Gerhard Pretzmann

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Gerhard Pretzmann (born September 8, 1929 in Vienna ; † January 20, 2013 there ) was an Austrian zoologist and paleontologist at the Natural History Museum Vienna . He founded and headed the Vienna section of the Working Group on Evolution, Human Future and Questions of Meaning (AGEMUS).

Life

Gerhard Pretzmann studied in Vienna with Otto Koenig and Konrad Lorenz and wrote a dissertation on "Social behavior in freshwater fish". He received his doctorate in philosophy in 1958. First he worked at the Hygiene Institute (virology-ecology) and initially parallel, then alone and until his retirement (as department head) at the Natural History Museum and was also very active in popular education. Pretzmann was a co-founder and long-time board member of the Environment Forum, where he headed the working group for environmental ethics, and together with Alexander Tollmann he founded the United Green Party of Austria (VGÖ). For a long time he was also Secretary General of the Bertha von Suttner Peace Mission, which also made him an honorary member . He died on January 20, 2013 after a long illness. The funeral oration at the funeral at the Vienna Central Cemetery was held in a small circle by Karl Edlinger, szt. Curator at the Natural History Museum Vienna.

research

Among other things, Pretzmann successfully carried out research in the field of crabs, where he discovered rare subspecies of freshwater crabs. He described three subspecies of the freshwater crab Potamon potamios . From his numerous research trips etc. over 100 scientific papers on virology , ethology , paleontology and evolution theory emerged as well as numerous popular science book contributions. Pretzmann organized annual scientific symposia on various questions. He founded and headed the Vienna section of the “Working Group on Evolution, Human Future and Questions of Meaning” ( AGEMUS ). This was suggested in 1981 by the Freiburg geneticist Carsten Bresch in a biological-theological working group and decided to promote scientific research in the sense of Teilhard de Chardin . In 1983 there were already 24 groups in Germany, France and Austria.

Fonts (selection)

  • On the importance of the primary motivation for terrorism. In: Erwin Bader (Ed.): Terrorism. A challenge of our time. P. Lang, Vienna 2007, ISBN 978-3-631-54923-0 , pp. 131-136.
  • Contribution to the general theory of evolution. Vienna 2002.
  • (Ed.): Environmental ethics. Manifesto of responsible treatment of nature. Graz 2001.
  • Farewell to illusions. Conclusion of the XX. Century. AGEMUS, Vienna 1999.
  • Thoughts on the noosphere. In: PCNEWS edu. February 1997, p. 31 f. ( PDF ).
  • Are there any objective ethics? Evolutionary foundations of human action and judgment. In: environmental ethics. Contributions to the foundation of sustainable values. Umweltforum 6 / October 1996, pp. 20–22.
  • Basic features of an ecological humanism. VWGÖ, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-85369-857-3 .
  • Love. Nature and culture. Attempt a synopsis. Self-published, Vienna 1981.
  • Results of some collecting trips to the Middle East. In: Ann. Natural history. Mus. Vienna. Vienna 1976, pp. 453-456 ( PDF ).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The scientific officials of the Natural History Museum in Vienna. Status: April 1976 (PDF; 1.17 MB) Natural History Museum Vienna. P. 9 f. Retrieved March 11, 2013.
  2. ↑ International Peace Mission "Bertha von Suttner".
  3. ↑ Potamon potamios in the endangered Red List species the IUCN ..
  4. ^ Margot Schmidt, Fernando Domínguez Reboiras (Ed.): From the search for God. Helmut Riedlinger on his 75th birthday, 1998, p. 616. AGEMUS Vienna publishes the regular journal AGEMUS-Nachrichten.
personal data
SURNAME Pretzmann, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian zoologist and paleontologist at the Natural History Museum Vienna
DATE OF BIRTH September 8, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 20th January 2013
Place of death Vienna