Gerhard vom Rath

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Gerhard vom Rath, marble medallion by Albert Küppers
Painting “The Mineralogist” by Raphael Ritz (1829–1894); in memory of Gerhard vom Rath

Johann Jacob Gerhard vom Rath (born August 20, 1830 in Duisburg , † April 23, 1888 in Koblenz ) was a German mineralogist and geologist .

Live and act

Gerhard vom Rath was born on August 20, 1830 as the second child of the sugar manufacturer Johann Peter vom Rath (1795–1866) and his wife Philippina (Phily) Merrem (1801–1887). He was baptized four days after his birth in Duisburg's Salvatorkirche .

Since his family moved to Cologne in 1834 for reasons of economic policy , Gerhard vom Rath attended the Marcell high school there (today Dreikönigsgymnasium ), where he graduated from high school in 1848. He then studied mineralogy and geology in Bonn, Geneva and Berlin. He received his doctorate in philosophy on July 9, 1853 in Berlin. Three years later he completed his habilitation in Bonn, where in 1863 he was initially an associate professor and from 1872 a full professor of mineralogy and geology. From 1872 to 1880 he was director of the Mineralogical Museum at the University of Bonn .

His work covered various branches of crystallography and geology. He was the first to describe many new minerals such as jordanite (1864), marialite (1866), tridymite (1867), newberyite (1879), cristobalite (1884), fiedlerite (1887) and the vanadinite variety endlichite . In addition, he demonstrated the cubic symmetry of leucite and examined the various species of the feldspar family and igneous rocks ( volcanic rocks ).

Furthermore, vom Rath described several new types of rock such as tonalite and augite syenite . In addition, he provided treatises on the volcanic Rhineland, namely the Siebengebirge and Laacher See , Switzerland, Tyrol, Italy, Norway, Elba, the Euganeans, Tuscany, Calabria, Sicily, Hungary and Transylvania. He collected the material for these works on repeated trips, and as further fruits of the latter he also provided landscape and social sketches.

In contrast to his professional successes, his family situation was marked by blows of fate. On August 6, 1858, he married Maria Rose, the daughter of Gustav Rose from Berlin (1830–1880). From this marriage three sons were born, but all of them died in childhood. He was particularly hard hit by the death of his first and highly gifted son Hans, who died of diphtheria at the age of 13 . The other two children died in the year they were born. His wife fell ill with a creeping, incurable spinal cord disease from which she finally died in 1880.

Three years later, Gerhard vom Rath married Maria Magdalena Josefine Bouvier (1847–1913). However, this marriage remained childless.

Memberships and honors

In 1870 the Bavarian Academy of Sciences appointed him a corresponding member. In 1871 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and in 1880 of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg . In 1880 he was also elected a member of the Leopoldina and a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

A mineral first described by Heinrich Adolph Baumhauer in 1896 was given the name Rathite in honor of Rath . The plant genus Rathea H.Karst. from the palm family (Arecaceae) is named after him.

Works

  • A trip to Calabria (Bonn 1871)
  • About the leucite crystal system August 1, 1872, general meeting of the academy ( available online at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek )
  • About the granite . Habel, Berlin 1878 ( digitized version )
  • About the granite (Berlin 1878)
  • About gold (Berlin 1879)
  • Scientific studies. Memories of the Paris World Exhibition (Bonn 1879). See Laspeyres, Gerh. v. R., a sketch of his life (Bonn 1888).
  • Transylvania (Heidelberg 1880)
  • Through Italy and Greece to the Holy Land , travel letters (Heidelberg 1882, 2 vols.)
  • Arizona (Heidelberg 1885)
  • Pennsylvania (Heidelberg 1888)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Birth register of the parish Salvatorkirche, register no. 158.82; available in the Duisburg City Archives (Volume 37, p. 181)
  2. ^ Josef Lehmkuhl: The other Duisburg . ISBN 978-3-8260-5335-1 , pp. 18 (vom Rath family) .
  3. ↑ Register of the University of Geneva (Ex 1373, List E 23, No. 42) about Gerhard Johann Jakob; available in the Duisburg City Archives (collection of biographies of well-known personalities)
  4. ↑ Gert von Eynern: The enterprises of the family vom Rath . Kurt Schroeder Verlag, Bonn 1930, p. 244–350 (available online at Cologne University and City Library ).
  5. ↑ Prof. Dr. Gerhard vom Rath , members of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences
  6. ^ Members of the previous academies. Gerhard vom Rath. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences , accessed May 30, 2015 .
  7. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Gerhard vom Rath. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed October 19, 2015 (Russian).
  8. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 196.
  9. ↑ Rathite . In: John W. Anthony, Richard A. Bideaux, Kenneth W. Bladh, Monte C. Nichols (Eds.): Handbook of Mineralogy, Mineralogical Society of America . 2001 ( handbookofmineralogy.org [PDF; 62  kB ; accessed on January 18, 2018]).
  10. ↑ Lotte Burkhardt: Directory of eponymous plant names - Extended Edition. Part I and II. Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin , Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-946292-26-5 doi: 10.3372 / epolist2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Vom Rath, Gerhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vom Rath, Johann Jacob Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mineralogist and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH August 20, 1830
PLACE OF BIRTH Duisburg
DATE OF DEATH April 23, 1888
Place of death Koblenz