Ferdinand Josef Schmidt

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Ferdinand Jožef Schmidt

Ferdinand Josef Schmidt (also Ferdinand Joseph Schmidt or Ferdinand Jožef Šmit ; born February 20, 1791 in Ödenburg , † February 16, 1878 in Laibach ) was a merchant and naturalist in Carniola .

Life

Schmidt was the son of a tobacco manufacturer. He received his first school education in his hometown. Around 1800 Schmidt came to Vienna, where he found employment with a major, Count Herberstein . In Vienna he completed an apprenticeship as a businessman from 1803 to 1809. He then volunteered for the army and went into the coalition wars . He left military service in 1812 as a sergeant and then went on to work as a merchant in Weißbrunn , Pest and Pressburg . When Schmidt came to Ljubljana on a business trip in 1815, he was offered a managerial position there, which he accepted. Various positions in the commercial sector followed there.

Schmidt received permission to set up his own business in 1819. On October 19, 1819, he opened a material, specialty, dye and seeds store . Through the Ljubljana Congress in 1821, his company quickly became wealthy and was able to buy his own real estate. In the following years he began to study the flora and fauna of Carniola more intensively. He worked as a cave researcher and mountaineer and is the first to describe the beetle Leptodirus hochenwartii Schmidt, discovered by Franz Graf von Hohenwart in the Postojna caves in 1832. He also examined the routes of the Ljubljana – Trieste and Laibach – Fiume railway lines during construction . In addition to researching the nature of Carniola and the efforts to cultivate fruit and crops in the Karst regions of Carniola, he put together large entomological collections, which he also brought into the State Museum for Carniola, which was founded in 1831 by Count von Hohenwart . He also founded a natural research society for Krain, from which the museum association finally developed in 1839.

Schmidt was also involved in civil society. In 1836 he became a member of the Laibach Sparcasse Association and in 1838 he was elected to the management and in 1840 to the board of trustees of the Sparkasse. On October 9, 1834, he was one of the founders of the commercial college in Ljubljana and, in 1838, one of the founders of the Ljubljana Commercial Hospital, of which he was director for many years. In 1834 he became a member of the Carniolan Provincial and Trade Commission , and in 1839 a delegated member of the Inner Austrian Industry and Commerce Association at the association's delegation in Carniola. He also campaigned for the interests of the Slovenes.

Honors and memberships

Schmidt was an honorary or corresponding member of around 50 natural research learned societies , including the Natural Research Society of Görlitz , the Senckenberg Society for Natural Research , the Natural History Society of Nuremberg and the Wetterau Society for All Natural History in Hanau am Main . The Imperial Court Chamber in Vienna awarded him its recognition by decree dated October 20, 1839 for his services to trade in Ljubljana from. In 1867 he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Ljubljana and in 1869 he received the Golden Civil Merit Cross with Crown .

Works (selection)

  • Contribution to Krain's fauna. Leptodirus Hochenwartii, ng, n. Sp. , in: Illyrian sheet of January 21, 1832.
  • Systematic index of the land and freshwater conchylia occurring in the province of Carniola , Blasnik, Laibach 1847.
  • Two new species of Leptoderus , in: Stettiner Entomologogische Zeitung, Volume 13, 1852.
  • About a previously unrecognized ground beetle, described by L. Miller: and a new eyeless weevil, described by F. Schmidt: also some cave animals newly discovered by Schmidt in Schischka , in: Negotiations of the Zoological-Botanical Association in Vienna, Volume 4, 1854.
  • Description of two new cave animals, a beetle and a snail , in: Negotiations of the Zoological-Botanical Association in Vienna, Volume 5, 1855.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Ferdinand Joseph Schmidt  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Slavko Polak: Importance of discovery of the first cave beetle Leptodirus hochenwartii Schmidt, 1832 , in: Endins. Mallorca, Volume 28 (2005), pp. 71-80.
personal data
SURNAME Schmidt, Ferdinand Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schmidt, Ferdinand Joseph; Šmit, Ferdinand Jožef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian businessman and natural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1791
PLACE OF BIRTH Ödenburg
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1878
Place of death Laibach