Karl von Reichenbach
Karl (Carl) Ludwig Friedrich (since 1839 Freiherr von ) Reichenbach (born February 12, 1788 in Stuttgart , † January 19, 1869 in Leipzig ) was an industrialist , engineer, chemist , natural scientist and philosopher .
life and work
Reichenbach's father was Carl Ludwig Reichenbach (1757–1837), ducal Württemberg librarian and archivist; the family had a total of four children. The grandfather Jeremias Friedrich Reichenbach (1725-1810) came from the Cannstatt-based surgeon family. An aunt of Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach was the painter Ludovike Simanowiz and one of his uncle was Wilhelm Heinrich (1763–1843), personal and regimental medic of Duke Friedrich Eugen von Württemberg in Mömpelgard .
During his studies, Carl Ludwig Reichenbach founded a secret society in Tübingen in 1806 to establish a colony on Tahiti (Otaheiti) in the South Pacific (Otaheiti Society). At the end of 1808 the society was discovered by the police and most of its members were arrested on suspicion of high treason. Reichenbach was imprisoned on the Hohenasperg for some time .
After studying natural sciences in Tübingen , he worked for the iron hammer works in Hausach in Baden . There he developed and marketed novel ovens for charring wood.
After receiving his doctorate , he moved to Blansko in Moravia to work for the Prince Salm-Reifferscheidt in their ironworks. During this activity, large tar factories were built for the distillation of coal tar, and von Reichenbach worked intensively on the components of wood tar . By chance discovery he succeeded in synthesizing the first commercially produced dye, Pittakall . On November 15, 1833, a meteorite fell in Blansko . This event fascinated von Reichenbach so much that he had his workers search for days until the meteorite was found. In the following years he also used his fortune to build up an important meteorite collection. The terms Kamacit , Taenit and Plessit for components of iron meteorites go back to him. In 1869 he donated his collection to the mineralogical exhibition and teaching collection in Tübingen , where it can still be viewed today.
In 1835 Reichenbach acquired the Cobenzl Palace near Vienna. Because of the experiments he carried out in the castle, the Viennese gave him the nickname “Magician of Cobenzl”. During this time, at Liebig's instigation, the chemist Ernst Sell gained important insights into the establishment and operation of Sell's tar factories in Offenbach am Main.
For his wife Friederike Louise geb. Erhard bought Reichenbach's love vase from 1831 by the sculptor Friedrich Distelbarth . After her death in 1835 he gave the monumental vase to the city of Stuttgart, which then made him an honorary citizen in 1836. Five children were born in the marriage, of which a son and a daughter survived, most of whom later resided in Vienna.
From 1841 von Reichenbach devoted himself to the investigation of scientific border areas. At the center of these investigations was the life force Od (from Odin ) postulated by him . According to him, the Od is an all-pervading polar force similar to magnetism , which cannot be measured physically, but causes many sensible processes. In his studies on the theory of odors , von Reichenbach claimed that particularly gifted people, he called them sensitive , could perceive weak light phenomena from magnets in dark rooms . The proximity to mesmerism , whose Fluidum concept he replaced with his OD teaching, and the fact that other researchers (including Jöns Jakob Berzelius and Gustav Theodor Fechner ) could not repeat Reichenbach's experiments, brought him bitter criticism and let him in increasingly bitter in his final years.
In 1911 Reichenbachgasse in Vienna- Favoriten was named after him.
family
He married Friederike Louise Erhard († 1835) in Stuttgart in 1810 , a daughter of the publisher Christoph Heinrich Erhard . The couple had several children:
- Karl (1811-1811)
- Reinhold (* 7 August 1812; † 1887) ⚭ Antonia von Hauer (* 10 July 1817)
- Emmeline Eunonnia (September 5, 1813 - February 11, 1826)
- Hermine (born September 5, 1819; † October 28, 1902), botanist ⚭ November 11, 1849 Carl Schuh (born December 29, 1806; † June 5, 1863) photographer, naturalist
- Otto Eugen (born October 9, 1822 - † May 9, 1850)
estate
Allegedly from his estate, the font Caroline v. Linsingen , the wife of an English prince. Unprinted letters and treatises (...) published.
Memberships
Since 1854 he was a member of the Leopoldina .
