Georg von Neumayer
Georg Balthasar Neumayer , since 1900 Ritter von Neumayer (born June 21, 1826 in Kirchheimbolanden , † May 24, 1909 in Neustadt an der Haardt ) was a Bavarian- Palatinate geophysicist and polar researcher .
Together with the Austrian Carl Weyprecht , he founded the International Polar Commission in 1879 , whose research projects 1882–1883 led to the first International Polar Year . He is the namesake of the Neumayer III research station .
life and work
Georg Neumayer was the fifth child of the notary Georg Neumayer and his wife Theresia, née Kirchner. In 1832 the family moved to Frankenthal , where Neumayer attended the Progymnasium at times also the grammar schools in Speyer and Kaiserslautern . He then studied geophysics and hydrography at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich until 1851 . Since 1849 he was an assistant at the physical institute and at the observatory in Bogenhausen . In 1848 he applied to the German fleet, but was rejected. Instead, he traveled to South America with the Hamburg Bark Louise and attended the navigation school in Hamburg , where he was qualified as a helmsman . Between 1852 and 1856 he traveled to Australia as a seaman on the Reiherstieg brig , where he also worked as a teacher among German emigrants in the gold fields. In 1857 he visited Australia a second time, this time as part of a scientific research trip to South Australia . In 1857, with the financial support of King Maximilian II of Bavaria and the Hamburg Senate, he founded the Flagstaff Observatory for Geophysics, Magnetism and Nautics on Flagstaff Hill in the center of Melbourne , which he was director until 1864. During this time he undertook numerous expeditions and surveys in the interior of the continent. He also climbs Mount Kosciuszko . In 1864 he returned to Germany. At the Geographentag in Frankfurt in 1865, he outlined the goals of creating a central office for hydrography and maritime meteorology and conducting a south polar expedition. He was also politically active in the association for the protection of German interests on the left bank of the Rhine and ran unsuccessfully for a mandate in the customs parliament. In 1868 he was elected to the board of the natural history association Pollichia . In 1865 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .
After the establishment of the Empire, he moved to Berlin and became a hydrograph with the Admiralty. In this position he organized a. a. the circumnavigation of the gazelle and called the Wilhelmshaven observatory into being. In 1865 Neumayer suggested the creation of a German Sea Observatory , whereupon the North German Sea Observatory was founded on January 1, 1868 with the participation of Wilhelm von Freeden . The successor was the Deutsche Seewarte in Hamburg in 1874 , whose office Neumayer took over as director on January 1, 1875 and led it until 1903. He also introduced synoptic meteorology. During this time, Roald Amundsen lived with him as a young man in Hamburg, where he learned to carry out geomagnetic measurements. Neumayer devoted himself in particular to south polar research and was chairman of the International Polar Commission from 1879. In 1899 he was chairman of the Society of German Natural Scientists and Doctors . In 1900 Neumayer was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Bavarian Crown , which was associated with the personal title of nobility . In 1903 he retired and moved to Neustadt, where he also died and is buried in the main cemetery. In 1906 he was awarded the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina. After his 80th birthday, Georg von Neumayer founded the Georg von Neumayer Foundation with the donations intended for him , the purpose of which is to promote natural research and the care of the countryside as well as young scientists and to preserve the memory of well-known researchers; there is a close connection between the foundation and Pollichia.
Others
Von Neumayer's great-nephew Fritz Neumayer was Federal Minister of Justice in the 1950s .
Honors
The research stations of the Federal Republic of Germany on the Ekström Ice Shelf in Antarctica are named after Georg von Neumayer, see:
From 1872 he was a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences . The Göttingen Society of Sciences made Neumayer an honorary member in 1901. He was an honorary member of the Thuringian-Saxon Society for Geography and in 1906 became an honorary member of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory .
In his place of birth Kirchheimbolanden he gave the name to the Georg von Neumayer School and in Frankenthal for the Neumayer School. In both cities and in Neustadt an der Weinstrasse he was also granted honorary citizenship. In the Hamburg district of St. Pauli, Neumayerstraße was named after him in 1894, as was the Neumayerring in Kirchheimbolanden in Frankenthal.
