Ferdinand Peche

Ferdinand Peche , (born September 3, 1820 in Pisek , Bohemia , † April 26, 1898 in Innsbruck - Wilten ) was an Austrian mathematician and physicist and professor of mathematical physics at the University of Innsbruck .

Life

He studied mathematics, physics and chemistry at the Universities of Prague and Vienna and received his doctorate in philosophy from the University of Vienna . In 1851 he passed the teaching examination for mathematics and physics and became a high school professor in Teschen (Bohemia).

Twice he tried unsuccessfully for the vacant chairs for mathematics (1851) and physics (1853) at the University of Innsbruck. Since his competitor Adalbert von Waltenhofen got the chance to fill the physics professorship , he was able to take his position at the Joanneum in Graz. In 1854 Peche obtained the venia legendi for analytical physics and mechanics at the University of Graz . When the physics chair at the Joanneum had to be filled two years later, he was passed over again. Thereupon he switched to the civil service and became an official of the Imperial and Royal Telegraph Directorate. In 1864 he was appointed director of the secondary school in Rakovac (Croatia). However, Peche did not give up his aim of receiving a professorship at an Austrian university after this appointment.

When the chair for physics in Innsbruck had to be filled after Waltenhofen had left, he applied for the vacant position. Once again he seemed to be left behind in a three-man proposal - as expected, the chair was awarded to the first in the list of candidates, Leopold Pfaundler von Hadermur - when the result he had longed for came about: in the appointment proposal submitted by the appointment committee to the ministry submitted for a decision, the recommendation had been made to set up a separate institute for mathematical physics to relieve the chair for theoretical physics. This suggestion was taken up by the ministry and Ferdinand Peche was appointed the first full professor to teach this subject at the University of Innsbruck on June 12, 1868 .

Ferdinand Peche's grave at Innsbruck's Westfriedhof

Afterlife

As a university teacher and author, Peche has not made any particular merits. After his retirement in the summer semester of 1889, the faculty even considered leaving his chair and instead setting up an ordinariate for geometry. In the decisive faculty meeting, however, the proponents of this idea succeeded in overriding.

The fact that the city of Innsbruck still remembers the person of Peches today is due to the fact that he owned his not insignificant property - the villa at Leopoldstraße 59 (today house number 43), to which an extensive, park-like green area belonged - the then still independent Wilten commune bequeathed. According to the will of the testator, a nursing home for the needy should have been built on the property, which should have been open to all poor people , regardless of religion, political orientation or nationality. However, because of the later incorporation of Wiltens into the city of Innsbruck, this project was not carried out. In 1903, a child care facility (Rosalien-Krippe) was opened on the site in place of a poor house. During the Second World War, the pitch villa was destroyed by bombs. After the reconstruction, an urban children's and youth home was set up in the premises of the new building , which is now called the “Pechegarten Children's Center”.

The Pechegarten (Pechepark) was opened to the public as early as 1901. It serves as a quiet zone for the people of Innsbruck, but recently it was a hotspot for drug trafficking.

The street leading past the park was named Pechestrasse .

Personal

Professor Peche was a bachelor. He died of a stomach ailment at the age of 79. The declaration buried in his will to relieve friends and acquaintances from the obligation to join the funeral procession as victims in order to prevent a possible cold, shows that the deceased was an original who was different in his way of thinking and in his Acting stood out from the crowd. Peche has been referred to as a philanthropist by various authors because of his wills decreed gifts . In the canon of benefactors of the state capital Innsbruck, he is at the forefront. Whether these donations were made out of a philanthropic outlook or simply due to the fact that he had no descendants or close relatives remains to be seen.

Peche rests in Innsbruck's Westfriedhof , where the city of Innsbruck maintains a grave of honor for him.

Works

• Integration of the elliptical functions in a closed form , 1850
• General solution of the equations of the 3rd degree, avoiding imaginary forms in the irreducible case , 1851
• Life insurance as an expedient means of establishing subsistence for young people, organizing schools and promoting businesses , 1867

literature

• G. Oberkofler:  Peche Ferdinand. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 7, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1978, ISBN 3-7001-0187-2 , p. 384.
• Ferdinand Cap: The Institute for Theoretical Physics. The history of the institute (1868–1988) [3]
• Walter Höflechner: Materials for the development of physics and its "peripheral subjects" Astronomy and Meteorology at the Austrian Universities 1752-1938, Part 2, Biographies, No. 126, p. 215 [4]
• Karl Schadelbauer: Univ. Prof. Ferdinand Peche on the 50th anniversary of his death. In: Official Gazette of the State Capital Innsbruck, 1948, No. 11 and 12

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The physics chair at the Joanneum was looked after by assistants from other educational institutions or high school professors at that time. The Technical University of Graz later emerged from the Joanneum. [1]
2. ↑ Innsbrucker Nachrichten August 24, 1901, p. 4 [2]
3. ↑ Bezirksblätter (Innsbruck), August 16, 2016
4. ↑ Josefine Justic: Innsbruckerstraße name. Where do they come from and what they mean . Tyrolia-Verlag, Innsbruck 2012, ISBN 978-3-7022-3213-9 , p. 98-99 .
5. ↑ William Eppacher: The benefactor of the provincial capital of Innsbruck. Publications from the Innsbruck City Archives No. 3, p. 7
6. ↑ His sister Walburga, who was also unmarried and had no children, died in 1891.