Hubert Leitgeb (botanist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hubert Leitgeb (approx. 1885)

Hubert Leitgeb (born October 20, 1835 in Portendorf ; † April 5, 1888 in Graz ) was an Austrian botanist who worked in the fields of plant anatomy and physiology , as well as ontogenesis and phylogenesis, especially of liverworts . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is “ Leitg. "

Life

Hubert Leitgeb was one of 10 children of the landowner Ignaz Leitgeb and his wife Anna, geb. Olschnegger. Leitgeb received his early training on his parents' estate from a court master before moving to the grammar school in Klagenfurt . There his interest in botany was awakened by the capitular of St. Paul Abbey in Klagenfurt and florist Rainer Graf (1811–1872). Already at the age of 16 Leitgeb enrolled in the fall of 1852 at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Graz to study natural sciences , where Valentin Puntschart (1825–1904) , who was studying law at the time, had a particular influence on him and decisively influenced his choice of teaching profession. In the second year of his university education, Leitgeb moved to the University of Vienna , on the one hand to prepare for the higher teaching post, but also to conduct his first plant anatomical studies under the direction of Franz Unger (1800–1870). In 1855 his first work appeared on "the airways in plants". In the same year he obtained his doctorate at the University of Graz and passed the state examination for the higher education authority a year later.

Leitgeb worked as a high school teacher for the next few years: from 1857 to 1858 in Cilli and from 1859 to 1864 in Gorizia . In 1864 he was granted leave to complete his work on aerial roots . His journey took him via Vienna to Munich , where he became a student of the botanist Carl Wilhelm von Nägeli . In the same year he was transferred to the grammar school in Linz , but by the end of 1865 he was back in Munich with Nägeli to finish the work they had started together on the development and growth of roots, which was published in the fourth volume of 1868 Nägeli's "Contributions to Scientific Botany" appeared. In 1866 he began teaching at the grammar school in Graz and at the same time completed his habilitation as a private lecturer in botany at the university there.

Hubert Leitgeb (approx. 1870)

In 1868 he was named associate professor and in 1869 full professor of botany at the University of Graz and was dean of the faculty of philosophy in 1876/77 and rector of the university in 1884/85 . When August Wilhelm Eichler moved from the Technical University of Graz to the University of Leipzig in 1873 , Leitgeb took over the management of the botanical garden in Graz and also its professorship in botany at the Technical University until the winter semester of 1879/80. He founded the University's Botanical Institute, which was located opposite the botanical garden. During his time at the University of Graz, he turned down two appointments to other universities: in 1873 the first as professor of physiological botany at the University of Vienna and in 1878 the second at the University of Tübingen . Leitgeb said the main reason was the prospect of the new planting of the botanical garden and the establishment of an associated laboratory for the botanical institute.

However, in the spring of 1888 only the construction of the new botanical garden was approved, the new building of the botanical institute was postponed indefinitely. Leitgeb saw this as a personal failure and saw his scientific work in jeopardy. Also the early death of his wife Amalia (born Pauschitz; † April 6, 1878 in bed) and his daughter Margaretha († January 10, 1880) are said to have led to him meeting on April 5, 1888, one day before the tenth Anniversary of his wife's death, who was shot in the head. Hubert Leitgeb was 52 years old.

Hubert Leitgeb was also a member of the Carinthian state parliament from 1869 to 1872 , where he made a special contribution to school legislation.

Achievements and honors

Hubert Leitgeb's main work is the "Investigations on Liverworts", which appeared in 6 issues between 1874 and 1881. Many of his colleagues and later botanists expressed their praise for this. Julius Sachs from Würzburg wrote to him after reading through the second booklet: “A study carried out with such mastery as yours can easily lead someone else to believe that he would be able to achieve something similar; but I believe that at least I would not succeed in getting into the morphological relationships that deeply. ” Eduard Strasburger , who took over the reviews of the first two issues in the Jenaer Literaturzeitung, congratulated him in a letter dated November 13, 1881 after the Receipt of the last issue: “I read your last issue with great pleasure; If these investigations have caused you an infinite amount of work, you can look back on them with pride, on an accomplishment that is unique of its kind. No other group in the plant kingdom has enjoyed a similar treatment. ”Leitgeb dedicated the final volume to the“ old master of German liverwort ” Karl Moritz Gottsche , who then thanked him with the words:“ You have made Germany fame, the richest among all peoples Book about the physiology of liverworts. ” Rudolf Mathias Schuster calls Leitgeb's research in 1966“ one of a small number of basic, timeless works, fundamental to all further work ”.

