Helmut Meyer-Abich

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Meyer-Abich's signature as part of a dedication on one of his geoscientific publications.

Helmut Meyer-Abich (born July 20, 1919 in Göttingen ; † January 25, 2008 ) was a German naval officer and geologist . After his military career during the Second World War , he pursued a scientific career and carried out basic geological research in El Salvador for seven years. He then returned to Germany and rose to the position of commander of the naval forces in the North Sea in the German Navy .

Life

Youth and Work in the Third Reich

He was born in 1919 as the son of the philosopher, biologist, natural science historian and later university professor Adolf Meyer-Abich (1893–1971) and the writer Siever Johanna Meyer-Abich (née Berghaus ; 1895–1981). His father was then employed as a librarian at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . Helmut had a total of four siblings - among them the youngest brother Klaus Michael, born in 1936 .

During the Weimar Republic he was active in the Bündische Jugend and later in the Hitler Youth during the Nazi era . He then did the legally stipulated Reich Labor Service between April and September 1937 in Husum and Bredstedt . On October 9th of the same year he joined the Navy and was promoted there rapidly during the Second World War . Between December 1939 and January 1942 he served as a watch officer on the destroyer Z 10 Hans Lody and then until May 1943 as a torpedo, deck and 1st watch officer on the destroyer ZG 3 Hermes . On August 14, 1943 Meyer-Abich was awarded the German Cross in Gold with the rank of First Lieutenant at Sea . A few weeks later, in September 1943, he began his service as 1st officer on watch on the destroyer Z 39 . He held this post until May 1944, when he was appointed commander of the T 18 torpedo boat . Which is under his command ship was on 17 September 1944 during a distraction Action northwest of Baltischport in the Gulf of Finland by Soviet bombers of the type Douglas A-20 sunk, in which 30 sailors died. In his last position during the Second World War , Meyer-Abich , who had meanwhile risen to lieutenant captain , worked from October 1944 to May 10, 1945 as 3rd Admiral Staff Officer at the “ Führer der Destroyer ” department.

Scientific career

After the end of the war, enrolled him at the University of Hamburg to study the geology . He was able to complete this with a diploma in August 1949 , before only a few months later - on December 15, 1949 and supervised by doctoral supervisor Otto Pratje - with the dissertation The Sediments of Borkum-Riffgrund . A regional statistical study doctorate was.

As part of a German- Latin American scientific exchange program, he moved to El Salvador at the beginning of 1950 with his parents, his wife and their two small children . They lived in the settlement of Planes de Renderos , a few kilometers south of the capital San Salvador . A stay of two years was originally planned; the parents returned to Germany in 1951. On September 13, 1950 Meyer-Abich founded the Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Científicas , which was opened by President Óscar Osorio Hernández and consisted of a total of eight laboratories (three large and five smaller) and a four-story guest house. Up to March 1954 it was visited by 22 scientists from Germany, 13 from the United States , four from the Netherlands and one from France , most of whom did basic research in El Salvador and accordingly enjoyed great freedom of planning. The interdisciplinary institute brought together researchers from different disciplines so that botany , zoology , hydrobiology , geology , geography , anthropology , meteorology and archeology of the country were examined.

One of Meyer-Abich's first tasks was a detailed geological mapping of the aquifers in order to ensure the water supply for cities and towns (including San Salvador). He also turned to engineering geology , for example checking the foundation security of the bridges of a new coastal road and carried out a benefit analysis for a planned dam on the Río Lempa , in which he came to the conclusion that it was not 95 years as planned, but because of it the high sedimentation rates could only have been used for 15 years. In addition, he undertook week-long excursions through the Chalatenango Department to Basalt - and gypsum to map -Occurrence. From 1952 Meyer-Abich published the small journal Comunicaciones and in 1954 he participated in the planning for the new port in Acajutla , where he set up an oceanographic research station on site .

With effect from January 1, 1955, he created the Servicio Geológico Nacional at the Ministry of Infrastructure ( spa .: Ministerio de obras públicas ) , of which he became the first director. In that year he concentrated mainly on mineral deposits and examined numerous mines with regard to occupational safety and production utilization. He also carried out the first geothermal boreholes in fumarole areas in order to localize any potential for energy production. A main focus of his activity in El Salvador was volcanology . In collaboration with the well-known US geologist Howell Williams, he used echo sounder measurements for the bathymetric investigation of Lago de Ilopango and Lago de Coatepeque . He was also responsible for the first systematic mapping of the entire volcanic region of the country.

Military career in the Federal Republic

Helmut Meyer-Abich, who enjoyed a reputation as an excellent naval officer and who was said to have organizational talent as well as excellent analytical skills and practical visions, finally received the offer to help rebuild the German Navy in Germany . Ultimately, his passion for seafaring was greater than that for geology and since he wanted to give his four children the best possible education and not leave them behind in El Salvador, the entire family returned to Germany on March 1, 1957.

