Daniel Friedrich Sotzmann

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Daniel F. Sotzmann in his mid-forties

Daniel Friedrich Sotzmann (born April 13, 1754 in Spandau ; † August 3, 1840 in Berlin ) was a German geodesist and cartographer . He is seen as the main initiator of commercial cartography in Berlin.

Life

Daniel F. Sotzmann, the son of a Spandau tin caster from a family of craftsmen, received engineering lessons on his own initiative in 1770 from the engineer captain Materne, who was imprisoned in the Spandau citadel . In 1771 he is said to have been a self-taught surveyor. From 1772 or 1773 he found employment as a cartographic draftsman under the direction of Carl Ludwig Oesfeld (1741–1804) and made five hand drawings of Brandenburg regions and districts during this time. Until 1778 he was a civil conductor at the Kgl. Immediat-Bau-Kommission in Potsdam (“very skilled draftsman” with master builder Carl von Gontard ); he began to study geography .

At the age of 24 he was appointed to Berlin in 1778 as a ministerial official, as “secret expeditionary secretary and architect” in the General Tobacco Administration in Berlin (in the area of ​​the Minister Graf von der Schulenburg-Kehnert) ; He was probably involved in the drawing work for the Schulenburgsche Landesaufnahme. The map sheets of the Schulenburg-Schmettauschen map series are not signed and therefore do not reveal the respective draftsman and map engraver. During this time he learned to engrave. Between 1782 and 1784 he made hand drawings of numerous areas of Brandenburg for Schulenburg-Kehnert and the military department. In 1783 the first map publications are documented as supplements to books by him (a map of Danzig , a map of the young USA); this was the beginning of intensive cartographic publication activity until 1807. Between 1785 and 1789 worked several times as a copper engraver .

The Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin had received the monopoly for card production in Prussia in 1748 and the privilege of levying a stamp duty for imported cards. The cartographic publication claim associated with the royal monopoly could only be realized with the appointment of Johann Christoph Rhode as geographer of the academy. In 1786, at the age of only 32, Sotzmann was appointed geographer of the Kgl. Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin as successor to Rhode, especially because of his outstanding skills as a copperplate engraver. This apparently hoped to reduce the cost of the academy's maps and atlases to be created by him. On November 1, 1786, Sotzmann received the position, which was endowed with 100 thalers a year . From 1787 he was the “secret expeditionary secretary and calculator” at the engineering department of the Upper War College. From this time it is handed down from him: “The niceness of the drawing, correctness in the intention of the names, boundaries and division, completeness and accuracy in drawing of the local condition and the terrain are the advantages of his maps. It must be confessed that he made the most faithful use of the great resources he had and the special connection in which he stood. ”(Contemporary quote on Sotzmann, 1796)

His card from 1789 "Prospectus Regnis Borussiae tam Orientalis quam Occidentalis emendatior, et ad statum praesentem concinnatus jussu et auspiciis ACAD. REG. SCIENT. Et ELEG. LITT. A ICRAG" is one of the earliest works that divides Prussia into West and East Prussia . On the cartouche, the author explains the illumination of the map: “What belongs to the East Prussian Cammer Department” is colored yellow, the Lithuanian red and the West Prussian green. It was only Sotzmann's maps that explicitly showed the division of Prussia into chamber departments, with the traditional division of Prussia in the foreground in earlier works.

In 1791 he designed his first terrestrial globe as a counterpart to a celestial globe by Johann Elert Bode (1747–1826), which the latter had published in 1790 by the David Beringer publishing house in Nuremberg. With a total of 36 detailed travel routes on the segments, his globes made an important contribution to the history of discovery in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Sotzmann and Bode produced other globes that were sold by the Johann Georg Franz publishing house in Nuremberg in 1804 and 1808 .

In 1795/96 Sotzmann provided his own school atlas to replace the old academy atlas, the plates of which were so worn that Sotzmann was ashamed to have copies made of it.

