August Goldfoot

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Portrait Goldfuß 'in a lithograph made by Adolf Hohneck in 1841

Georg August Goldfuß (born April 18, 1782 in Thurnau , † October 2, 1848 in Poppelsdorf near Bonn) was a German paleontologist and zoologist .

Life

Goldfuß grew up in the margraviate and, from 1791, in the Prussian province of Ansbach-Bayreuth as the son of Johann August Goldfuß and Margarete nee. Guardian up. From 1800 to 1804 he studied surgery and pharmacy as well as zoology and natural history at the Collegium medico-chirurgicum in Berlin with Carl Ludwig Willdenow . He moved to the University of Erlangen and received his doctorate in medicine in 1804 with a thesis on South African beetles.

In 1806 he worked as an editor in Erlangen, 1807–1809 as a private tutor for the Barons von Winckler in Hemhofen near Erlangen. In 1810 he completed his habilitation, after which he taught zoology as a private lecturer and chair administrator at Erlangen University from 1811 to 1818. Goldfuß joined the Erlangen Freemason Lodge Lebanon to the three Ceders .

On May 1, 1813, the Leopoldina , the oldest scientific and medical scholarly society in Germany, accepted him as a member (matriculation no. 1042) with the academic surname Polyponus . There he was entrusted with the task of a secretary as well as with the care of the world-famous scientific collection and the library. The statutes of the society were still geared towards the extinct, transnational Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation : The Leopoldina had its seat at the residence of the respective president.

In 1815 Goldfuß married Eleonora Oelhafen von Schöllenbach (1789–1873), the daughter of assessor Christoph Carl Oelhafen von Schöllenbach from a well-known Nuremberg patrician family, with whom he moved in 1831 to Rosenburg Castle, which was newly built on the Venusberg slope in Kessenich .

During the occupation by Napoleonic France, the University of Erlangen more or less ceased operations in 1806, but even after Erlangen had become Bavarian in 1810 and university operations were resumed, Goldfuß and other scientists complained about the decline of the university. Goldfuß and the Prussian Minister of Culture, Karl Freiherr vom Stein zum Altenstein, came up with a tricky plan to move the Leopoldina's natural science collections to the newly founded Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn , Germany : In 1817, Goldfuß managed the appointment of Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck to one Chair of botany after Erlangen and, in 1818, his election as President of the Leopoldina. Nees von Esenbeck was chosen from the outset to stay only briefly in Erlangen and, as President, to move the collection and the library of the Leopoldina to Bonn; Goldfuss hoped to be able to follow him there as a professor. Bavaria initially stopped the transport of the collections at the state border - after all, at least the mineralogical collections were important not only for the scientific community, but also for the economic development of the mining industry - but the Leopoldina's move was ultimately successful thanks to the backing of the Prussian diplomacy. In October 1818 Goldfuß was actually appointed to Bonn, like other Erlangen scientists, with express appreciation of his services to Nees von Esenbeck's appointment to the new Prussian university. Goldfuß was a full professor of zoology, palaeontology and mineralogy in Bonn . On May 2, 1836, Karl Marx enrolled for his lectures on Zoology and Zootomy , Mineralogy and Natural History of Mammals .

August Goldfuss burial place

From 1839 to 1840 he was rector of the University of Bonn . In this function he went to the homage ceremony for the new Prussian king in Berlin in order to obtain higher grants for the university.

Goldfuß died in Poppelsdorf near Bonn in 1848 and was buried in a grave of honor in the Poppelsdorf cemetery .

plant

Cave finds aroused Goldfuß 'interest in fossils early on. In 1810 he published a description of the area around Muggendorf , and in 1816 a description of the Fichtelgebirge . His paleozoological work on the large mammals of the Pleistocene , such as the cave hyenas and the cave lions , the Permian and Mesozoic vertebrates and in particular the fossil invertebrate fauna - apart from isolated descriptions by Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim  - represent the beginning of scientifically based palaeontology in western Germany. In 1818 he introduced the term protozoa to science.

With the support of Georg Graf zu Münster (1776–1844), he published his main work Petrefacta Germaniae between 1826 and 1844 , in which Germany's fossil invertebrates should be fully recorded. The work remained unfinished, but the depiction of the sponges , corals , hair stars and echinoderms was completed, and in some cases also that of the molluscs .

In the course of his research, Goldfuß named several hundred new species and genera, including the koala and the Cervidae (deer).

The species Favosites goldfussi , Sphenodontiers Pleurosaurus goldfussi , Chalicotherium goldfussi , Brachypotherium goldfussi , Uncinulus (Kransia) goldfussi and Omphalocirrus goldfussi were named after Goldfuß . The paleontological museum of the University of Bonn also bears his name: Goldfuß-Museum .

His description of the pterosaur Scaphognathus crassirostris appeared in the Nova Acta Leopoldina in 1831 as the first scientific reconstruction of an extinct vertebrate in its habitat. When preparing the fossil, Goldfuß noticed unevenness in the rock when the light illuminated the limestone at a certain angle. Goldfuss saw it as early "hair" that served as thermal insulation. This was later dismissed as a blooming imagination. Only pictures taken in UV light and their post-processing confirmed clearly hair-like structures in the limestone: Almost 180 years after publication, Goldfuß is considered to have been rehabilitated in this detail.

