Josef Probst

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Josef Probst (born February 23, 1823 in Ehingen (Danube) ; † March 9, 1905 in Biberach an der Riss ) was a German Roman Catholic pastor, geologist and paleontologist. He is considered a pioneer in researching the geology and paleontology of Upper Swabia .

Life

Josef Probst was the son of the innkeeper Christoph Probst (bear host in Ehingen and city councilor) and studied theology at the University of Tübingen after graduating from Konviktsgymnasium in Ehingen to become a pastor. At that time, the well-known geologist Friedrich August Quenstedt was teaching in Tübingen, but the Probst did not listen to him because he was concentrating entirely on theology. In 1845 he was ordained a priest in Rottenburg am Neckar and had his first job as vicar in Schramberg and from 1846 as vicar and parish administrator in Schemmerberg . There he also turned part-time to the geology and palaeontology of Upper Swabia . In 1858 he became pastor in Mettenberg (Biberach) . From 1868 until his retirement he was pastor in Unteressendorf near Biberach. In 1859 he also became school inspector for the Biberach district and from 1872 to 1882 he was treasurer of the Waldsee chapter . From 1898 he was "absent from his position" because he moved to Biberach (he was not officially retired until 1900). He donated his extensive collection (including art history) and library to the place, which became the basis of the city museum ( Braith Mali Museum ) founded in 1902 .

His brother Ferdinand Probst was a theology professor in Breslau.

plant

He was the first to detect marine deposits in Upper Swabia (tertiary molasses ). He particularly dug in the sandstone quarry of Baltringen (Baltringer shell sandstone, age 18 million years in the Miocene ), where he found shark teeth (of which he had over 60,000 in his collection) and the remains of manatees and toothed whales (dolphins and relatives of the sperm whales), and at Heggbach , this time in the upper freshwater molasse (age 16 million years in the Miocene), with mammals such as rhinos, primeval horses, elephants, forked deer and bear dogs. From 1858 he published about his findings in the annual journals of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg . He also published on paleoclimatology, geophysics and glaciation in Upper Swabia as well as on art history.

He was responsible for the division of the tertiary molasses in Upper Swabia into three parts, the lower and upper freshwater molasses with marine facies in between. He also correctly assigned these layers to the Miocene. He was on friendly terms with the vertebrate paleontologist Hermann von Meyer and with Oswald Heer in Zurich (especially with regard to palaeobotany). He later had further contacts with, among others, Fridolin Sandberger in Würzburg (who, building on the findings of Probst, treated the tertiary of the Mainz Basin), the botanist Hermann Christ in Basel, the paleontologist Otto Jaekel in Berlin, Ernst Wittich in Darmstadt (the researcher of the Messel Mine ) and the young Othenio Abel in Vienna. Among the Swabian geologists, he was in contact with Quenstedt, Oscar Fraas and his son Eberhard Fraas (he was friends with both of them), Konrad Miller in Stuttgart, Theodor Engel and the regional geologist Heinrich Bach . He had written contact with Thomas Würtenberger .

He paid particular attention to the question of why the glacial deposits of the Ice Age followed the molasse deposits of the Miocene with a subtropical warm climate and what could have caused this climate change, for which he spent years studying literature. He took an interdisciplinary approach and attached importance to quantitative analysis. He also came to the conclusion that uplifts and subsidence of the earth's crust were connected and based on the plasticity of the magma in the earth's interior. He saw himself in harmony with contemporary geologists such as Wilhelm von Branca , Oscar Fraas, Eduard Suess (for example with the then common tectonic theory of the formation of the Ries crater).

In botany he devoted himself to wild roses in Upper Swabia, where he worked with Hermann Christ in Basel.

Honors and memberships

Josef Probst was a member of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg from 1857 and he was a member of the Upper Swabian Molasse Club , which was merged into the Patriotic Natural History Association.

In 1876 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In 1877 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen , in 1893 an honorary member of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings, and in 1899 an honorary citizen of Biberach.

Fonts

In the annual journals of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg:

  • About the dentition of Notidanus primigenius Ag., 14, Stuttgart 1858, pp. 124-127 Archives
  • Ueber die Streifung der fossil Squalidenzähne, 15, Stuttgart 1859, pp. 100-102 Archives , Plate I, Fig. 3 Archives
  • Geognostic sketch of the area around Biberach, 1866, 22, pp. 45–60 Archives
  • Tertiary plants and evidence of storage conditions, 1868
  • Fossil sea and brackish water conchylia and a comparison of the sequence of layers, 1871
  • The high ground, 1873
  • Contribution to the topography of the glacier landscape in Upper Swabia in Württemberg, 30, Stuttgart 1874, pp. 40–85 Archive
  • Contributions to the knowledge of fossil fish (labroids, scarines, sparoids) from the Molasse von Baltringen, 30, Stuttgart 1874, pp. 275–198, plate III archive
  • Discussion of the connection between the climatic conditions of the last three earth periods (tertiary, quaternary and present), 31, Stuttgart 1875, pp. 85–149 Archive
  • Directory of the flora and fauna of the Upper Swabian Molasse, 1879
  • Knowledge of the roses growing wild in Upper Swabia, 43, Stuttgart 1887, pp. 142–175 Archives
  • About some objects from the field of geophysics, 45, Stuttgart 1889, pp. 65-119 Archives
  • About the fossils of the sea molasses in Oberschwaben, 51, Stuttgart 1895, pp. 370-374 Archives
  • Comments on Eugen Dubois: The climates of the geological past, 55, Stuttgart 1899, pp. 366–386 Archives
  • The historical development of geognostic research in Upper Swabia (lecture at the Upper Swabian branch association for patriotic natural history on May 18, 1904 in Biberach), 61, Stuttgart 1905, pp. LXV – LXVIII Archive

He also published in the journal Nature and Revelation from 1875–1899 .

Other writings:

  • The interaction between the climate and the design of the earth's surface is shown . Swiss beard, Stuttgart 1887

literature

  • Theodor Engel : Chamberlain Dr. Joseph Probst † in Biberach a. R. March 9, 1905. In: Annual books of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg 61, 1905, pp. XXXVII-XLV ( digitized version ).
  • Volker J. Sach: Fossil catalog of the Miocene molasses in Southwest Germany, Documenta naturae Munich 2014, p. 10 (biography with photo).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Volker Sach, 2014, see literature
  2. ^ Membership growth in 1857 Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg
  3. ↑ Joost Probst's membership entry at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on March 9, 2016.
  4. ↑ Harald Derschka : The association for the history of Lake Constance and its surroundings. A look back at one hundred and fifty years of club history 1868–2018. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 136, 2018, pp. 1–303, here: p. 74.
personal data
SURNAME Probst, Josef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Joseph (old spelling)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German clergyman, geologist and paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 23, 1823
PLACE OF BIRTH Ehingen (Danube)
DATE OF DEATH March 9, 1905
Place of death Biberach an der Riss