In 1802 he was appointed to the council of war. In 1810 he calculates the area of ​​Prussia on behalf of the Kgl. Prussian Statistical Bureau. In the year of the establishment of the Prussian land survey , 1816, Sotzmann had to stop his cartographic activity after many years of high creativity due to increasing visual impairment and gradually went blind. In 1825 he was retired "because of major oversights" (see Ratzel). He died of old age in Berlin in 1840.

Daniel F. Sotzmann can be described as the founder of commercial cartography in Berlin. More than 400 titles are linked to his name, which include individual map sheets, multi-sheet map works, atlases and globes, but also essays and reviews. He also made many non-European maps, e.g. B. from the federal states of the North American Confederation , which became independent in 1776 , due to which it is very well known in North America. From the maps drawn and mostly published by him alone - counting only the 1st edition - 285 titles can be identified. Sotzmann's efforts to standardize character keys and map scales were of lasting importance. In the sum of his life's work, Sotzmann created over 50 m² maps, which corresponds to five times the display area of ​​the topographic map 1: 200,000 (TK 200) of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Daniel F. Sotzmann was one of the most important German cartographers in his time . He developed trend-setting types of representation for small-scale cartography, e.g. B. with the introduction of abstracted signatures as main graphic elements. Due to Sotzmann's diverse connections to government and scientific bodies and the information associated with them, his publications differed significantly from other contemporary map publications on the Prussian area in terms of reliability, wealth of information and topicality. In addition, he incorporated knowledge from mathematics, engineering and surveying technology into his work and was a talented draftsman and engraver. Sotzmann's work laid the foundation for Berlin's importance as a world-renowned site for cartography. His works were highly valued by experts, including Napoleon I, for their reliability in terms of content and graphic elegance. Many cartographers of the early 19th century cited works by Sotzmann with a source reference for their products, which shows that he was one of the most sought-after German cartographers of his time.

The “Council of War and Go. exp. Secretary and calculator as well as geographer of the Royal Academy of Sciences ”lived from 1806 to 1808 at Leipziger Str. 36. He was the last person to receive the title of geographer at the Kgl. Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin.

Sotzmann was married twice. In 1779 or 1780 he married Eleonore Lochmann from Langefeld, who was nine years his senior. In 1781 the son Johann Daniel Ferdinand was born, in 1782 the daughter Johanna Philippine. In 1802 the marriage was divorced. In 1810 Sotzmann married a second time, Mademoiselle Engelhardt. His daughter Emilie comes from this marriage.

Works (selected)

Map of Berlin by DF Sotzmann from 1786
  • The United States of North America, 1804
  • Map of northernmost America, after the second edition of Arrowsmith's large eight-sheet Mercator map, 1791
  • Special map of the Mittelmark, approx. 1: 300,000, 1791
  • Special chart of the WESTPHALIAN PROVINCES Cleve, Geldern, Meurs [Moers], Marck, Ravensberg, Minden, Lingen and Tecklenburg, together with the neighboring countries, 1: 300,000, 1788
  • General chart of the ALTEMARCK, 1: 200,000, 1788
  • The Lebusian Circle, 1789
  • The Zauch- and Luckenwaldische Kreis, 1789
  • Map of the Duchy of Pomerania, 1789
  • Prospectus Regnis Borussiae tam Orientalis quam Occidentalis emendatior, et ad statum praesentem concinnatus jussu et auspiciis
  • Ueber des Antonius von Worms illustration of the city of Cologne from 1531 . DüMont-Schauberg, Cologne 1819 ( digitized version )

