Jiří Viktor Daneš

Jiří Viktor Pavel Daneš (born August 23, 1880 in Nový Dvůr Castle , Bohemia, † April 11, 1928 in Culver City , USA) was a Czech geographer and world traveler. He was Czechoslovakia's first consul in Australia from 1919 to 1922 .

Life

Jiří Viktor Daneš came from a Bohemian brewing and malting family. His father Josef had Daneš 1855 Barbara, born Fastrová, a daughter of the revolutionary leader Petr Faster , married and in the same year with the lease of the brewery in Kutna Hora independently made. In 1861 he also leased the Kladno brewery . Both went so well that the family acquired the Nový Dvůr estate in 1869 , on which Josef Daneš had a new brewery built in 1870. After Barbara Danešová died at the age of 46, the widower was unable to take care of both the business and his twelve children, and he quickly married his sister-in-law Johanna Fastrová. The only child from Josef Daneš's second marriage was Jiří Viktor Daneš.

After Josef Daneš died in 1883, his eldest son Viktor Daneš took over the management of the business at the age of 25. In 1890 Johanna Danešová sent her only son of her own to study in the nearby city of Prague at the secondary school on the Křemencová. After graduating from high school, Jiří Viktor Daneš enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy at Karl Ferdinand University in 1898, majoring in history. Two years later, he decided to study geography and in 1900 took part in the International Geological Congress in Paris and the Congress of Economic Geographers as Jan Palacký's assistant . In 1902 he was with a thesis on the population density in the Herzegovina Dr. phil. PhD. Then Daneš did his military service with the Austro-Hungarian 8th Transport Division in Prague. In addition, he attended lectures by Max Groll in Berlin in 1903. In 1904 Daneš completed his habilitation with a thesis on the lower Neretva valley. In 1904 Daneš was a participant in the 8th International Congress of Geographers in Washington and on excursions to the western states of the USA and to Mexico. In 1906 he was appointed lecturer at the Karl Ferdinand University.

The death of his mother, who had given him a good education, was a severe blow for Daneš in 1908. In the same year he entered the business academy in Resslová and met his future wife Božena Hanušová there. Between 1909 and 1910 Daneš made his first trip to Australia and Java, accompanied by his wife and friend Karel Domin . After the outbreak of World War I, Daneš was posted to Sarajevo , where four of his siblings lived, until 1917 . After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, Daneš was the organizer of the Czech Legion in Sarajevo, which successfully campaigned against looting. In December 1918 he returned to Prague and was appointed full professor at Charles University in 1919. At the end of 1919 Daneš was appointed Consul General of Czechoslovakia in Australia. In 1920 Daneš traveled to Australia, where he examined the Mundaring Weir and visited Kalgoorie that same year . At the same time he set up the Czechoslovak consulate in Sydney . At the end of 1920 he went on a study trip to the Australian Alps . In 1921 further research trips followed to the Blue Mountains , to New Guinea and New Britain as well as to Cairns and Tasmania . His diplomatic mission in Australia ended on December 31, 1922.

In 1923 Daneš was a participant in the 16th Congress of the Australian Society for Scientific Progress in New Zealand . He then went on a cruise on the Pacific with stays in Fiji , Tonga , Samoa , Hawaii as well as Japan and the Republic of China ; Daneš then traveled back to Czechoslovakia via Japan, Canada, England and France. Between 1924 and 1925 Daneš held parallel lectures at the Charles University in Prague and the Comenius University in Bratislava , which is currently being established , where he founded the Geological Institute. In 1925 he was appointed dean of the Faculty of Natural Sciences at Charles University. In 1927 Daneš first undertook research trips to the karst areas of France and Slovenia and in October 1927 set out on a trip to the karst areas of the USA. There he gave lectures in 1928 at 30 universities and landscape associations. After a lecture at the University of California, Los Angeles on April 10, 1928, Daneš went to visit the Hollywood film studios. On the way there he was hit on April 11, 1928 in Culver City by a moving car and fatally injured.

Act

Daneš 'research dealt with geomorphology, volcanology and anthropogeography. The focus of his work was the surface relief of karst areas. The intended publication of a study on the karst areas of the world did not materialize due to his untimely death. Daneš was a member of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences , among others . The Danes Valley in Northern Australia was named after Daneš .

Daneš's scientific library donated his widow Božena Danešová to the Department of Geography at the Faculty of Science at Charles University. However, most of the rare books from Daneš's collection disappeared during the German occupation.

After the Second World War, Božena Danešová handed over her husband's scientific estate to the archives of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences .

On the occasion of Daneš's 110th birthday, the Pavlov community set up a memorial for Jiří Viktor Daneš in 1990 in cooperation with the Czechoslovak-Australian Society in Nový Dvůr Castle. This had to be closed after the restitution of the Nový Dvůr estate in 1992 and the exhibits had to be stored in the Melicharovo vlastivědné muzeum Unhošť .

Publications

• Dvojím rájem, travelogue about Australia and Java, 2 vols. 1911–1912.
• Původ a zanikání domorodců v Australii a Oceanii, 1924.
• Tři léta při Tichém oceáně, travel report, 2 vols. 1926.

Web links

• Literature and other media by and about Jiří Viktor Daneš in the catalog of the National Library of the Czech Republic
• 11.4.1928 zemřel první československý konzul v Sydney Jiří Viktor Daneš
• 110. výročí narození Jiřího V. Daneše
• Biography on www.databazeknih.cz