Carl Beck (pharmacist)

Carl Beck (born March 12, 1852 in Nürtingen , † August 15, 1939 in Stuttgart ) was a German pharmacist , chemist and fossil collector .

Life

Carl Beck was the son of the Nürtingen pharmacist Karl Friedrich Beck and his wife, a daughter of the Nürtingen cotton manufacturer JF Otto. After the early death of his father, his mother married the pharmacist Friedrich Mörike for the second time.

From the age of 14, Carl Beck completed an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in Eßlingen, after a few years as a pharmacist's assistant at home and abroad, from 1874 onwards he studied at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen , passed the state pharmaceutical examination , and was awarded a doctorate in 1877. rer. nat. did his doctorate and then ran his father's pharmacy in Nürtingen.

After his marriage in 1884 to his wife Julia (1860-1892), née Schäffle, daughter of the economist Albert Schäffle , the family moved in 1887 at the request of his father-in-law to Stuttgart, where Carl Beck worked as a chemist in the following years. In the laboratory of Karl Friedrich Marx (1832–1890) he researched the structure of indigo with Eugen Fischer and in 1889 he founded the Württemberg district association of the Association of German Chemists together with Karl Friedrich Marx and Eugen Fischer . Later research successes achieved by Carl Beck under Carl Magnus von Hell and Karl Haeussermann (1853–1918) in the following years were in part protected by German imperial patents.

After Carl Beck had already regularly heard the lectures of Friedrich August Quenstedt during his studies in Tübingen , he continued studying geology and palaeontology with Heinrich Adolf von Eck at the Technical University in Stuttgart . He collected fossils and built up an extensive collection over the years. By acquiring the fossil collection of the late notary Maximilian Elwert (1819–1889) in Balingen , which contained numerous originals edited by Quenstedt, he laid the foundation for a very high-quality collection, from which further exhibits later also from Wilhelm von Branca , Josef Felix Pompeckj , Emil Philippi and Martin Schmidt were edited. Carl Beck donated this scientific evidence to the Württemberg natural history collection as a gift during his lifetime . He donated the fossil collection from the estate of the poet Eduard Mörike , which he had received from his niece, to the Schiller Museum in Marbach .

As early as 1879, Carl Beck became a member of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg , in which he later became a member of the board as treasurer for 20 years. In 1890 he became a member of the Upper Rhine Geological Association (OGV) , where he was treasurer on the board for 17 years. He was friends with Oskar and Eberhard Fraas , and he accompanied Eberhard Fraas on one of his trips to Egypt. At the suggestion of Oskar Fraas, he succeeded in reviving the so-called Steigenclub , an association of Swabian geologists.

After the early death of his first wife shortly after the birth of his second child, Carl Beck was married to Marie Ronus von Speyr from Basel from around 1898 as a second marriage.

honors and awards

The mussel Leda becki Philippi in 1898 and the cephalopod Psiloceras becki Schmidt in 1925 were named in honor of Carl Beck .

• 1921: Honorary member of the Upper Rhine Geological Association (OGV)
• 1922: Honorary member of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg
• 1929: Honorary member of the Association of German Chemists

literature

• Fritz Berckhemer : Dr. Carl Beck †. In: Annuals of the Association for Natural History in Württemberg , 95 (1939), pp. XXXII – XXXIV (with picture) ( online as PDF ).

Web links

• Beck, Carl in the German biography

Individual evidence

1. ^ Members of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg May 1, 1888
2. ^ Honorary members of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg