Georg Statz

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Georg Statz (born November 23, 1894 in Cologne , † August 29, 1945 in Neu-Ulm ) was a German teacher, entomologist and fossil collector.

Life

Georg Statz completed his training as a teacher and, after attending the teachers' seminar in Siegburg, later worked as a teacher at a primary school in Cologne. In his spare time in the first half of the 20th century he collected fossil plants, spiders and insects on old dumps that were created when the coal was extracted in the area around Rott near Hennef am Siebengebirge , and over the years laid an extensive and very high quality fossil collection. The preoccupation with these fossils became the center of his life. Georg Statz handed his first finds over to the Belgian entomologist Fernand Meunier (1868–1926), who lived in Bonn from around the end of 1918, for assessment and processing, but he was already working intensively on entomology as an autodidact. After the death of Fernand Meunier, he studied biology for 10 semesters at the University of Cologne from 1926 in order to acquire the necessary specialist knowledge for his intended publications as comprehensively as possible.

Georg Statz subsequently published numerous scientific papers on the fossil fauna of Rott, in which he succeeded in first describing more than 300 fossil insect species. Among other things, he named the mushroom mosquito Ectrepesthoneura rottensis Statz , 1944, in honor of the place where it was found in Rott near Hennef. In honor of the Cologne-Deutz mineralogists H. Weigand, who introduced him in 1917 in the locality Rott, he named the limoniinae Helius weigandi ( Statz , 1934) and in honor of the Roman Catholic clergy and entomologists Adolf Horion from Libur, with the he exchanged ideas about entomology and who also collected in Rott, he named the widgeon Limonia horioni Statz , 1934. After Fernand Meunier he named the caddis fly Phryganea meunieri Statz in 1936 and after Anton Kastenholz (1891-1953), who often came with him in Rott collected and ran a small stone and fossil trade in Bonn, in 1940 he named the hover fly Epistrophe kastenholzi Statz , 1940.

During the bombing of Cologne in 1944, Georg Statz's house was destroyed by a direct hit. The family moved to Bavaria for some time due to the war, but was still able to successfully store the collection in the cellars of the Geological Institute. Georg Statz died three months after the end of the war, weakened by the privations caused by the war.

Georg Statz, who was a member of the Working Group of Rhenish Coleopterologists , was made an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Cologne in June 1940 and in the same year was accepted as a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in the zoology section .

Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County - Statz Collection (Insects)

In his honor were u. a. the parasitic wasp Polysphincta statzi ( Meunier , 1923), the Damselfly Lestes statzi Schmidt , 1958, and the Scarab Beetle Onthophagus statzi Krell , 1990, named.

The sediments deposited in the former caldera of a volcano with the fossil deposits known today as the Rott fossil deposit, which are chronostratigraphically assigned to the Late Oligocene ( Chattian ) and thus indicate an age of around 23 to 24 million years, are not least due to the collections and publications by Georg Statz achieved its current international importance. However, against the resistance of numerous scientists, a golf course was later laid out over the former mining area, which was designated as a two-dimensional natural monument in July 1942, in several stages of expansion until 1986. Further attempts by the scientists to obtain protection status at least for the area between tees 6, 7 and 9 of the golf course failed and the golf course with its 18 holes plus four practice courses was realized. After completion of the construction work and the creation of a well-tended grassy area, the coal deposits between Rott and Söven were again designated as a ground monument in 1986 .

Bonn Goldfuß-Museum - Statz Collection (plants)

His collection of 3,500 insects and 2,300 plants first came to North Africa after the war and, after long negotiations with the French customs authorities, was sold by the family in the USA to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in Los Angeles in 1955 . In 2003 the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History donated Georg Statz's botany collection free of charge to the Goldfuß Museum , Steinmann Institute for Geology, Mineralogy and Paleontology, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms University, Bonn. Other originals of the fossils described by Georg Statz are in addition to the Statz Collection as part of the Invertebrate Paleontology (= LACMIP locality 2533) at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, also in Germany in the originals collection of the Federal Institute for Geosciences and Raw Materials in Berlin.

Georg Statz was married and had a daughter.

Fonts (selection)

