Isaak Blum

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Isaak Blum , also Isaac Blum (born April 11, 1833 in Diersburg , † April 25, 1903 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German educator and scientist.

Life

Isaak Blum attended the elementary school of the Diersburg Jewish community from 1839 to 1844 . At the age of eleven he went to the Tora school in Schirrhofen (today Schirrhoffen ) in Alsace, then attended high school in Breisach am Rhein and, since his parents did not take the school fees for the Lyceum (grammar school) in Freiburg - from April 1848 private lessons with the teacher and pastor of his home village. After passing his exams, he graduated from the Protestant teacher training college in Karlsruhe for two years (today the Karlsruhe University of Education ). In April 1851 he took up a vacant position as the third teacher at the Israelite community school in Karlsruhe; During this time, he also learned French and English and continued his scientific education.

In October 1855 he moved to Frankfurt am Main and began teaching in April 1856 as a schoolmaster at the Philanthropin (Realgymnasium of the Israelite community). Initially in the lower classes and working as a French teacher, where he replaced the outdated spelling method with read-write, he was given a full teaching position in 1860. On the side he was initially involved in the early gymnastics movement , but became increasingly interested in the natural sciences. Supported by the then director of the Philanthropin, Hermann Baerwald , Blum attended lectures by Rudolf Christian Böttger , Gustav Lucae (1814–1885), Fritz Noll , Hermann Theodor Geyler (1835–1889), Karl von Fritsch and others, worked for several years in the chemical laboratory by Julius Löwe at the Physikalischer Verein and put on a mineral collection. Blum was soon promoted to the position of respected senior teacher and given him teaching science in the higher classes of philanthropy.

In 1868 he was accepted as a member of the Senckenberg Natural Science Society (SNG) (from 1870 as a "working member"). He was elected to the management several times, each for a two-year period (in 1873/74 and 1885/86 he was first secretary, in 1890/91 second director). For three two-year periods (1893/94, 1897/98 and 1901/02) he was its first director, thus also head of the Senckenberg Nature Museum, which is assigned to the SNG . He also worked for many years on various SNG commissions. In 1889 he took over the management of the botany section of the SNG. He was also active in other natural science associations in Frankfurt, such as the Physical Society and the Society for Scientific Entertainment.

Blum published numerous natural history writings on flora and fauna. His treatise on the spread of the adder in Germany became particularly well known .

Isaak Blum's son Ferdinand Blum (1865–1959), who was a physician and also a biologist, had the tissue-hardening and antiseptic properties of formaldehyde in 1893 (the aqueous solution was called formol, formalin or formalose, depending on the manufacturer) and thus its suitability for the manufacture of preparations discovered, further investigated and published his research results in primarily medical journals, which is why he is now regarded as the one who put this drug into practice. At the same time, Isaak Blum suggested to biological experts to use formol for preservation purposes. Since the research of both flowers, formaldehyde has played a dominant role as a preservative in anatomy , biology , pathology and veterinary medicine .

Honors

In 1903 Isaak Blum became a "permanent member" of the SNG. After his death, friends and students of Blum donated a marble bust created by the Frankfurt sculptor Franz Krüger (1849–1912) to the Senckenberg Museum . The municipality of Diersburg (today part of the municipality of Hohberg in the Ortenaukreis) named a street after him in 2005.

Various animal species were named after Isaak Blum: Vertigo blumi (a fossil mollusc ), Xenia blumi (a soft coral from the Alcyonacae family ) and Echiniscus blumii (a tardigrade ).

Fonts

(Selection)