Between April 1961 and September 1962 he was first in command of the new frigate Cologne (F 220) and later also served on the destroyer Bayern (D 183) . As a sea captain , Meyer-Abich was the commander of the 2nd destroyer squadron between October 1967 and September 1969 . In addition, he worked on an edition (72nd volume, issue 10, October 1975) of the Marine-Rundschau published by the Working Group for Defense Research . Over the years he rose to the position of Flotilla Admiral and from October 1976 he was entrusted with the post of Commander of the Naval Forces of the North Sea - at the same time he was Commander German Northsea Subarea ( COMGERNORSEA ) NATO Sea Commander for the German Bight . Helmut Meyer-Abich retired on September 30, 1979.

Publications

Monographs

  • H. Meyer-Abich: Texto de Geología general de El Salvador . San Salvador 1953.
  • H. Williams, H. Meyer-Abich: Volcanism in the southern part of El Salvador . (= University of California publications in geological sciences. Vol. 32, No. 1). University of California Press , Berkeley 1955.
  • H. Meyer-Abich: Los volcanes activos de Guatemala y El Salvador . (= Anales del Servicio Geológico Nacional de El Salvador. No. 3). El Salvador ministerio de obras públicas, San Salvador 1956.
  • H. Meyer-Abich: La erupción del volcan de Izalco (El Salvador) del 28 de febrero de 1955 y su actividad hasta principios de 1956 . El Salvador ministerio de obras públicas, San Salvador 1956.
  • H. Meyer-Abich: The Apastepeque volcanic field . El Salvador ministerio de obras públicas, San Salvador 1956.
  • F. Mooser, H. Meyer-Abich, AR McBirney: Catalog of the active volcanoes and solfatara fields of Central America . International Association of Volcanology , Naples 1958.

Articles in professional journals

  • H. Meyer-Abich: El problema de Metapán. In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 1, No. 1, 1952, pp. 17-19.
  • H. Meyer-Abich: Las coordinadas geográficas de las poblaciones de El Salvador. In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 1, No. 1, 1952, pp. 22-29.
  • H. Meyer-Abich: Terremoto de Jucuapa en El Salvador (America Central), 6-7 de Mayo de 1951. In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 1, No. 2, 1952, pp. 1-24.
  • H Meyer-Abich; Cornejo, A .: El Puerto de Acajutla, El Salvador (Con 3 figuras y 3 mapas). In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 1, No. 3, 1952, pp. 8-14.
  • H. Meyer-Abich: Prologo a las investigaciones dirigidas por el Dr. Adolf Zilch . In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 1, No. 4, 1952, p. 1.
  • H. Meyer-Abich: The earthquake of Jucuapa in El Salvador (Central America) from 6th and 7th May 1951. In: New yearbook for geology and palaeontology. Vol. 95, No. 3, 1952, pp. 311-336.
  • H. Williams, H. Meyer-Abich: El origen del Lago de Ilopango. In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 2, No. 1, 1953, pp. 1-8.
  • H. Williams, H. Meyer-Abich: Historia volcánica del Lago de Coatepeque (El Salvador) y sus alrededores. In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 3, No. 2-3, 1954, pp. 107-120.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Curriculum vitae of Siever Johanna Meyer-Abich. Retrieved from ostfriesenelandschaft.de on March 23, 2018.
  2. ↑ List of Meyer-Abich's military stations between 1939 and 1944. Retrieved from forum-marinearchiv.de on February 8, 2019.
  3. ↑ List of the commanders of the torpedo boat T 18 . Retrieved from german-navy.de on February 8, 2019.
  4. ^ Chronicle of the Naval War - September 1944. Compiled by the Library for Contemporary History . Retrieved from wlb-stuttgart.de ( Württembergische Landesbibliothek ) on February 8, 2019.
  5. ↑ Information on the staffing of the “Führer der Destroyer” department. Retrieved from deutschekriegsmarine.de on February 8, 2019.
  6. ↑ a b c Information on the career of Helmut Meyer-Abich. On February 16, 2017 on marn.gob.sv (Ministerio de medio ambiente y recursos naturales, El Salvador). Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  7. ^ W. Lauer : Instituto Tropical de Investigaciones Científicas de El Salvador. In: Comunicaciones. Vol. 3, No. 1, 1954, p. 46.
  8. ^ List of the commanders of the frigate Cologne (F 220). Retrieved from fregatte-koeln.de on April 1, 2018.
  9. ↑ Homepage in memory of deceased sailors of the frigates Cologne (F 220) and Lübeck (F 224). Retrieved from fregatte-koeln.de on March 23, 2018.
  10. ↑ Mention of the deceased Meyer-Abich in a speech at the meeting of the “Destroyer Bayern Oldies” on April 24, 2009. Retrieved on April 1, 2018 from ernoerer-bayern-oldies.de .
  11. ↑ As front as possible. In the mirror . No. 29, July 14, 1980, pp. 28-32. Retrieved from spiegel.de ( Spiegel Online ) on March 23, 2018.
  12. ↑ List of admirals in the German Navy from 1956 to 1990. Retrieved from deutsches-marinearchiv.de on March 23, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Meyer-Abich, Helmut
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German naval officer and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Goettingen
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 2008