ACAD. REG. SCIENT. et ELEG. LITT. a ICRAG

  • Card of the Royal Prussia. Duchy of Western and Eastern Pomerania, 1789
  • Map of the Duchy of Pomerania, 1794
  • Special map from PRIGNITZ, 1: 180.000, 1795 (see weblink)
  • Special map from UKERMARK, 1: 180.000, 1796
  • Berlin or presentation of the most interesting objects in this residence: a handbook for foreigners and locals, Oemigke Verlag, 2nd edition 1798
  • Special map of the HERZOGTHUM MAGDEBURG, the county of Mansfeld, the principalities of Anhalt and Blankenburg, and the Abbey of Quedlinburg, together with the largest part of the Altmark, the principality of Halberstadt, the counts of Wernigerode, 1: 200,000, 1800
  • General card of the king. PRUSSIAN STATES, 1: 350,000, 1799
  • Map of the northern part of the Upper Saechsische Kreis, 1800
  • Map of part of the northwest coast of America rejuvenated to the voyage of Capit George Vancouver in the years 1792, 1793 and 1794 drawn by DF Sotzmann in 1800
  • General map - at the same time postcard - of all the Royal Prussian States 1802 - Geographical-statistical repertory (together with Adam Christian Gaspari ).
  • The globe whereupon all the discoveries made by Captain Jacob Cook on his 3 great voyages around the world from April 1768 to February 14, 1779, and after him the English ship's cap. Portlock and Nixon made in 1785 and 1788, respectively. Designed by DF Sotzmann in 1791 based on astronomical observations, improved and increased in 1804 and 1808. JW Schleuen sculps. Berlin, Nuremberg: Franz 1808. (a globe of 1804 is in the Globe Museum issued Wien, s links.)
  • Ride of the Lieut. William Bligh from Tofoa to Timor in 1783 in the boats of the Bounty (Staatsbibliothek Berlin SBB_IIIC_Kart. T 12610)
  • The Königr. Saxony with the electoral and ducal Saechsische Laendern. 1809
  • Special map of the Duchy of Magdeburg and Altemark, the Fuerstenthuemern Anhalt and Blankenburg, the County of Mansfeld and the Abbey of Quedlinburg together with the largest part of the Fuerstenthum Halberstadt, the Grafsch. Wernigerode, the Elbingerode office ect. and part of the neighboring provinces of Braunschw. Lueneb. and Wolfenb. the Prignitz, Mittelmark u. Saxony / in 1800 in II sections designed by DFSotzmann ... and increased and improved by the same in 1813. Corrected in 1816 by CF Kloeden (see web link)
  • Earth globe of 11/2 Paris feet according to the best astronomical determinations, the most exquisite sea and maps, the latest discoveries and own investigations, with the description of the travel routes of the most remarkable seafarers; from 1808 (the globe is exhibited in the Globe Museum Vienna, see web link)

Sotzmann's work was honored with a detailed contribution “A Spandauer maps the world” as part of the exhibition “The surveyors on the river” in the Berlin-Spandau town hall from March 24, 2010 to April 28, 2010.

Others

Sotzmannstrasse in Berlin

In August 2010, Sotzmannstrasse in the Spandau district was named after Sotzmann .

literature

  • Friedrich Ratzel:  Sotzmann, Daniel Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 36, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1893, p. 784 f.
  • Wolfgang Scharfe: Daniel Friedrich Sotzmann. Life and work of a Berlin cartographer . In: Wolfgang Scharfe, Ingrid Kretschmer, Franz Wawrik (eds.): Kartographisches Colloquium Wien '86. Lectures and reports . Berlin 1987, pp. 11-22
  • Exhibition documentation "The surveyors on the river - Spandau", state surveying and geographic base information Brandenburg, Potsdam 2010
  • Wolfgang Crom: Give me times a cartographer . Measurement Brandenburg 2/2010, pp. 59–64, Potsdam

Web links

Commons : Daniel Friedrich Sotzmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The map can be obtained as a facsimile print from the state surveying and geographic base information Brandenburg, Potsdam.
  2. ↑ Sotzmannstrasse. In: Street name lexicon of the Luisenstädtischer Bildungsverein (near  Kaupert )
personal data
SURNAME Sotzmann, Daniel Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sotzmann, Daniel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geodesist and cartographer
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1754
PLACE OF BIRTH Spandau
DATE OF DEATH August 3, 1840
Place of death Berlin