Harry Gravelius

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Harry Gravelius , actually Heinrich Jakob Gravelius , (born May 22, 1861 in Frankfurt am Main ; † February 7, 1938 in Dresden ) was a German mathematician , geophysicist , water economist and meteorologist and rector of the Dresden University of Technology .

Life

Gravelius was born as the son of the physician Eduard Samuel Theodor Gravelius and his wife Emilie Fritsch in Frankfurt am Main. The father died in 1869; Gravelius attended secondary school and finished it in 1880 with the Abitur. He then studied mathematics and astronomy at the University of Göttingen and the University of Berlin and, after completing his studies, worked as a private lecturer for almost ten years. During this time he published various works on mathematics as well as his "Collection of Commonly Understandable Scientific Lectures" published in 1892, conversations in space . He also went on an educational trip to England.

Gravelius received his doctorate in 1893 with a thesis on the application of elliptical functions in the calculation of absolute perturbations at the University of Marburg . He then worked until 1896 under Hermann Keller as an unskilled worker at the Prussian Water Committee. At the Technical University of Dresden in 1897 he completed his habilitation on the subject of flood studies on the Volga and worked as a private lecturer in mechanics and theoretical physics. In 1899 Gravelius was appointed associate professor for hydrology and water management at the TH Dresden "with the highest approval". From 1898 to 1914 Gravelius acted as editor of the journal Gewässerkunde , in which he also published regularly . One focus of his work was the "application of [...] functional theory to find the function that reproduces a picture of the natural occurrences of hydrological and meteorological processes." In the area of ​​precipitation research, Gravelius' interest lay in weather forecasting. In order to achieve his goal - a faster local weather forecast for Dresden and the surrounding area - in 1902 he converted an existing weather station in his house at Reissigerstrasse 13 into a weather station, which, as the municipal weather station, provided the weather forecast for the Dresdner Anzeiger . The weather forecasts appeared in Dresden as early as noon from 1902, with the printing of the free weather map being done with the support of the Dresden city administration. At the time, it was usual to have a weather forecast for the evening or the following morning, with the official data being supplied by the Royal Saxon Meteorological Institute in Chemnitz. It was not until 1905 that the institute moved to Dresden.

After the death of Sophus Ruge in 1904, Gravelius also received a teaching position for geography at the TH Dresden and from 1904 was also director of the university's geographic collection. From 1914 to 1929 Gravelius taught and researched as a "full professor for water management and hydrology including climatology and meteorology" at the TH Dresden; he was teaching geography until 1917. His main work planned at the time - the four-volume treatise Ground Plan of the Entire Hydrology - could never be realized in this way. Volume 1, Flußkunde , appeared in 1914. Although Gravelius completed the manuscripts for the following three volumes Seenkunde , Groundwater and spring studies and Precipitation and runoff , the manuscripts and other book manuscripts of Gravelius were destroyed in 1945.

Grave of Harry Gravelius in the Tolkewitz urn grove

During the First World War , Gravelius headed the social welfare office for soldiers' families. He was also involved in university life in a variety of ways, was head of the international office and was rector of the university in 1922/23. He has received several awards, including the Order of Albrecht (first class knight with the crown) and the War Merit Cross around 1916 .

Gravelius was married twice. With Maria Hermine Elisabetha Vogel, whom he married in 1883, he had a son born in 1885; the marriage was divorced in 1893. In 1894 Gravelius married Anna Ida Bertha Sommer in Berlin. The marriage had daughter Anna Hertha Erna († 1973), who married the writer Gottfried Fischer-Gravelius (1890–1974) in 1922 .

Gravelius retired in 1929, but continued to publish actively. He died in Dresden in 1938 and was buried in the Tolkewitz urn grove . In his will, he left his private book collection as a gift to his university.

