Johannes Weigelt

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Johannes Weigelt (born July 24, 1890 in Reppen , † April 22, 1948 in Klein-Gerau ) was a German paleontologist and geologist .

Research and Teaching

After finishing school, which he spent in Halle and Blankenburg , Weigelt studied natural sciences and prehistory at the University of Halle . In 1913 he became an assistant at the Institute of Geography. Just one year later, in 1914, he wrote a geological-archaeological paper, but due to the outbreak of the First World War and his voluntary participation in it, he did not receive his doctorate until December 1917. Just one year after completing his doctorate, Weigelt completed his habilitation in 1918 with a geological-paleontological thesis. He then became a collection assistant at the Geological Institute of the University of Halle.

In 1924 he was appointed associate professor, in 1926 he was given a teaching position at the University of Greifswald , where he became a full professor of geology and paleontology in 1928. One year later, in 1929, Weigelt became full professor of geology and paleontology at the University of Halle and thus the successor to his former scientific foster father Johannes Walther .

From 1932 to 1942 Weigelt was Vice President of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina . In 1933 he joined the NSDAP , was a member of the SA and in 1934 also became a member of the NS teachers' association . In the same year, the Leopoldina honored him with the Cothenius Medal for particularly important scientific work . Weigelt was awarded several high medals by the National Socialist regime and was appointed Gaudozentenführer in 1945. In 1932 he became Vice President of the Leopoldina, where he was regarded as a supervisor by the NSDAP.

From November 1936 to January 1945 he was rector of the University of Halle and promoted its restructuring in line with armaments policy and National Socialist ideology. In addition, he worked as a consultant for the four-year planning authority and opened up ore storage for the Reichswerke Hermann Göring in Salzgitter . In 1937 he became chairman of the Paleontological Society and in 1940, as successor to Gottlob Linck, chairman of the Thuringian Geological Society . Since 1939 he was also one of the editors of the journal Der Biologe , which had been taken over by the SS-Ahnenerbe .

After the end of the Second World War he was denazified in Hesse with a monetary issue, but was no longer employed.

Stays abroad and research trips

Between 1923 and 1928 he carried out geological surveys in various European countries, such as Romania and Sweden, as well as in the USA .

In the USA, more precisely at Smithers Lake in Texas , Professor Weigelt carried out intensive sediment excavations and investigations on recent animal carcasses and was later able to use these results to draw conclusions about the prevailing conditions between death and embedding in the local sediments from paleobiological finds in the German Geiseltal . The abundance of his research results led in 1933 to the establishment of the biostratonomy , which today is called biostratinomy (theory of the storage of prehistoric creatures in sedimentary rocks).

The Geiseltalmuseum (Museum for Central German Geological History) in Halle (Saale) was founded by him in 1934. With this, he created a collection and research facility that shows a large number of objects in the context of their find contexts.

Membership in scientific academies

Fonts

  • Recent vertebrate corpses and their paleobiological significance (1927)
  • The plant remains of the Central German copper slate and their inclusion in the sediment - a paleecological study. (1928)

literature

  • Michael Grüttner : Biographical Lexicon on National Socialist Science Policy , Heidelberg 2004, p. 181 f.
  • Henrik Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism. Mdv, Halle 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X , p. 446f

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 661.
  2. ^ Winner of the Cothenius Medal of the Leopoldina
  3. ↑ Wieland Berg, An honorable lie: Abderhalden's letter to delete the Jewish members of the Leopoldina - anticipatory obedience or protective claim, Sudhoffs Archiv, Volume 99, 2015, p. 108
personal data
SURNAME Weigelt, Johannes
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paleontologist and geologist
DATE OF BIRTH July 24, 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Reppen
DATE OF DEATH April 22, 1948
Place of death Klein-Gerau