Leitgeb was a member of the Botanical Societies in Regensburg and Edinburgh, since 1873 the Leopoldina and since 1876 a corresponding, from 1887 actual, member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna . The German Botanical Society elected him in 1883 and 1884 as their vice-president.

Different taxa was named after him: the rotifers Callidina leitgebi (= Habrotrocha leitgebi ) by his pupil Carl Zelinka , the liverwort Zoopsis leitgebiana by English botanists Benjamin Carrington and William Henry Pearson and a genus of Ochnaceae Leitgebia (= Sauvagesia ) by August Wilhelm Eichler .

Works (selection)

Emil Heinricher lists 52 scientific writings in his Nekrolog, as well as some speeches, lectures and articles that have appeared in print in fiction magazines.

  • C. Nägeli , H. Leitgeb: Origin and growth of the roots . In: Carl Nägeli (Ed.): Contributions to scientific botany . Fourth issue. Published by Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig 1868, p. 73–160 , urn : nbn: de: hebis: 30: 4-5449 .
  • Investigations on liverworts . 6 booklets. 1874-1881
    • Volume I: Blasia Pusilla . Jena 1874
    • II. Booklet: The Foliosen Jungermannieen . Jena 1875
    • III. Issue: The frondosen Jungermannieen . Jena 1877
    • IV. Booklet: The Riccieen . Graz 1879
    • V. Booklet: The Anthoceroteen . Graz 1879
    • VI. Issue: The Marchantieen and general remarks on liverworts . Graz 1881
  • Structure and development of the spore membranes and their behavior during germination . Graz 1884

swell

literature

  • Franz Krašan : Hubert Leitgeb . In: Botanical Journal . Organ for botany and botanists. 38th year, no. 6 . Vienna June 1888, p. 185–186 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Gottlieb Haberlandt : Hubert Leitgeb . In: Reports of the German Botanical Society . tape 6 . Bornträger Brothers, Berlin 1888, p. XXXIX-XLIV .
  • Emil Heinricher : Hubert Leitgeb, his life and striving . In: Communications of the natural science association for Styria . tape 25 , 1889, pp. 159–181 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  • Ernst Wunschmann:  Leitgeb, Hubert . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, pp. 627-629.
  • Meixner:  Leitgeb, Hubert. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 5, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1972, p. 114 f. (Direct links on p. 114 , p. 115 ).
  • Herwig Teppner : On the history of systematic botany at the University of Graz . In: Communications from the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the Landesmuseum Joanneum . tape 55 . Graz 1997, p. 123–150 ( PDF on ZOBODAT - especially pp. 128–130).
  • Jan-Peter Frahm , Jens Eggers: Leitgeb, Hubert (1835-1888) . In: Lexicon of German-speaking bryologists . Selbstverlag / BoD, 2001, ISBN 3-8311-0986-9 , p. 280-281 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Graf taught history, German literature and natural history at the grammar school in Klagenfurt, which was nationalized in 1871. For more on his person see: Professor Rainer Graf . Obituary. In: Ludwig Schmued (Ed.): XXIII. Program of the kk state high school in Klagenfurt . At the end of the academic year 1873. Printed by J. & F. Leon, Klagenfurt 1873, p. 59-60 .
  2. ↑ The airways of plants . With 1 board. Presented at the session of November 29, 1855. In: Session reports of the mathematical and natural science class of the Imperial Academy of Sciences . tape 18 . On commission from W. Braumüller, bookseller of the kk Hof and the k. Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1856, p. 334-363 .
  3. ↑ About spherical cell thickenings in the root cover of some orchids in the meeting reports and The aerial roots of the orchids in the memoranda of the Vienna Academy of Sciences, both 1864.
  4. ^ Rudolf Mathias Schuster : The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America, East of the Hundredth Meridian . Volume 1. Columbia University Press, New York 1966, pp. 70 (English).
  5. ↑ Carl Zelinka : Studies on Rotary Animals . I. About the symbiosis and anatomy of rotatories from the genus Callidina. In: Journal of Scientific Zoology . tape 44 , 1886, p. 416, 483 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
  6. ^ Benjamin Carrington , William Henry Pearson : Description of new or rare Tasmanian Hepaticae . Collected by RA Bastow, Esq., FLS In: Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania . for 1887, 1888, p. 3–5 (English, biodiversitylibrary.org ).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Leitgeb, Hubert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian botanist
DATE OF BIRTH October 20, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH Portendorf
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1888
Place of death Graz