Publications (selection)

  • 1886: Five-digit logarithmic trigonometric tables for the decimal division of the quadrant: with detailed tables for the transition from the new division of the quadrant to the old one and vice versa. Reimer, Berlin
  • 1889: Theoretical mechanics of rigid systems. De Gruyter, Berlin / Boston (Reprint 2019)
  • 1892: Chatting in space: collection of commonly understood scientific lectures. Stankiewicz, Berlin
  • 1893: On the ethics of suffering. In: Ethische Kultur, Vol. 18, No. 1, 1893, pp. 140–141
  • 1893: Textbook of differential calculus: for use in lectures at universities and technical colleges. Dümmler, Berlin
  • 1893: Textbook of higher analysis: for use in lectures at universities and technical colleges. Dümmler, Berlin
  • 1893: The application of the elliptical functions in the calculation of absolute perturbations. Stankiewicz, Berlin
  • 1895: Explanation of the relationships between meteorological and flood phenomena in the Oder region. Dümmler, Berlin
  • 1897: The connection between water level fluctuations and precipitation in the Upper Volga region: a contribution to the general question of flood forecasting. Koehler, Dresden
  • 1898: About a statistic of the amount of water in the main river basins of France. Published by S. Hirzel, Leipzig
  • 1898: Reports on the state of precipitation research. Published by S. Hirzel, Leipzig
  • 1899: Duties of meteorology in relation to agriculture: lecture. In: Communications of the Economic Society in the Kingdom of Saxony, pp. 133–145
  • 1914: Floor plan of the entire hydrology. Göschen, Berlin (planned 4 volumes, published volume 1: Flußkunde)
  • 1933: Introductory remarks on the hydrometeorology of Saxony. Saxon Office
  • 1936: tasks and ways. In: Wasserkraft und Wasserwirtschaft, No. 31, pp. 1–3

literature

  • Gravelius, Heinrich (Jakob) . In: Dorit Petschel: 175 years of TU Dresden. Volume 3: The professors of the TU Dresden 1828–2003. Edited on behalf of the Society of Friends and Supporters of the TU Dresden e. V. by Reiner Pommerin. Böhlau, Cologne et al. 2003, ISBN 3-412-02503-8 , p. 290.
  • Hermann Pleiß: Harry Gravelius - pioneer of hydrology and meteorology at the TH Dresden . In: Zeitschrift für Meteorologie , Vol. 34, Volume 1, 1984, pp. 50-54.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Hermann Pleiß: Harry Gravelius - pioneer of hydrology and meteorology at the TH Dresden . In: Zeitschrift für Meteorologie , Vol. 34, Volume 1, 1984, p. 50.
  2. ↑ TH Dresden (ed.): Report on the Royal. Saxon. Technical University of Dresden for the academic year 1899/1900 . BG Teubner, Dresden 1900, p. 7.
  3. ↑ Hermann Pleiß: Harry Gravelius - pioneer of Hydrology and Meteorology at the Technical University Dresden . In: Zeitschrift für Meteorologie , Vol. 34, Volume 1, 1984, p. 51.
  4. ^ A b Hermann Pleiß: Harry Gravelius - pioneer of hydrology and meteorology at the TH Dresden . In: Zeitschrift für Meteorologie , Vol. 34, Volume 1, 1984, p. 52.
  5. ↑ TH Dresden (ed.): Report on the Royal. Saxon. Technical University of Dresden for the academic year 1914/1915 . Wilhelm u. Bertha von Baensch Foundation, Dresden 1915, p. 5.
  6. ^ A b Hermann Pleiß: Harry Gravelius - pioneer of hydrology and meteorology at the TH Dresden . In: Zeitschrift für Meteorologie , Vol. 34, Volume 1, 1984, p. 53.
  7. ↑ Information according to address book for Dresden and suburbs , book printer of Dr. Güntzschen Foundation, Dresden 1919, p. 215.
  8. ↑ Biography of Gottfried Fischer-Gravelius in the special catalog on the Gottfried Fischer-Gravelius estate - Mscr.Dresd.App. 2540, p. 4.
  9. ^ History of foundations and donations . In: TU Dresden (Hrsg.): Patrons and donors in the past and present. On the history of the Society of Friends and Supporters of the Technical University of Dresden e. V. Altenburg printing works, Altenburg 1998, p. 16.
personal data
SURNAME Gravelius, Harry
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gravelius, Heinrich Jakob (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German water economist, meteorologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 22, 1861
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH February 7, 1938
Place of death Dresden