There are also numerous geographical objects such as the Neumayer Canal , the Neumayer Steilwand , Cape Neumayer and Mount Neumayer in Antarctica, the Neumayer Glacier on South Georgia, Cape Neumayer on the North Greenland island of Luigi Amadeo Ø, the asteroid (9351) Neumayer and the lunar crater Neumayer named after him.
Fonts
- as editor: Instructions for scientific observations while traveling . Robert Oppenheim, Berlin 1875, digitized
- International polar research . 2 volumes, Berlin 1886
- The German expeditions and their results . Historical part, vol. 1. Asher & Co, Berlin 1891, Gutenberg project
- Off to the South Pole . 45 years of working to promote research in the south polar region. German publishing house, Berlin 1901 digitized
- Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt as a natural scientist and explorer In: Georg Neumayer, Otto Leichhardt (Ed.) Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt's letters to his relatives , L. Friederichsen, Hamburg 1881, p. 175 ff. Digitized
literature
- Ludwig Friederichsen : Georg von Neumayer (1826–1909) , in: Mitteilungen der Geographische Gesellschaft in Hamburg , Vol. 24, pp. 285–297, (also as a special edition)
- Walter Kertz: Georg von Neumayer and polar research . In: Polar Research. 53, No. 1, 1983, pp. 91-98, hdl : 10013 / epic.29530.d001
- Claus Priesner : Neumayer, Georg von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , pp. 166-168 ( digitized version ).
- Hans-Jochen Kretzer: Georg von Neumayer (1826–1909) , in: Pfälzer Lebensbilder , fourth volume, 1987, pp. 205 ff.
- RA Swan: Neumayer, Georg Balthasar von (1826–1909) in Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 5, Melbourne University Press, 1974, pp. 329–331 (English)
- Karl Heinrich Wiederkehr : The Hamburg seafaring and the introduction of the meteorological-geophysical navigation. In: Zeitschrift des Verein für Hamburgische Geschichte 73 (1987), pp. 1–26, ( PDF , contains, inter alia, the text of a memorandum to Senator Gustav Godeffroy , which outlines the idea of a German naval observatory.)
Web links
- Literature by and about Georg von Neumayer in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Georg von Neumayer in the German Digital Library
- Works by Georg von Neumayer in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Georg von Neumayer in the Internet Archive
- NN: Georg von Neumayer. In: German speakers in Australia. Germann Australia, accessed May 5, 2019 .
- NN: The Neumayer Observatories of Meteorology and Air Chemistry. Alfred Wegener Institute (Helmholtz Center for Polar and Marine Research), July 12, 2017, accessed on May 5, 2019 .
- NN: Georg von Neumayer. Resume. In: Maritime Specialized Library. Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, accessed on May 5, 2019 .
- Page no longer available , search in web archives: thirst for knowledge and adventure - interview on the 100th anniversary of Georg von Neumayer's death (on SWR.de) ) (
Individual evidence
- ↑ The instruction in the navigation school was incumbent on the head of the Hamburg observatory , at that time Carl Rümker .
- ^ Karl Heinrich Wiederkehr: The Hamburg Seafaring ... , p. 22
- ↑ See pp. 52–55 in: Official report on the first gathering of German Masters and Friends of Geography , Frankfurt 1865, digitized
- ↑ Website Deutsche Seewarte Hamburg
- ↑ PDF document on Neumayer, naming the order class ( memento from September 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ^ Directory of the members of the Thuringian-Saxon Geography Association on March 31, 1885 ( Memento from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
personal data | |
---|---|
SURNAME | Neumayer, Georg von |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Neumayer, Georg Balthasar von (full name) |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German geophysicist and polar explorer |
DATE OF BIRTH | June 21, 1826 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Kirchheimbolanden |
DATE OF DEATH | May 24, 1909 |
Place of death | Neustadt an der Weinstrasse |