Franz Kossmat

Structure of the Variscides in Germany according to Kossmat 1927

Franz Kossmat's grave in the south cemetery in Leipzig

Reconstructed tomb in 2015

Franz Kossmat (born August 22, 1871 in Vienna , † December 1, 1938 in Leipzig ) was an Austro-German geologist , mineralogist and geophysicist .

Life

Franz Kossmat was professor of mineralogy and geology at the Graz University of Technology . From 1913 to 1934 he was director of the Saxon Geological State Office and director of the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Leipzig . In 1920 he published the first gravity map of Central Europe. In the geology of Central and Western Europe , Kossmat's name still plays an important role today, as the subdivision of the Variski Mountains goes back to him. In addition, Kossmat was among others with Karl Erich Andrée , Gustav Angenheister , Immanuel Friedländer ,Beno Gutenberg , Gerhard Krumbach , Karl Mack , Ludger Mintrop , Peter Polis , August Heinrich Sieberg and Emil Wiechert among the founding members of the German Seismological Society founded on September 19, 1922 in Leipzig , today's German Geophysical Society. Since 1914 he was a full member of the Saxon Academy of Sciences . In 1925 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina and the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and in 1937 a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences . In November 1933 he signed the German professors' confession of Adolf Hitler .

In 1955 the Kossmatplatz in Vienna- Favoriten was named after him.

His grave at the Südfriedhof Leipzig was abandoned in 2014, but was able to be rebuilt in 2015 thanks to dedicated efforts.

Fonts (selection)

• 1900: About the geological conditions of the mining area of ​​Idria . in: Yearbook of the Imperial and Royal Geological Institute, vol. 49, Vienna 1900, pp. 259–286 ( digitized version ; PDF; 2.4 MB)
• 1916: Paleogeography (geological history of the seas and continents). 2., rework. Edition Berlin [u. a.]: Göschen (Göschen Collection; 406)
• 1920: The Mediterranean chain mountains in their relationship to the equilibrium of the earth's crust. - Dep. D. Math.-Phys. Class of the Saxons. Akad. D. Wiss., Volume 38, No. 2, Leipzig (Teubner).
• 1922: Overview of the geology of Saxony , Dresden, Leipzig 1922, 2nd edition 1925
• 1924: Geology of the central Balkan Peninsula , Gebr. Borntraeger
• 1927: Structure of the Varist mountain building. Treatises of the Saxon Geological State Office, vol. 1. pp. 1–39
• 1931: The image of the earth and its changes , Leipzig: Academic publishing company
• 1936 paleogeography and tectonics. Berlin: Borntraeger

literature

• Thierbach:  Kossmat Franz. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 4, Publishing House of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1969, p. 150 f. (Direct links on p. 150 , p. 151 ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Franz Kossmat in the catalog of the German National Library
• Overview of Franz Kossmat's courses at the University of Leipzig (summer semester 1914)
• Franz Kossmat in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
• Works by and about Franz Kossmat  in the German Digital Library
• Entry Franz Kossmat in the person wiki of the SLUB Dresden
• Obituary Franz Kossmat of the Federal Geological Institute Vienna
• University collections in Germany
• Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig
• Calliope estate directory
• Directory of artistic, scientific and cultural-political legacies in Austria

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 138.