Jan Krejčí (geologist)

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Jan Krejčí
Monument to Jan Krejčí in the city park of his hometown Klatovy

Jan Krejčí , also Johann Krejči , (born February 28, 1825 in Klattau in West Bohemia ; † August 1, 1887 in Prague ) was a geologist , mineralogist , cartographer , university professor, politician and one of the founders of scientifically based geology in Bohemia .

biography

Krejčí was born in 1825 as the child of a veteran dragoon and a laundress, about which nothing is known. His school education took place at a German elementary school and in a grammar school in Prague , followed by a study of philosophy , chemistry , geology and mineralogy at the Charles University in Prague , with an interest in the geognostic conditions in Bohemia and Moravia and their neighboring countries. Jan Krejčí also studied chemistry and mineralogy at the Polytechnic in Prague from 1844 to 1848. His scientific career began as an assistant to Franz Xaver Maximilian Zippe and he was a supplement at the Polytechnic. From 1849 he took over the supervision of the mineralogical collections in the National Museum as curator as the successor to Franz Xaver Maximilian Zippe.

Krejčís teaching activity began in 1850 at a secondary school in Prague. From 1860 to 1862 he was the director of the secondary school in Písek . In 1853 he began working on the scientific journal Živa (Ceres), which was published by Jan Evangelista Purkyně , who called him "the father of Czech geology". From 1859 to 1861 he took part in geological mapping work in Bohemia.

Since 1862 Krejčí worked in the committee for the natural scientific research of the country of Bohemia . Some of his publications emerged from this collaboration. Together with Karel Kořistka, he was responsible for editing the extensive series of this institution. Krejčí obtained his habilitation in 1863 in the field of mineralogy and geology, in 1864 he was appointed full professor of these fields at the Polytechnic in Prague and was its rector in 1867, 1871 and 1877.

From 1881 he taught as associate professor at the Czech Charles University in Prague in the Czech lecture language, which earned him a lot of recognition and was appointed full professor of geology there. He had been a member of the Society of Sciences since 1867, a member of the Bohemian Landtag between 1861 and 1887, and a member of the Reichsrat from 1881 to 1983 . From 1881 to 1883 he worked for the mapping of Bohemia by the Imperial Geological Institute in Vienna and coordinated scientific research in Bohemia with Jan Evangelista Purkyně .

Memories of his life

Jan Krejčí was buried in a family crypt in the Vyšehrad cemetery in Prague. On the occasion of his death in 1887 after a serious illness, the poet Adolf Heyduk created the poem Za Janem Krejčím (German: "For Jan Krejčí"). His villa on the northern side of Vyšehrad and an original memorial plaque fell victim to planning when a road tunnel was built in 1902-1904. Ten years later, a new and impressive memorial plaque was placed on the rock face of Vyšehrad. A copy of this plaque can be seen today on the fortress wall of Vyšehrad. In the National Museum (Prague) there is a bronze bust of Jan Krejčí on the 2nd floor. It was created in 1900 by the sculptor Čeněk Osmík and cast in the ironworks in Komárov.

Scientific and political importance

Geological map of Prague and its environs 1877 by J. Krejčí and R. Helmhacker

Krejčí worked on the geological survey in the Kingdom of Bohemia with the geologist Rudolf Helmhacker (* 1840 in Rokycany; † May 24, 1915 in Prague-Weinberge), a mining engineer in Eastern Siberia since 1881. Both laid the early foundations for a systematic geological mapping of the Kingdom of Bohemia. They rendered great services to the exploration of the Bohemian chalk formations , which in 1870 in the publication Všeobecné a horopisné poměry, jakož i rozčlenění křídového útvaru v Čechách (German: general and orographic conditions as well as the structure of the chalk formations in Bohemia ) pioneered.

Krejčí's interests were also in politics . Its activities began in 1861 as the town councilor of Písek and continued in a mandate in the regional parliament in Bohemia for the constituency of Prachatice - Netolice until 1873. A public commitment to the Národní strana svobodomyslná (Young Czech Movement) and a dispute with František Ladislav Rieger led to an interruption of this parliamentary activity.

In a renewed mandate in the Imperial Council (Austria) in Vienna for the cities of Louny , Slaný , Nové Strašecí , Velvary and Rakovník , he made numerous speeches for the official use of the Czech language in Bohemia from 1880 onwards. Health reasons forced him to terminate his work in the Reichsrat in 1883 without giving up the political mandates in the Bohemian Landtag and in the city council of Prague.

Krejčí's contribution to the geological literature in Bohemia is outstanding, but little known outside of the Czech Republic . In modern Czech specialist literature he is referred to as the founder of Czech geology. The balance of his activity are several important scientific publications. The first geology textbook in Czech (first edition 1860) with the title Geologie, čili, Nauka o útvarech zemských was essential; se zvláštním ohledem na krajiny českoslovanské (German: geology or teaching about earth forms with special consideration of the Czechoslovakian landscapes ).

Works

  • Jan Krejčí: geology, čili, Nauka o útvarech zemských; se zvláštním ohledem na krajiny českoslovanské. Sešit 1. Litomyšl (Antonín Augusta) 1860
  • Jan Krejčí: Všeobecné a horopisné poměry, jakož i rozčlenění křídového útvaru v Čechách . Prague 1870
  • Jan Krejčí, Antonín Frič : Geological Map of Bohemia. Section VI. Surroundings from Kuttenberg to Böhm. Truebau . Prague (Commission at Fr. Řivnáć) 1891
  • Jan Krejčí, Rudolf Helmhacker : Geological map and profiles of the layer structure of the area around Prague. Prague (Commissions-Verlag by Fr. Řivnáć), 1880 (map and text)
  • Jan Krejčí, Rudolf Helmhacker: Explanations of the geological map of the Iron Mountains (Zelezné Hory) and the adjacent areas in eastern Bohemia. Prague (Commissions-Verlag von Fr. Řivnáć), 1882 (map never published, only text published)
  • Jan Krejčí, Karl Feistmantel : Orograph and geotectonic survey of the Silurian regions in Central Bohemia, 1885; in Czech 1890
  • Numerous treatises a. a. in the newsletter of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences , 1856 ff.

literature

Web links

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personal data
SURNAME Krejčí, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Krejčí, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Bohemian geologist and politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 28, 1825
PLACE OF BIRTH Klattau
DATE OF DEATH August 1, 1887
Place of death Prague