Josef Velenovský

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Josef Velenovský

Josef Velenovský , also Joseph , (born April 22, 1858 in Čekanice , † May 7, 1949 in Mnichovice ) was a Bohemian , k. u. k. Austrian , later Czechoslovak botanist and philosopher. From 1892 to 1927 he was professor of botany at Charles University in Prague . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is “ Velen. “As a philosopher he represented an occult, spiritualist, anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik view.

Life

Velenovský grew up in an extended family. He studied botany (with Ladislav Josef Čelakovský and Heinrich Moritz Willkomm ) and philosophy at the Charles University in Prague from 1878 to 1883 . In 1879 Antonín Frič appointed him palaeobotany assistant at the Museum of the Kingdom of Bohemia . After completing his studies, he worked as Čelakovský's assistant at the Botanical Institute of Charles University. In 1885 he completed his habilitation at the Charles University. In 1892 Velenovský was appointed associate professor of botany at Charles University. From 1898 to 1927 he held the chair for botany there as a full professor. He was also director of the botanical garden. Velenovský was also chairman of the Bohemian Botanical Society until 1914.

He was the uncle of the painter and photographer Josef Velenovský (1887–1967).

Act

botany

Since his student days, Velenovský initially devoted himself to phytopalaeontology and especially to the flora of the Cretaceous Period in Bohemia. In the mid-1880s, the flora of the Balkan Peninsula became his new research area. To this end, he undertook five research trips to Bulgaria in 1887, 1889 (with Karel Vandas ), 1893 (with Hermenegild Škorpil and Václav Stříbrný ), 1896 and 1897. In addition, 16 people were on his behalf as plant collectors in Bulgaria. The results of his research appeared in 1891 in the two-volume "Flora Bulgarica". It describes 2877 species, including 158 new ones, including the supplement from 1898.

After his research in Bulgaria, Velenovský concentrated on bryology . He collected mosses, especially in the area around Prague, and in 1896, in his work Mechy české, described around 500 species occurring in Bohemia. His next research focus was the liverworts in Bohemia, he published his findings in the years 1901–1903 in the three-volume work Játrovky české . This work also triggered criticism in the professional world, as Velenovský only contributed his research results and refused to include the findings of other bryologists. It was also criticized that Velenovský had put the emphasis on the morphology and was opposed to anatomical study methods. Velenovský's bryological works received little international attention because they were only published in the Czech language.

At the beginning of the 20th century, Velenovský devoted himself to plant morphology. 1905–1907 he published his three-volume work Srovnávací morfologie rostlin , which also appeared in German under the title Comparative Morphology of Plants . Elements of Velenovský's mystical worldview flowed into the descriptions , he strictly rejected anatomical and microscopic research methods.

At the same time Velenovský dealt with mycology . Between 1920 and 1922, the work České Houby , which was mainly concerned with mushrooms and edited by the Czech Botanical Society, appeared in five volumes. In 1934 he self-published his two-volume Monographia Discomycetum Bohemiae on the hose mushrooms in Bohemia in Latin with a German foreword . In his 2000 page mycological works, Velenovský described 2727 new mushroom species, of which 190 are still considered to be a separate species.

philosopher

In addition to his extensive botanical work, Velenovský self-published several philosophical and other writings. In 1920 and 1922 his Přírodní filosofie appeared in two volumes . In 1930 he published short stories under the title Obrázky . His philosophical and socio-political work Poslední moudrost čili nauka o kosmickém duchovnu was published in 1935 and two years later as a German-language edition under the title The last wisdom or the doctrine of the spiritual cosmos .

The basic building blocks of his philosophical views are matter, spirit and ether (spiritual cosmos). In principle, Velenovský agreed with Darwin's theory of evolution. However, he was of the opinion that the diversity of the flora and fauna and their complex relationships could not have arisen simply through natural selection, but rather under the influence of a spiritual, creative energy. In his book Poslední moudrost , he described 23 guiding principles for the evolution of plants and animals. Velenovský also believed in reincarnation and communication with the spirit of the dead.

