Georg Friedrich Werner

Georg Friedrich Werner (born September 16, 1754 in Darmstadt , † April 23, 1798 in Gießen ) was a German surveyor , construction technician and university professor .

Werner belonged to the philosophical enlightenment movement of the 18th century. He had the Pädagogium completed in Darmstadt and studied for a long time in the self-study pure and applied mathematics , as well as defense technology . In 1778 he became a lieutenant engineer and professor for surveying technology and fortress construction in Giessen. In 1790 he was appointed chief engineer and full professor of war science. In 1795 he was promoted to major engineer while retaining his other offices.

In 1788 he founded the theory of the ether , which he had redesigned himself, against the Newtonian corpuscle theory of light and thus got into a scientific dispute with the Göttingen physics professor Georg Christoph Lichtenberg , who preferred Newtonian theory. In connection with an attempt to prevent the publication of his book, sentences from his book had been interpreted as " heretical " by other quarters . A process came about in the course of which Werner's sovereign, Landgrave Ludwig X. , announced that "under Höchst your government's free investigations of reason should not be set, they would also like to lead where they wanted."

Out of annoyance about the allegations against him, Werner stopped working on his theory of the light ether. The already published part, however, met with approval from philosophical and enlightenment circles in Giessen, Dillenburg and Braunschweig.

Fonts (selection)

• Draft of a new theory of the attractive forces of the ether. 1788.
• First attempt at a general etiology. 1792.
• Theoretical-practical treatise on wood-saving room stoves. 1797.

literature

• Karl Damian Achaz von Knoblauch zu Hatzbach:  Werner, Georg Friedrich . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 42, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1897, p. 49 f.