Constantin Keller

Constantin Keller OSB (religious name Thaddäus Keller ; born April 18, 1778 in Graz , † September 4, 1864 in Gröbming in Styria) was an Austrian religious , teacher and pomologist .

Life

Constantin Keller was born in Graz in 1778. He entered the Benedictine monastery of Admont in 1796 and took the religious name Thaddäus. In 1801 he was ordained a priest . From 1802 to 1803 he was vicar in the parish of the neighboring parish of Hall and from 1804 prefect of the house high school. From 1802 to 1810 he was a high school teacher and professor of catechetics and pedagogy at Admont. In 1810 he became sacristan and director of the secondary school in Admont. In that year he took over the pastor's position in Mautern in Liesingtal until he became parish vicar in Gröbming in 1824 . From 1824 to 1826 he was dean and administrator with school district supervision.

In Gröbming he got to know Archduke Johann of Austria , with whom he soon became a close friend and whom he supported in his efforts to promote agriculture in Styria. Keller has made a particular contribution to fruit growing in the Styrian Oberland. He gave numerous lectures and set up fruit tree nurseries in Mautern and Gröbming and distributed the trees grafted there free of charge to the farmers in the area. From 1819 to 1824 he was director of the agricultural branches of the Imperial and Royal Steiermärkische Landwirtschaftsgesellschaft founded by Archduke Johann in Trofaiach and from 1824 Gröbming.

Keller dealt intensively with fruit varieties . Between 1815 and 1840 he made realistic wax models of types of fruit. The models were hollow bodies made of embossed wax. In the embossing process , a plaster cast was first made of the top and bottom of the original fruit , which was then poured thin-walled with wax. The wax layer was reinforced from the inside so that a stable model of the original was created, which Pater Keller supplemented with real flowers and stems.

Keller used this process to produce models of Upper Styrian fruit varieties; In addition to the varieties of his own tree nurseries, he also copied the varieties of the fruit tree nursery in Grätz (Graz) that belonged to the Joanneum founded by Archduke Johann . He used the models to better advise the customers of the tree nurseries and to show them the fruits of the various types of fruit. 243 models are still preserved today and are exhibited in the Natural History Museum of the Benedictine Abbey of Admont. A series of fruit models that Keller made for the Joannum is lost today.

Honors

• For his services to fruit growing , Constantin Keller received the silver medal for fruit tree growing from the kk Landwirtschaftsgesellschaft.
• On February 16, 1862, he was awarded the Golden Cross of Merit with the Crown .
• Constantin Keller was an honorary member of the Ackerbaugesellschaft Wien as well as the Agricultural Society Linz, the Pomological Association in Altenburg and the Pomological Association in Frauendorf.

Works

• Catechetics and Pedagogy for the Use of Lectures , 1812

See also

• List of pomologists

Individual evidence

1. ^ Entry on Constantin Keller in: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon 1815–1950. Volume 3, Delivery 14, 1964, p. 289
2. ^ Entry to Constantin Keller in: Constantin von Wurzbach: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaisertums Österreich. Eleventh part. Verlag der Universitäts-Buchdruckerei von LC Zamarski (formerly JP Sollinger), Vienna 1864, p. 139
3. ↑ FX Hlubek: A true picture of the Duchy of Styria as a memorial of grateful memories of Weiland S. Imperial Highness the most noble Archduke Johann. JA Kienreich, Gratz 1860, p. 401
4. ↑ Information on the special exhibition 2001: Apples - Myth, Eros, Science. (September 7, 2001 - February 3, 2002) in the Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem, accessed on June 11, 2014
5. ↑ J. Götze: The wax fruits of Father Constantin Keller (OSB) in the Benedictine monastery in Admont (Styria). In: P. Nisi [Hrsg.]: The fruit models from the Provincial Museum Hanover: with the current inventory catalog of the State Museum Hanover - a cultural-historical search for traces of the fruit cabinets from three centuries. Lower Saxony State Museum & Friends of Natural History in the Lower Saxony State Museum, Hanover 2011, pp. 44–47
6. ^ Homepage of the Natural History Museum of the Benedictine Abbey of Admont ( Memento from May 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on June 8, 2014
7. ↑ K. Krenn, A. Aron: Rosenapfel, Krummstiel und Schafsnase: Old treasures newly explored. Information on the exhibition in the Landscape Museum in Trautenfels Castle. (April 8 to October 31, 2006), p. 4
8. ↑ Monthly for pomology and practical fruit growing. Organ of the German Pomologists Association. Verlag von Ebner and Seubert, Stuttgart 1861, p. 161 1862