  • Three new insect species from the Tertiary of Rott am Siebengebirge . In: Scientific reports of the Association for Natural and Local History in Cologne am Rhein, 1, 1930, pp. 10-14
  • New Tipulid finds from the brown coal slate from Rott am Siebengebirge . In: Scientific reports of the Association for Natural and Local History in Cologne am Rhein, 3, 1934, pp. 90-106
  • New observations on fossil bees from the Tertiary by Rott am Siebengebirge . In: Archiv für Bienenkunde, 15, 1, 1934, pp. 1–10
  • Lestes grandis n. Sp. In: Scientific reports of the Association for Natural and Local History in Cologne am Rhein, 18, 1935, pp. 11-12
  • About new finds of Neuroptera, Panorpaten and Trichoptera from the tertiary slates of Rott am Siebengebirge . In: Decheniana, 93, 1936, pp. 208-255
  • About old and new fossil Hymenoptera finds from the tertiary deposits of Rott on the Siebengebirge . In: Decheniana 93, 1936, pp. 256-312
  • with Adolf Horion: A fossil Ptilid find from the Middle Oligocene deposits of Rott on the Siebengebirge . In: Entomologische Blätter, 33, 1, Krefeld 1937, pp. 8-10
  • About fossil lower aquatic animals from the Tertiary of Rott am Siebengebirge . In: Nature on the Lower Rhine. Sheets for the preservation of natural monuments and scientific research into the Lower Rhine, 13, 1, 1937, pp. 1–16
  • Five new fossil Cerambycid species from the Middle Oligocene deposits of Rott on the Siebengebirge . In: Entomologische Blätter, 34, Krefeld 1938, pp. 173-179
  • New finds of parasitic Hymenoptera from the Tertiary of Rott am Siebengebirge . In: Decheniana, 98 A, Bonn 1938, pp. 71-144, plates 6-14
  • Straight winged beetles and water beetles from the oligocene deposits of Rott . In: Decheniana, 99 A, Bonn 1939, pp. 1–102
  • New Diptera (Brachycera et Cyclorrhapha) from the Oligocene by Rott . In: Palaeontographica, A 91, 1940, pp. 120-174
  • Rhenish termites! In: Rheinischer Naturfreund, 1, 1940, pp. 14–24.
  • New Diptera (Nematocera) from the Upper Oligocene by Rott. I. family. Bibionidae (hair gnats) . In: Palaeontographica, A 95, 1943, pp. 1-65
  • New Diptera (Nematocera) from the Upper Oligocene by Rott. II. Family. Fungivoridae (mushroom mosquitoes) . Palaeontographica, A 95, 1944, pp. 67-91
  • New Diptera (Nematocera) from the Upper Oligocene by Rott. III. Family. Limnoiidae (wilts), IV. Tipulidae family (Schnaken), V. Culicidae family (mosquitoes) . In: Palaeontographica, A 95, 1944, pp. 94-120
  • New Diptera (Nematocera) from the Upper Oligocene by Rott. VI. Family. Tendipedidae (mosquitoes or swarming gnats), VII. Heleidae family (midges), VIII. Lycoriidae family (fungus gnats) . In: Palaeontographica, A 95, 1944, pp. 123-187
  • Cicadariae (cicadas) from the Oberoligocanen deposits of Rott . In: Palaeontographica, A 98, 1950, pp. 1-46
  • Old and new Hydrocorisae (water bugs) from the Upper Oligocene of Rott . In: Palaeontographica, A 98, 1950, pp. 47-96
  • with Eduard Wagner : Geocorisae (land bugs) from the Upper Oligocene deposits of Rott . In: Palaeontographica, A 98, 1950, pp. 97-136
  • Fossil Mordellidae and Lamellicornia (Coleoptera) from the Upper Oligocene by Rott . In: Palaeontographica, A 102, 1952, pp. 1-17

literature

  • Peter T. Furst: The Oligocene World of Georg Statz . In: Pacific Discovery, 12 (6), 1959, pp. 11-17 ( digitized version )
  • Meinolf Hellmund: Hennef-Rott, a fossil discovery site of world renown in the Rhein-Sieg district . In: Yearbook of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis 1988, ISBN 3-925551-04-2 , pp. 152–157
  • Wighart von Koenigswald : Rott - a subtropical lake on the edge of the Siebengebirge . In: Wighart von Koenigswald & Wilhelm Meyer (ed.): Earth history in the Rhineland, fossils and rocks from 400 million years. Pfeil Verlag, Munich 1994, pp. 149-154
  • Wighart von Königswald (Ed.): Rott fossil deposit near Hennef on the Siebengebirge. Life on a subtropical lake 25 million years ago . 2nd expanded edition. Rheinlandia-Verlag, Siegburg 1996, ISBN 3-931509-12-5
  • Frank-Thorsten Krell: Onthophagus statzi nom. nov. for Onthophagus muelleri Statz , 1952 [Insecta: Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae (Oligocene)]. Senckenbergiana Lethaea, 71, 1990, p. 187
  • Wolfhart Langer: Portraits of Researchers. From the beginning to the middle of the 20th century . In: Wighart von Königswald (ed.): Rott fossil deposit near Hennef on the Siebengebirge. Life on a subtropical lake 25 million years ago . 2nd expanded edition. Rheinlandia-Verlag, Siegburg 1996, pp. 99-104
  • Hermann Josef Roth : Die Blätterkohle von Rott am Siebengebirge : In: Werner K. Weidert (Ed.): Classic sites of paleontology, Volume IV, Goldschneck, Korb 2001, pp. 193-203
  • Erich Schmidt: Comments on Lestiden III (Odonata). About Oligolestes grandis (Statz 1935) and a new Lestes species from the Middle Oligocene from Rott in the Siebengebirge . In: Decheniana, 111, 1958, pp. 1-7
  • Gale G. Sphon: Additional type specimens of fossil invertebrate in the collections of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County . Contributions in science, 250, 1973 ( digitized version )
  • Torsten Wappler: Petrified feeding passage . In: Thomas Martin , Wighart von Koenigswald, Gudrun Radtke and Jes Rust (eds.): Paläontologie. 100 years of the Paleontological Society . Pfeil, Munich 2012, pp. 166–167

Web links

References and comments

  1. ↑ Natural monument book of the Rhein-Sieg-Kreis No. 11, July 22, 1942
  2. ↑ Ground monument B 3a-l coal deposits . In: List of monuments city of Hennef (Sieg) - Part B - Ground monuments - Status 2/2012 ( PDF )
  3. ^ Scientific originals in the BGR / LBEG collections, Hanover and BGR, Berlin. Font directory. As of January 28, 2015, pp. 95–96 ( PDF )
personal data
SURNAME Statz, Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher, entomologist and fossil collector
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH Cologne
DATE OF DEATH August 29, 1945
Place of death New Ulm