Johann Traugott Sterzel
Johann Traugott Sterzel (born April 4, 1841 in Dresden , Missouri , † May 15, 1914 in Chemnitz ) was a German paleontologist .
Life
In 1838 the Sterzel family from Niederfrohna near Chemnitz emigrated to the USA with 800 like-minded people from the so-called Stephanus movement and settled in Dresden in the state of Missouri. Johann Traugott was born three years later, and the family returned to their homeland in the same year.
After primary school in Niederfrohna, Sterzel attended the proseminar of the Fürstlich-Schönburg teachers' seminar in Waldenburg (Saxony) from 1855 . He was then a seminarian from 1856 to 1860 and was ultimately one of the top graduates of the educational institution. (The writer Karl May was immediately above him in the year, but was expelled from there in 1859.)
The exam was followed by a two-year activity as an assistant teacher. Then Johann Traugott Sterzel went to Chemnitz and taught at the local girls' school. He joined the Natural Science Society and was its honorary curator from 1864 to 1909 . In 1875 Sterzel defended his doctorate.
When fossil tree trunks were found around the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries during construction work in Hilbersdorf (today a district in the northeast of Chemnitz) and on the Sonnenberg , Sterzel took over the investigation and recovery of the finds. Some trunks from the Petrified Forest from different urban areas and years of discovery were initially exhibited at the Neue Sächsische Kunsthütte. Later, after the completion of the King Albert Museum, the trunks found a place in front of this building. Sterzel, meanwhile appointed professor, became the first director of the newly built museum in 1909.
His grave is in the municipal cemetery on Reichenhainer Straße in Chemnitz.
The logs from the Petrified Forest of Chemnitz have been on display in the foyer of the DAStietz cultural department store since 2004 . The Sterzeleanum in the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz , on the first floor of the Kulturkaufhaus, is dedicated to the great natural scientist.
literature
- Manfred Barthel: Johann Traugott Sterzel. In: Sächsische Heimatblätter, issue 2/1965, pp. 161–163
- Heimatverein Niederfrohna: The father of the petrified forest: memory of Johann Traugott Sterzel . Miriquidi-Verlag, Niederfrohna 2003, ISBN 3-9808333-4-8 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sterzel, Johann Traugott |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Sterzeleanum |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German paleontologist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 4, 1841 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Dresden , Missouri |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 15, 1914 |
| Place of death | Chemnitz |