Fonts

  • Enumeratio Insectorum Eleutheratorum Capitis Bonae Spei totiusque Africae descriptione iconibusque nonnullarum specierum novarum , Erlangen 1804
  • The surroundings of Muggendorf. A paperback for friends of nature and antiquity , Erlangen 1810 digitized
  • Microscopic observations on the metamorphosis of vegetable and animal life , in: Abhandlungen der Erlanger Societät, Volume 1, Erlangen 1810
  • Description of the nature of mammals , Erlangen 1812
  • On the metamorphosis of animal and vegetable life , in: Abhandlungen der Erlanger Societät, Volume 2, Erlangen 1812
  • Physical-statistical description of the Fichtelgebirge , with G. Bischof, Nuremberg 1817 Second part digitized
  • About the stages of development of the animal , Nuremberg 1817 digitized (reprint Basilisken-Presse, Marburg 1979)
  • Handbook of Zoology , Nuremberg 1818 Digitized
  • Description of a fossil wolverine skull from the Gailenreuther Höle , in: Novis Actis physico-medicis Acad. Caesareae Leopolodino-Carolinae naturae curiosum, Erlangen 1818
  • A word about the importance of scientific institutes and their influence on humane education , Bonn 1821. ( Digitized in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania digital library)
  • Natural History Atlas , 1. – 23. Heft, Düsseldorf 1824–1843 plates 101–200 digitized
  • Naturhistorischer Atlas , [together with] Erl. 1 - 4., Arnz, Düsseldorf 1826 digitized
  • Floor plan of the zoology , Nuremberg 1826, 2nd edition 1834 digitized
  • Contributions to petrefactology . 1838 digitized
  • Petrefacta Germaniae. Tam ea, quae in museo universitatis Regia Borussicae Fridericiae Wilhelmiae Rhenanae servantur, quam alia quaecunque in museis Hoeninghusiano Muensteriano aliisque extant, iconibus et descriptionibus illustrata = illustrations and descriptions of the petrefacts of Germany and the neighboring countries , with the assistance of Georg Graf zu Münster, Düsseldorf 1826 –1844 Archives , first part. 2nd edition 1862 digitized
  • The skull structure of the Mosasaurus , by describing a new species genus . Mainz 1842 digitized
  • Contributions to the prehistoric fauna of the Coal Mountains . Bonn 1847 digitized
  • A starfish from the greywacke. In: Negotiations of the Natural History Association of the Prussian Rhineland, 5, Bonn 1848, plate 5 ( digitized version), pp. 145–146 ( digitized version )

literature

  • Auctions catalog of an excellent zoological and petrefactological book collection, containing the library of the late Prof. in Bonn Dr. A. Goldfuß, which will be auctioned on April 15, 1850 in Berlin . Trowitzsch, Berlin 1850
  • Julius Victor Carus :  Goldfuß, August . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 9, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1879, p. 332 f.
  • Georg Uschmann :  Goldfuß, August. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 605 ( digitized version ).
  • Florian Heller : Georg August Goldfuß. * April 18, 1782 Thurnau / Ofr., + October 2, 1848 Bonn-Poppelsdorf; his studies in Berlin and his Erlangen years from 1804 to 1818 . In: Geological sheets for northeast Bavaria and neighboring areas . 1966 ISSN  0016-7797
  • Wolfhart Langer: Georg August Goldfuß - A biographical contribution in: Bonner Geschichtsblätter, Volume 23/1969, pp. 229–243
  • Klaus Jürgen Müller, Wolfhart Langer: Georg August Goldfuß 1782-1848 . In: 150 years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität in Bonn. Math and science . Bouvier, Bonn 1970, pp. 163-167
  • Walter thousand pounds, Gerhard Philipp Wolf: Georg August Goldfuß (1782-1848). For the 200th birthday of an early explorer of Franconian Switzerland and the Fichtelgebirge . In: Archive for the history of Upper Franconia 1984 ISSN  0066-6335 , pp. 287-299

Web links

Commons : August Goldfuß  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikisource: ADB: Goldfuß, August  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Directory of the members of the just and perfect Freemason Lodge Lebanon to the three cedars in the Orient from Erlangen, Hilpert, Am Iohannisfeste 5818 (misprint, = 1818), p. 4 google books
  2. ^ Johann Daniel Ferdinand Neigebaur : History of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinian German Academy of Natural Scientists during the second century of its existence. Friedrich Frommann , Jena 1860, p. 244 (archive.org)
  3. ↑ Marx registration form.
personal data
SURNAME Goldfoot, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Goldfuß, Georg August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paleontologist and zoologist
DATE OF BIRTH April 18, 1782
PLACE OF BIRTH Thurnau , near Bayreuth
DATE OF DEATH October 2, 1848
Place of death Bonn