Hugo Conwentz

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hugo Wilhelm Conwentz (born January 20, 1855 in Sankt Albrecht near Danzig , † May 12, 1922 in Berlin ) was a German botanist . He is considered the founder of German and European nature conservation . Its official botanical author abbreviation is “ Conw. "

Hugo Conwentz

Life

Conwentzstein in the Plagefenn nature reserve

Conwentz was the son of a coal merchant, belonged to the Mennonite community in Danzig and was skilled at negotiating, organizing and collecting. He studied at the Universities of Breslau and Göttingen and received his doctorate in botany under Heinrich Göppert at the University of Breslau . The attempt to qualify as a professor failed because of Prussian regulations, which required a high school education, which Conwentz did not have as a graduate of a first-grade secondary school.

In 1879, at the age of 24, he was appointed director of the newly founded West Prussian Provincial Museum in Danzig , which he directed for more than 30 years. In this role, he began to inventory woody stocks and classify them according to their nature conservation value. These surveys and their publication in the memorandum The endangerment of natural monuments and proposals for their preservation are considered the founding act of organized nature conservation. The first public commitment to nature conservation took place after several discussions with Wilhelm Wetekamp in March 1900 on the occasion of a lecture given to the Natural Research Society in Danzig . In his nature conservation work, he paid particular attention to the protection of forests and moors.

After lecturing at four Swedish universities in 1904, Sweden passed a nature conservation law. In 1906 Prussia set up the State Agency for the Preservation of Natural Monuments , which Conwentz was appointed to manage. In the following year, on the initiative of forester Max Kienitz, the first nature reserve in northern Germany was established, the Plagefenn near Chorin . In 1907 Conwentz spoke at the 8th International Congress for Agriculture and Forestry in Vienna about the conservation of original forest stands. In 1909 he was given the chair of the first session of the 1st International Congress for Landscape Protection in Paris . In 1910 the state agency for the preservation of natural monuments was relocated to Berlin. It was opened in February 1911 in the presence of distinguished guests of honor and Conwentz was appointed full-time director; until 1913 his colleague Hans Klose represented him on site. His draft nature conservation law, which he introduced to the Prussian Parliament in 1912, failed due to opposition from the state authorities. In 1913, at the invitation of the Russian government, he gave a lecture at the 13th Conference of Naturalists and Doctors in Tbilisi , and in the same year in Prague and Brno , where shortly afterwards a nature conservation organization for Bohemia and Moravia was founded.

Conwentz had been married to Greta Ekelöf (1882-1933) from Sweden since August 4, 1919. He died in 1922 at the age of 67.

One of his critics was the "Heidedichter" Hermann Löns (1913): "Conwentzionelle Naturschutz" means well-signposted monuments to which hiking and singing clubs move, which fill the air with a loud roar; resourceful business people who opened inns in places worth seeing in nature and thus drove away the deer; Heimatbund festivals around natural monuments, after which the forest workers had to do for days picking up sandwich paper, eggshells and broken bottles; and above all: panels “the size of a square meter”, on which the word “state property” is emblazoned large and wide.

Paleobotanical services

Conwentz emerged as a paleobotanist in particular through his writings on botanical inclusions in Baltic amber . His epochal works on the flora of amber (1886) and the monograph of the amber trees (1890) are standard works of inclusion research and are still in existence today. In this context, he examined numerous pieces from the Quantity Collection and checked older descriptions by Heinrich Göppert and Robert Caspary using other pieces that were accessible to him.

When Conwentz founded the West Prussian Provincial Museum, the collections of the Natural Research Society and the West Prussian Botanical-Zoological Association were available to him. This also included the amber and spider collection compiled by Anton Menge . As part of his directorate (1880 to 1910), he expanded this basic stock through acquisitions and the museum, such as Otto Helm's inclusion and amber collection consisting of more than 5,000 pieces , to one of the most important inclusion collections of Baltic amber.

Honors

The Federal Association of Professional Nature Conservation has donated the "Hugo Conwentz Medal" in memory of Hugo Conwentz , which is awarded annually to personalities who have made a name for themselves in nature conservation and landscape management. In May 2005 the Conwentzstein was inaugurated in the Plagefenn , the first German nature reserve .

tomb

After being reburied for urban planning reasons, his grave can now be found in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf , where his sister, the writer Anna Conwentz (1848–1912), is also buried. In 1952 the Berlin Senate declared it a grave of honor for the city of Berlin . The honorary grave status was revoked by the Senate in June 2014. As a result, the Nature Conservation History Foundation (Königswinter) took on the sponsorship of the grave complex for the next ten years.

Hugo Conwentz had been a member of the Leopoldina since 1881 . His friend Alfred Gabriel Nathorst was a point of land in Spitsbergen Van Mijenfjorden the name Conwentzodden .

