Hermann Siegfried

Hermann Siegfried

Hermann Siegfried (born February 14, 1819 in Zofingen , † December 5, 1879 in Bern ) was a Swiss topographer , cartographer and chief of staff of the Swiss Army with the rank of colonel.

biography

Siegfried lived from the age of four in the educational institution for the poor in Castle Beuggen , where he was raised by his maternal uncle. After graduating from a private institute in Riehen , he trained as a primary school teacher in Karlsruhe . From 1841 he studied natural sciences and mathematics at the University of Geneva .

In collaboration with Guillaume-Henri Dufour , in whose office he had been employed since 1844, Siegfried created the Dufour map between 1846 and 1862 . In 1847 he took part in the Sonderbund War as a soldier and corporal . A successful military career followed (1848 second lieutenant , 1853 captain , 1859 instruction officer in the general staff, 1863 lieutenant colonel ). From 1855 he held lectures on ballistics and fortifications at the newly founded Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum (today ETH Zurich ) . From 1875 until his death he was chief of staff .

In 1865 Siegfried succeeded Dufour as head of the Federal Topographical Bureau . There, on the basis of two new laws from 1868 (“Federal Law on the Publication of Topographical Recordings” and “Federal Law on Continuation of Topographical Recordings”), he developed the second official overall map of Switzerland, the Topographical Atlas of Switzerland (also known as the “Siegfriedatlas”) ). From 1870, the individual maps appeared on a scale of 1: 50,000 for the mountain sheets and in a scale of 1: 25,000 for the map sheets in the Jura and the Central Plateau . The recording sheets of the Dufour Atlas (published from 1845), which have been revised or added, served as the basis.

literature

• Fritz Baeschlin : On the theory of the Wild autograph . In: Swiss Journal for Surveying and Cultural Technology , Vol. 27, 1929, pp. 110–116. ( Digitized version )
• Urban Schertenleib: Siegfried, Hermann. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• K. Schneider: On the history of the Siegfried card . In: Swiss Journal for Surveying and Cultural Technology , Vol. 27, 1929, pp. 19–22. ( Digitized version )
• Biographical Lexicon of the Canton of Aargau 1803–1957 . In: Historical Society of the Canton of Aargau (Ed.): Argovia . tape 68/69 . Verlag Sauerländer, Aarau 1958, p. 715 .
• JH Graf .:  Siegfried, Hermann . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 34, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1892, pp. 200-204.