Damian Kreichgauer

Father Damian Kreichgauer SVD, 1934

Damian Kreichgauer SVD (born May 1, 1859 in Rockenhausen , Northern Palatinate; † March 10, 1940 in Mödling near Vienna) was a priest from the Diocese of Speyer , father, Steyler missionary , geologist , physicist , cultural anthropologist and ethnologist .

Life

Youth and life before entering the order

Damian Kreichgauer was born on May 1, 1859 as the son of a court secretary in Rockenhausen. After a few years the father was transferred to Annweiler am Trifels , where the entire family moved. The future priest attended the Latin school there, then the grammar school in Speyer . Kreichgauer performed at 9th Bay. Infantry Regiment in Würzburg after his military service and studied in Würzburg and Munich science with a focus on mathematics and physics. In 1885 he wrote his doctoral thesis in physics . From 1886 to the end of 1889 he worked in Paris . As an assistant to the German Commission, he took part in an international conference on the determination of uniform weights and measures. Then Hermann von Helmholtz , the leading physicist of the time, brought him to the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. The years in Berlin as assistant and deputy to President Helmholtz were a high point of his academic career.

Priest and Steyler missionary

Despite his academic talent, Kreichgauer had an affinity for the priesthood. He made up his mind to become a missionary. The Franciscan minister Franz Vogel then put him on to Arnold Janssen , the founder of the Steyler missionaries . Kreichgauer entered the order on October 25, 1892 at St. Gabriel, Vienna-Mödling. There he was ordained a priest on July 7, 1895, by Eduard Angerer (1816–1898), titular archbishop of Selymbria and auxiliary bishop in Vienna. Because of his advanced age, he was not used in the mission, but remained as a teacher (professor, including for mineralogy and geology) in St. Gabriel throughout his life. Janssen, who was also a scientist, advocated introducing his missionaries to the knowledge of the time. All students had to complete a two-year scientific-philosophical course before studying theology. Father Kreichgauer taught them mathematics, physics and chemistry, but also agriculture, geology, astronomy and meteorology.

Scientific work

In addition to his teaching activities, he published numerous scientific papers and essays. His first major work The Equator Question in Geology (1902) deals with the displacements of the earth's crust. The six-day work from 1906 deals with the biblical account of creation from the perspective of the natural sciences. When Father Wilhelm Schmidt founded the magazine Anthropos , he won Kreichgauer, who was mainly concerned with Mexico before the Spanish conquest, as a collaborator.

In 1917, Die Astronomie appeared in the large Viennese manuscript from Mexico. In it he tried to decipher the Codex Vindobonensis Mexicanus 1 , but encountered considerable criticism with occasional recognition due to errors and arbitrariness and is now considered "completely invented" . Kreichgauer wanted to have proven that the Mexican astronomers were able to achieve more precise results than their European colleagues at the same time, even before the invention of the telescope, an example of the “wrong ways of research” in calendar astronomy. A proposed renaming of the manuscript to “Codex Kreichgauer” did not prevail.

Pastoral activity

As a pastor, Kreichgauer always enjoyed a high reputation. He became friends with August von Sachsen-Coburg and Gotha , grandson of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil and owner of Gerasdorf Castle near Vienna. His cousin, Tsar Ferdinand I , chose Kreichgauer to be his vacation chaplain and let him lead his children to their first communion. The Steyler missionary remained closely connected to the royal family for many years. Anton Josef Gruscha also sought his proximity, so that Kreichgauer accompanied him to Rome in 1909 for the canonization of Klemens Maria Hofbauer . Kreichgauer cared for Gruscha until his death in 1911.

Old age and death

From 1931 Kreichgauer lived in the “Arnoldsheim” in Kaltenleutzüge in the Vienna Woods and lived - according to the obituary - “like a hermit of antiquity, between prayer, contemplation and study” . He died on March 10, 1940 in the Missionshaus St. Gabriel , Mödling near Vienna and was buried on March 13 by the Archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Theodor Innitzer, in the monastery cemetery of the Steyler missionaries in St. Gabriel. Science honored him by renaming the Vienna Codex. A street is named after him in his birthplace Rockenhausen .

Publications (selection)

