Johann Gottfried Ebel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Johann Gottfried Ebel,
copper engraving from 1833
Memorial plaque on the Ebenalp

Johann Gottfried Ebel (born October 6, 1764 in Züllichau, Brandenburg, today Sulechów , Poland, † October 8, 1830 in Zurich ) was a German, later Swiss doctor , naturalist and travel writer .

He is one of the pioneers of modern Swiss tourism , and his legacy is an important, as yet hardly evaluated source on the history, geography and folklore of Switzerland in the last years of the 18th and during the first quarter of the 19th century.

Life

Ebel studied medicine in Frankfurt (Oder) , Vienna and Zurich and received his doctorate in 1789. 1790–1792 he traveled through Switzerland for the first time and then settled as a doctor in Frankfurt am Main . In 1793 he published his well-known work Instructions for Traveling Switzerland in the Most Useful and Enjoyable Way - the first good travel guide for Switzerland, which influenced Friedrich Schiller's Wilhelm Tell .

As a supporter of the French Revolution , he moved to Paris in 1796 , where he worked as an attaché to the Frankfurt legation. In 1802 he returned to Frankfurt and from then on again traveled several times to Switzerland; In 1810 he finally settled in Zurich. In 1808 he published his book About the construction of the earth in the Alps mountains, in which he was the first to attempt a synthesis of the geology of the Alps . In 1813 his memorandum “ Outline of the Political Condition of Switzerland” was published . In addition, he also dealt with border areas of the natural sciences, for example with the use of the divining rod or with animal magnetism . In 1808 he became a corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , and in Switzerland he was a member of the Natural Research Society in Zurich .

Ebel's scientific legacy, which was transferred to the Natural Research Society in a will, was handed over to the State Archives of the Canton of Zurich in 1895 ; Another part of the estate is in the Zurich Central Library , and the Swiss Idioticon has a copy of his list of Swiss German words made in the 19th century .

Works

  • Instructions on how to travel to Switzerland in the most useful and enjoyable way, Zurich 1793 ( digitized version ), 8th edition 1843
    • French: Instructions pour un voyageur qui se propose de parcourir la Suisse
  • Description of the mountain peoples of Switzerland . 2 volumes. Tübingen 1798–1802 ( digitized version )
  • About the construction of the earth in the Alpine mountains, Zurich 1808 ( digitized version )
  • Picturesque journey through the new mountain roads of the canton of Graubünden, Zurich 1826; Text in the work Die Bergstrassen through the Canton of Graubündten to Lake Langen and Comer by J. Jakob Meyer, painter, published by him in Zurich in 1826 and as a reprint (facsimile) in 1984 by the Michel Slatkine publishing house, Geneva, with a new foreword by Iso Camartin (in Romansh, German and Italian)
  • Outline of the political state of Switzerland, Zurich 1813

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Helfenstein: The Ebel estate of the Zurich State Archives. A valuable folklore collection. In: Schweizer Volkskunde 55, 1965, pp. 29–51, here pp. 29 and 36.
  2. ↑ a b Christoph Mörgeli: Ebel, Johann Gottfried. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  3. ↑ Member entry by Johann Gottfried Ebel at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on January 29, 2017.
  4. ↑ Ulrich Helfenstein: Johann Gottfried Ebel. For his 200th birthday (October 6th). In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , October 11, 1964, sheet 6, Sunday edition.
  5. ↑ Directory of the source symbols on idiotikon.ch (accessed on February 12, 2020).
personal data
SURNAME Ebel, Johann Gottfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German travel writer
DATE OF BIRTH October 6, 1764
PLACE OF BIRTH Sulechów
DATE OF DEATH October 8, 1830
Place of death Zurich