In the Munich suburb of Thalkirchen a street was named Conwentzstraße . The Federal Association of Professional Nature Conservation eV has been awarding the Hugo Conwentz Medal for special achievements in professional nature conservation since 1986 .

Fonts (selection)

  • The flora of amber and its relationship with the flora of the tertiary formations and the present. Started by HR Goeppert and A. Quantity, "independently edited after their passing and continued by H. Conwentz". Danzig 1886.
  • Monograph of the Baltic Amber Trees , Danzig 1890
  • About the spread of succinite, especially in Sweden and Denmark. In: Writings of the Natural Research Society in Danzig Volume 7, Issue 3, Danzig 1890.
  • The yew tree in West Prussia, a dying forest tree , Danzig 1892. ( Digitized in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania digital library)
  • Observations on rare forest trees in West Prussia taking their occurrence in general into account . Danzig 1895 ( digitized in the digital library Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania)
  • The moor bridges in the valley of concern on the border between West Prussia and East Prussia. A contribution to the knowledge of the natural history and prehistory of the country , Danzig 1897. ( digitized in the digital library Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)
  • About the occurrence of the service tree and red beech , Danzig 1899
  • Forest botanical memorandum for West Prussia - evidence of the noteworthy and unspoilt stands, trees and stands in the Kingdom of Prussia. Published at the instigation of the Prussian Minister for Agriculture, Domains and Forests , Berlin 1900
  • The threat to natural monuments and proposals for their preservation. Memorandum presented to the Minister for Spiritual, Educational and Medical Affairs , Berlin 1904
  • Local studies in school. Basis and suggestions for promoting natural history and geographical local studies in schools , Berlin 1904
  • as co-author: The Plagefenn at Chorin. Results of the investigation of a nature reserve by the Prussian Forest Administration , Berlin 1912
  • Nature reserves in Germany, Austria and some other countries . In: Journal of the Society for Geography in Berlin . 1915, pp. 29–51 ( digitized version )
  • Memorandum for the maintenance of natural monuments and related endeavors , Berlin 1918
  • Local studies and homeland security in school. Department 1 , Berlin 1922

literature

  • Albrecht Milnik : Hugo Conwentz - classic nature conservation. His forest path to nature conservation . 3rd, improved and updated edition. Kessel, Remagen-Oberwinter 2006, ISBN 3-935638-58-2
  • Hans-Jürgen Kämpfert: Hugo Conwentz from Danzig . In: Westpreußen-Jahrbuch , Volume 47, Münster 1997, pp. 83-94, ISBN 3-9802031-8-2
  • Walther Schoenichen : Nature conservation, homeland protection. Their justification by Ernst Rudorff , Hugo Conwentz and their predecessors . Scientific publishing company, Stuttgart 1954
  • Margarete Boie : Hugo Conwentz and his home. A book of memories . Steinkopf, Stuttgart 1940
  • Thomas Marin: Hugo Conwentz (1855–1922) - founder of state nature protection. In: Thomas Marin (Hrsg.): Resting place in the green: flora, garden design and natural scientist on the Südwestkirchhof in Stahnsdorf , Books on Demand, Norderstedt 2009, ISBN 978-3-8370-6716-3 , pp. 77-87 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
  • Stefan Vogel:  Conwentz, Hugo Wilhelm. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 3, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1957, ISBN 3-428-00184-2 , p. 347 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Wikisource: Hugo Conwentz  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Florentine Fritzen, Frankfurt: "Birthday": Conwentzioneller Naturschutz . In: FAZ.NET . ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed April 30, 2020]).
  2. ↑ A. Pielińska: Hugo Wilhelm Conwentz - researcher, founder and curator of the Gdańsk collection of botanical inclusions in amber. In Bursztynisko 31, Gdansk 2008.
  3. ↑ Stephan Laude: Südwestkirchhof loses honorary grave , in: Märkische Allgemeine , June 19, 2014, p. 16.
  4. ↑ Tobias Reichelt Totenzank. Berlin Senate announces the second honorary grave in the Stahnsdorf south-west cemetery. in: Tagesspiegel , June 23, 2014, p. 13.
  5. ↑ Heinz Helwig: Berlin gives up another grave of honor. in: Märkische Allgemeine , November 19, 2015.
  6. ↑ Conwentzodden . In: The Place Names of Svalbard (first edition 1942). Norsk Polarinstitutt , Oslo 2001, ISBN 82-90307-82-9 (English, Norwegian).
  7. ↑ Conwentzstraße stadt-muenchen.net
  8. ^ Hugo Conwentz Medal. Federal Association for Professional Nature Conservation, accessed on August 14, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Conwentz, Hugo
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Conwentz, Hugo Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist and conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH January 20, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Saint Albrecht near Danzig
DATE OF DEATH May 12, 1922
Place of death Berlin