Ernst Friedrich Germar

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Ernst Friedrich Germar

Ernst Friedrich Germar (born November 3, 1786 in Glauchau , † July 8, 1853 in Halle ) was a German entomologist , mineralogist and local politician .

Live and act

Germar was the son of a wealthy businessman. From 1804 to 1807 he studied mineralogy at the Bergakademie Freiberg and then natural science and law at the University of Leipzig . In 1810 he received his doctorate in zoology, moved to Halle (Saale) and completed his habilitation two years later. Both the post-doctoral thesis and the doctoral thesis had butterflies (spinners) on the topic. When the university was closed under Napoleon in 1813, his academic career in Halle was interrupted. In 1815 he married Wilhelmine Keferstein (1755-1816). The marriage remained childless. However, he raised his nephew Hermann Rudolf Schaum , who later also became an entomologist.

In 1816, Germar became an associate professor at the University of Halle-Wittenberg , and in 1823 a full professor of mineralogy and director of the mineralogical collections. Until Hermann Burmeister was appointed full professor in 1842, he also held lectures on entomology at the Zoological Institute and was Vice-Rector of the university in 1834/35 .

His entomological specialties were fossil insects, especially beetles and bedbugs . His insect collection was one of the most famous in Europe. In addition to his scientific work, Germar was active as a city ​​councilor for the city of Halle, was a member of the board of the Pfänerschaft , captain of the city rifle society and from 1827 to 1853 master of the chair of the Masonic lodge to the three swords .

Ernst Friedrich Germar died after a long illness in his house in Halle and was buried in the Stadtgottesacker opposite Schwibbogen 78.

In 1814 Germar wrote the book Reise durch Oesterreich and Tyrol to Dalmatia and several treatises on fossil insects and plants, including a monograph on the fossils of the coal mountains of Wettin and Löbejün (1844-53) and wrote a textbook on all of mineralogy. He was responsible for issues 3 to 24 of the Fauna insectorum Europæ series and co-authored the Entomologie magazine (4 volumes, 1813–21) and Entomology magazine (5 volumes, 1839–44).

Honors

Germar was an elected member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences , since 1819 the Leopoldina and numerous other national and international natural science societies (including Paris, Moscow, Philadelphia). Germar was also a co-founder of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors in 1822 . In 1834 the medical faculty awarded him an honorary doctorate , and in 1844 he was given the title Oberbergrat . In 1838, Germar was introduced by Félix Édouard Guérin-Méneville as member number 146 of the Société cuviérienne .

The conchostrake "Posidonia Germari", today Cornia germari (BEYRICH 1857), was named after him by Heinrich Ernst Beyrich in 1857.

The city of Halle named Germarstrasse after him. The house where he lived and where he died was at 13 Klausstrasse.

In 1851 Germar spent a cure in Ilmenau . In his honor, his brother-in-law Christian Keferstein created a small square on a forest path ( Germars souvenir ), which is no longer preserved today.

Fonts

  • Textbook of the entire mineralogy. Hemmerde and Schwetschke, Halle 1824 ( Google Books ).
  • With Georg Carl Berendt : The organic remains of the prehistoric world in amber. Second volume. I. Division: The hemipterers and orthopterans of the prehistoric age in amber. Nicolai Verlag, Berlin 1856 ( archive.org ).

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Magazine of Entomology  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Handbook of Freemasonry. 1900, Volume 1, p. 351.
  2. ^ Société cuviérienne, p. 272.
  3. ^ Heinrich Ernst Beyrich: Posidonia Germari. In: Minutes of the June meeting. Journal of the German Geological Society. IX, Berlin 1857, p. 377
personal data
SURNAME Germar, Ernst Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German entomologist and mineralogist
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1786
PLACE OF BIRTH Glauchau
DATE OF DEATH July 8, 1853
Place of death Hall