  • Isaak Blum: The adder and its distribution in Germany . In: Treatises of the Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 121-277, Diesterweg: Frankfurt a. M., 1888. Also as a special print: Treatises of the Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, Volume 135. Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1888.
  • Isaak Blum: The calculation ditch in the municipal facilities in Frankfurt am Main in botanical relation . In: Real and elementary school of the Israelite community: school program , Frankfurt a. M .: Wohlfahrt, 1880, pp. 3–40.
  • Isaak Blum: The pyramid oak near Harreshausen (Grand Duchy of Hesse) . In: Report on the Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Frankfurt am Main, 1895, pp. 92-102.
  • Isaak Blum: The two-line swamp cypress on the Rechneigraben in Frankfurt a. M. In: Report of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society in Frankfurt a. M., Frankfurt a. M .: Knauer, 1898, pp. 72-80.
  • Isaak Blum, Wilhelm Jännicke : Botanical guide through the urban systems in Frankfurt am Main: Promenades and Nice in Frankfurt am Main (with 7 plan sketches) . Frankfurt am Main: Mahlau & Waldschmidt, 1892.
  • Isaak Blum (compilation): Scientific publications (1826-1897) of the Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft . In: Report on the Senckenberg Natural Research Society. Knauer: Frankfurt am Main, 1897, pp. 23–80.
  • Isaak Blum: The botany in Frankfurt a. M., especially their care by the Senckenbergianum . In: Report of the Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft 1901, pp. 3–38.
  • Isaak Blum: Formol as a preservation liquid . Zoologischer Anzeiger, Vol. 16, 1893, p. 450 (also in: Reports on the Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft in Frankfurt a. M., 1896, p. 285, and published as a special edition)
  • Ferdinand Blum: From my father's song book , Frankfurt a. M .: Weisbrod, 1904.

literature

  • Uwe Schellinger: From the country to the city, or: From the Talmud to the adder. Life and work of the Jewish scholar Isaak Blum (1833-1903) from Diersburg . In: Historischer Verein für Mittelbaden - member group Hohberg (Hrsg.): Diersburg. The history of a rural Jewish community 1738-1940 . Verlag Medien und Dialog Klaus Schubert, Haigerloch 2000, pp. 200–208 and 224–227, ISBN 3-933231-80-9 .
  • Obituary by the Frankfurt high school teacher Heinrich Reichenbach, in: Report of the Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft , Frankfurt am Main, 1903, pp. 160–164 (with portrait, between program and title page).
  • Bernd Rottenecker: Isaak Blum (1833–1903) - biologist. In: Jürgen Stude / Bernd Rottenecker / Dieter Petri: Jüdisches Leben in der Ortenau, Bühl: seitenweise 2018, ISBN 978-3-943874-25-9 , pp. 170–171.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society in Frankfurt am Main, 1905, p. 33. In contrast, Leopoldina . Official organ of the Imperial Leopoldino-Carolinische Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher , Halle an der Saale, 1908, p. 100, the date of death is given as April 24, 1903.
  2. ^ Reports from the history of the Jewish community in Diersburg and obituary by H. Reichenbach.
  3. ↑ Freiburg State Archives, inventory B 728/1: Offenburg District Office, Diersburg local files, Citizenship and Emigration, No. 465: Isaak Blum's dismissal from the Baden State Association, 4 sheets, 1863
  4. ↑ Ferdinand Blum , Internationales Biographisches Archiv 06/1960 of February 1, 1960, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of the article freely available)
  5. ↑ Ferdinand Blum: The formaldehyde as an antiseptic. In: Münch. Med. Wochenschr. Aug 8: 601, 1893.
  6. ↑ Ferdinand Blum: Note on the use of formaldehyde (formol) as a hardening and preservative. In: Anat. 9, 1894, pp. 229-231.
  7. ↑ Ferdinand Blum: The formaldehyde as a hardening agent. In: Zschr. F. Micro. and microsc. Tech. 10, 1893, pp. 314-315.
  8. ↑ Georg Dhom: History of Histopathology . Springer Wissenschaftsverlag, Heidelberg 2001, ISBN 354067490X , p. 744; Werner Gerabek, Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil, Wolfgang Wegner: Encyclopedia of Medical History , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin a. New York 2005, ISBN 3110157144 , p. 410.
  9. ↑ Isaak Blum: Formol as a conservation liquid. In: Zool. Number 16, 1893, pp. 450-452.
  10. ↑ Isaak Blum: Experiences with Formol Conservirung. In: Ber. d. Senkenbergischen Naturf. Ges. Frankfurt. 1896, pp. 285-301
  11. ^ Report of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society in Frankfurt am Main, 1905, p. 33.
personal data
SURNAME Blum, Isaac
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Blum, Isaac; Blum, J.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German natural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH April 11, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Diersburg
DATE OF DEATH April 25, 1903
Place of death Frankfurt am Main