• 1902 “The Equator Question in Geology” 394 S. Steyl, Missionsdruckerei
• 1908 “The six-day work. Attempt at a scientific appraisal of the biblical account of creation ” 80 S. Steyl, Missionsdruckerei
• 1908 "The light of the meteorite tails and the solar corona" . Nature and Revelation 54 (1908). Pp. 433-438.
• 1909 “Physical Geology” pp. 25–72. 20. Dynamic geology pp. 75-130. in: Himmel und Erde, II. Vol .: Our Earth. Munich, 1909, Allgemeine Verlagsgesellschaft
• 1912 "Les mythologies et les Calendriers de l′ancien Mexique" . Semaine d'Ethnologie religieuse II session. Louvain 1912. 1914 22
• 1914 "The symbol for" struggle "in ancient Mexico" . Anthropos 9 (1914) 381-391. 23
• 1914 "About solar and lunar eclipses in the Dresden Maya manuscript" . Anthropos 9 (1914) 1019. 1915
• 1915 “The Astronomy of the Nuttal Codex. A contribution to the cultural history of Central America ” . Anthropos 10 (1915) 1-23
• 1915 “Cosmic ideas in the picture of prehistoric times” (ill.). Anthropos 10 (1915) 272-274. 1916
• 1916 "The constellations in ancient Mexico" . Anthropos 11 (1916) 1080-1082. 1917
• 1917 “Astronomy in the great Viennese handwriting from Mexico” . Meeting reports from the quays. Academy of Science. Vienna, Phil. Hist. Class, vol. 182, 5th ed. 52 p. Vienna, 1917. Alfred Hölder publishing house
• 1917 “The flap gates on the edge of the earth in ancient Mexican mythology and some relationships with the old world” . Anthropos 12 (1917) 272-312
• 1917 “The pictorial writing in ancient Mexico” . The Culture 18 (1917) 172-184
• 1917 "Studies on the Aztec Codex Borbonicus, especially on its astronomy" (ill.). Anthropos 12 (1917) 497-512
• 1917 “Stick and broom in ancient Mexico” . Anthropos 12 (1917) 709-710. 1918
• 1918 "Medea in ancient Mexico" . Anthropos 13 (1918) 1115-1117. 1919
• 1920 "Critical about the theory of relativity" . Kölnische Volkszekung 1920, No. 838. (October 27, 1920)
• 1922 “Mystères astronomico-religieux dans l'Amdrique Centrale” . Semaine d'Ethn. rel. Ill, sess.
• 1922 “The oldest evidence of Mexican culture” . Festschrift Ed. Seler, published v. W. Lehmann, 1922, pp. 271-279
• 1924 "The technology of primitive peoples" . In: W. Schmidt and W. Koppers. Peoples and Cultures, pp. 645–682, Regensburg, Habbel Verlag , 1924. (The human being of all times, vol. 111)
• 1925 "The religion of the Greeks in their dependence on the cultural groups under maternal law" . Yearbook of the Mission House St. Gabriel. 1925, 106-152
• 1926 "The Age of Maya Documents and Codes" . Anthropos 21 (1926) 1025-1026
• 1928 "New Relationships Between America and the Old World" . Festschrift PW Schmidt 1928, edited. by W. Koppers. Pp. 366-377.
• 1932 "About the Maya Chronology" . Anthropos 27: 621-662

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Damian Kreichgauer: The astronomy in the great Viennese manuscript from Mexico . In: Meeting reports of the quays. Academy of Science. Phil. Hist. Class, Vol. 182, 52 p., Vienna 1917
2. ^ Fritz Röck: Camouflaged celestial studies in old Mexican picture inscriptions. In: Researches and Advances. Volume 13 (1937), p. 356 ff.
3. ↑ Ferdinand Anders et al.: Schrift und Buch im alten Mexico , Graz 1988, p. 26; Quotation from Maarten Jansen, in: ders. (Ed.): Continuity and identity in Native America. Essays in honor of Benedikt Hartmann. Leiden 1988, p. 162
4. ^ Elisabeth Zeilinger: Austria and the New World. Symposium in the Austrian National Library. Conference proceedings, June 1 and 2, 1992. Vienna 1993, p. 26
5. ^ Elisabeth Zeilinger: Austria and the New World. Symposium in the Austrian National Library. Conference proceedings, June 1 and 2, 1992. Vienna 1993, p. 39

literature

• "To Eternal Home - Father Damian Kreichgauer SVD, a German priestly scholar " , Father Albert M. Völlmecke SVD, Verlag St. Gabriel, Vienna-Mödling, 1940
• “Memorial for Father Dr. Damian Kreichgauer ” (on his 100th birthday), Karl Kreuter, Der Pilger , Speyer, No. 21, from May 24, 1959, page 470 of the year.
• Johann Kraus: P. Damian Kraichgauer 1859-1940 , in: Steyler Missionschronik 1960/61, 191. - also in: J. Fleckner: So were they , Vol. 2, St. Augustin 36-39.
• Josef Alt SVD: The History of the Mission House Saint Gabriel of the Society of the Divine Word. The 1st century , Verlag St. Gabriel: Mödling 1990, 431 pages, ISBN 3-85264-350-3 .
• P. Alfons Jochum SVD: The men of science: P. Damian Kraichgauer. Science and Piety , in: P. Hans Brunner SVD (ed.), 100 Years Missionshaus St. Gabriel 1889–1989, 167 p., Verlag St. Gabriel: Mödling 1989. p. 52.
• “Lexicon of Palatinate Personalities” (pages 385 and 386), Victor Carl, Hennig Verlag, Edenkoben, 1998
• Peter Rohrbacher: “Encrypted Astronomy” - Astral Mythologies, and Ancient Mexican Studies in Austria, 1910–1945 In: Revista de Antropologia 62/1 (2019), 140–161 (Special Number - German and German-speaking Anthropologists in Brazil, Universidade de Sao Paulo)