiger, 1765. Digitized edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
  • Materia Medica or Doctrine of Medicines . Rüdiger, Berlin 1766 (digitized version)
  • An attempt at a history of the mineral kingdom , 2 volumes, Berlin 1781, 1782
  • Contributions to the chemistry and history of mineralogy , 2 volumes, Berlin 1773, 1776
  • Ground plan of a new mineral system , Berlin 1797

literature

Web links

Commons : Carl Abraham Gerhard  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wikisource: Carl Abraham Gerhard  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member entry of Carl Abraham Gerhard at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on February 7, 2016.
  2. GStA PK II. HA GD, Abt. 30, I, Nr. 21
  3. ^ Member entry by Carl Abraham Gerhard (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 7, 2016.