Works
- Creosote: a newly discovered component of common smoke, wood vinegar and all kinds of tar , Eduard Anton, Halle 1833, urn : nbn: de: bvb: 355-ubr01144-9
- Geological reports from Moravia , Heubner, Vienna 1834, doi : 10.3931 / e-rara-66584
- Physical-physiological investigations into the dynamides of magnetism, electricity, warmth, light, crystallization, and chemistry in their relationship to the life force
- Odisch-magnetic letters , Stuttgart 1852, digitized ; Reprints Ulm 1935 and 1955
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The sensitive person and his behavior towards the Ode , Stuttgart and Tübingen
- Volume 1, 1854 digitized version
- Volume 2, 1855 digitized
- Faith in coal and after wisdom. Answer to Mr. C. Vogt in Geneva, Wilhelm Braumüller, Vienna 1855, digitized
- Who is sensitive, who is not , Wilhelm Braumüller, Vienna 1856, digitized
- Odic responses to Professors Fortlage, Schleiden, Fechner and Councilor Carus , Wilhelm Braumüller, Vienna 1856, digitized
- The plant world in its relationship to sensitivity and to the ode , Wilhelm Braumüller, Vienna 1858, digitized
- Odic events in Berlin in the years 1861 and 1862 (PDF; 4.5 MB) Berlin 1862
- Aphorisms about sensitivity and Od Vienna 1866
- The odic fire and some movement phenomena as newly discovered forms of the odic principle in nature Vienna 1867
literature
- von Schmidt: Nekrolog des Karl Freiherrn von Reichenbach , in: Annual Books of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg , 26th year, E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1870, p. 62 f.
- Constantin von Wurzbach : Reichenbach, Karl Ludwig Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 25th part. Imperial-Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1873, pp. 169–177 ( digitized version ).
- Albert Ladenburg: Reichenbach, Karl Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 27, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1888, p. 670 f.
- Felix Burkhardt: Karl Ludwig Friedrich Freiherr von Reichenbach: chemist and industrialist 1788–1869 . In: Robert Uhland (ed.), Lebensbilder aus Schwaben und Franken , Vol. 12, W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart (1972), pp. 200–212.
- Michael Engel : Reichenbach, Karl Ludwig Friedrich Freiherr von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 305-307 ( digitized version ).
- Helmut Engisch: The dream of Otaheiti and Od . In: Ders., Der Schwäbische Büffelkönig und die Löwenmadam, 1998, pp. 145–163
- Robert Matthias Erdbeer: Epistemic precariat: The qualitas occulta Reichenbach and Fechner's dream of the Od , in Rupnow et al., Pseudoscientific , Suhrkamp 2008, ISBN 978-3-518-29497-0
- Gothaisches genealogical pocket book of the baronial houses. to the year 1858. Eighth year, p.535f Reichenbach
- FD O'Byrne: Reichenbach's Letters on Od and Magnetism (1852), Hutchinson & Co., London 1926 online, PDF
Web links
- Literature by and about Karl von Reichenbach in the catalog of the German National Library
- Mineralogical show and teaching collection in Tübingen
- Researches on Magnetism, Electricity, Heat and Light in their relations to Vital Forces . Cornell University. (English)
- Project Gutenberg-DE: Gustav Theodor Fechner: Memories of the last days of the Odle doctrine and its author
- Article by / about Freiherr Ritter Karl von Reichenbach in the Polytechnisches Journal
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Ludwig von Reichenbach . State capital Stuttgart.
- ↑ Michael Engel: Odlehre. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte. De Gruyter, Berlin / New York 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 1063 f.
- ↑ Sabine Kleine: The rapport between animal magnetism and hypnotism. In: Würzburg medical history reports. Volume 13, 1995, pp. 299-330; here: p. 316.
- ↑ Full title: Caroline v. Linsingen , the wife of an English prince. Unprinted letters and treatises from the estate of Baron K. v. Reichenbach , edited and provided with an introduction by * * *, Leipzig 1880
- ^ Member entry of Karl von Reichenbach at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on April 28, 2016.
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Reichenbach, Karl von |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Reichenbach, Karl Ludwig von; Reichenbach, Carl Ludwig von |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German naturalist, chemist |
DATE OF BIRTH | February 12, 1788 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Stuttgart |
DATE OF DEATH | January 19, 1869 |
Place of death | Leipzig |