Edmund Naumann
Heinrich Edmund Naumann (born September 11, 1854 in Meißen ; † February 1, 1927 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German geographer and geologist . He is considered the father of Japanese geology .
life and career
Edmund Naumann studied geography and received his doctorate in this subject. Between 1875 and 1880 he taught at the University of Tokyo . In Japan he became director of the Japanese topographical and geological land surveys in 1880. During his time in Japan, Naumann conducted research on geography and especially on the country's volcanism . In Japan, his name is still associated with the discovery of the " Fossa Magna " and the so-called " Naumann elephant ". After he returned to Germany, he completed his habilitation in geology and physical geography at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster in 1886, where he became a private lecturer . Ten years later, Neumann became head of the Mining and Geology Department of the Metallurgical Society in Frankfurt am Main. In 1902 he became the director of the headquarters for mining there . In addition to his research on Japan in particular, but also on Anatolia and Mesopotamia , he also repeatedly published travel reports. In 1973 a museum was opened in Itoigawa in honor of Naumann .
Naumann returned from the Far East with a rather critical image of Japan. One of his articles in the Allgemeine Zeitung of June 1886 caught the attention of the young Japanese intellectual Mori Ōgai (Mori Rintarō), who was studying medicine in Berlin at the time. His multi-page replica was printed, as was Naumann's reaction in two parts and, in February 1887, Mori's final reply. Although this was able to clear up various misunderstandings, he had a harder time with Naumann's accusation that Japan was copying the West without a deeper understanding of the background and at the same time seriously weakening itself by disregarding its own history and culture.
It was also Naumann who drew the attention of Philipp Franz von Siebold's son - Heinrich von Siebold - to the fact that there was a beach line at Ueno station near Tokyo that he should take a closer look at. It was about 10 to 15 m thick fossil-containing deposits with Schill . From 1877 onwards, von Siebold found several dwellings, pottery shards and human bones in this now famous Molusken heap of Oomori. His publications about it later made him famous.
Fonts
- On earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in Japan , Écho du Japon, Yokohama 1878
- New contributions to the geology and geography of Japan , Perthes, Gotha 1893
- Macedonia and its new Salonik-Monastyr railway. A travel report , Oldenbourg, Munich-Leipzig 1894
literature
- Friedrich Karl Dörner (editor): From the Bosporus to the Ararat (= cultural history of the ancient world . Volume 7 = writings of the Hermann Bröckelschen Foundation. Volume 5). Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1981, ISBN 3-8053-0417-X , pp. 383-384
- Claus Priesner: Naumann, Edmund. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 767 ( digitized version ).
Web links
- Literature by and about Edmund Naumann in the catalog of the German National Library
- Andreas N. Küppers: Heinrich Edmund Naumann and the development of geosciences in Japan (PDF file; 860 kB)
supporting documents
- ↑ Land and people of the Japanese chain of islands. Supplement to the Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 175 (June 26, 1886), 178 (June 29, 1886)
- ↑ Rintaro Mori: The Truth About Nipon. Supplement to Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 179 (June 30, 1886)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Naumann, Edmund |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Naumann, Heinrich Edmund |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German geographer and geologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 11, 1854 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Meissen |
| DATE OF DEATH | February 1, 1927 |
| Place of death | Frankfurt am Main |