The communism was Velenovský hostile to. In Přírodní filosofie II in 1922 he took the view that the communists should be taken to a desert island where they could live according to their laws and that those who had been healed could be brought back to civilization after ten years.

In his works Přírodní filosofie , Literární studie and Obrázky , Velenovský also clearly expressed his deep anti-Semitism . In Poslední moudrost čili Nauka o kosmickém duchovnu he presented "the Jewish world domination as a symptom of a seriously ill humanity" and came to the conclusion that "the white race is doomed by degeneration and the Jewish plague". He therefore saw the Chinese and Japanese as the future of human civilization.

In Literární studie , he presented the October Revolution of 1932 as the work of Jews. He saw only Christian charity as the basis of a democratic nation and not the "Jew Marx and the syphilitic Asians Lenin" ( Nechť jest národ democickým na základě křesťanské lásky k bližnímu a nikoliv na základě žida Marxe a syfilitického asiata Lenina )

Honors

Josef Velenovský was awarded the Alexander Medal by the Bulgarian government for his services to Bulgarian science .

Taxa

Several taxa were named after Josef Velenovský:

Taxa described by Josef Velenovský in honor of others

  • Boletus fechtneri in honor of František Fechtner (1883–1967), botanist at Charles University in Prague
  • Inocybe reisneri , in honor of Otakar Reisner, author of the title "Č̌eské hvězdice" (Earth Stars of the Czech Republic)
  • Hygrophorus hedrychii , in honor of Job. Hedrych, for many years head gardener of the Botanical Garden of the Bohemian University in Prague

Publications

  • The flora of the Bohemian chalk formation I – IV, 1882–1887 I. Part  - Internet Archive , II. Part  - Internet Archive III. Theil  - Internet Archive , IV. Theil  - Internet Archive
  • The gymnosperms of the Bohemian chalk formation , 1885 doi : 10.5962 / bhl.title.109999
  • Contributions to the knowledge of the Bulgarian flora , 1886
  • Atlas rostlinstva pro školu a dům , 1887
  • The ferns of the Bohemian Chalk Formation , 1888 digitized  - Internet Archive
  • Květena českého cenomanu , 1889–1890 digitized version  - Internet Archive
  • Flora Bulgarica I-II, 1891
  • O biologii a morfologii rodu Monesis , 1892
  • O morfologii rostlin cevnatých tajnosnubných , 1892
  • O Phyllokladiích rodu Danaë , 1892
  • Mechy české , 1897
  • Flora Bulgarica Supplementum I , 1898
  • Játrovky české I – III, 1901–1903
  • Srovnávací morfologie rostlin I-III, 1905–1907; German edition Comparative Morphology of Plants , 1905–1907
  • Přírodní filosofie I, 1920
  • České Houby IV, 1920–1922
  • Přírodní filosofie II, 1922
  • Systematická botanika I – VI, 1922–1926
  • Flora Cretacea Bohemiae I-IV, 1926-1931
  • Obrázky , short stories, 1928
  • Literární study , 1932
  • Monographia Discomycetum Bohemiae I-II, 1934
  • Poslední moudrost čili Nauka o kosmickém duchovnu , 1935; German edition The last wisdom or the doctrine of the spiritual cosmos , Praha 1937
  • Novitates Mycologicae , 1939
  • Novitates mycologicae novissimae. Opera Botanica Čechica 4 , 1947

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Literární study, p. 263
  2. ↑ Karin Montag: In honor of ... Episode 11 Who is Mr. Fechtner? Der Tintling 89, issue 4/2014: 28
  3. ↑ Karin Montag: In honor of ... Episode 18: Bubakia velenovskyi. Der Tintling 97, edition 6/2015: 73 - 88
  4. ↑ Karin Montag: In honor of ... Episode 18: Bubakia velenovskyi. The Tintling 97, edition 6/2015: 79

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Velenovský, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech botanist and philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH April 22, 1858
PLACE OF BIRTH Čekanice
DATE OF DEATH May 7, 1949
Place of death Mnichovice