Karl von Moll

This article deals with the geologist and statesman Karl von Moll (1760–1838). For the palaeontologist and zoologist Karl von Moll (1735–1812) see Johann Paul Carl von Moll .

Karl von Moll at the age of 13

Karl Maria E (h) renbert Freiherr von Moll (born December 21, 1760 in Thalgau ; † February 1, 1838 in Augsburg ) was a Salzburg naturalist and statesman.

Life

The son of the princely Salzburg nurse Ludwig Gottfried von Moll and his wife Leopoldine born. Baron Christani von Rall, daughter of Hieronymus Cristani von Rall , received training at the Knight Academy Kremsmünster from 1773 and studied law at the University of Salzburg from 1780 . In 1782 he took up his first job as an administrative accessist in Zell am Ziller . After several promotions, Moll was appointed director of the court chamber in Salzburg in 1790 and in 1791 took over the management of salt, coinage and mining. In 1795 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

During his term of office, drainage of the Gastein Valley , regulation of the Salzach and drainage work in the Pinzgau to gain agricultural land included. The establishment of the brother shop for miners is also one of the results of his work.

In addition to official work, Moll devoted himself to collecting minerals, plants, books, and copperplate engravings, and was active as a writer. In 1783 he published the anonymous work So do I do with the monks , in which he attacked profiteering by selling antidotes against witchcraft by the Tamsweg Capuchins . In 1784 he published his diatribe against the Contravertists, who criticized a pastoral letter from Prince-Bishop Hieronymus von Colloredo-Mannsfeld .

Moll was a close friend of Franz von Paula cabinet , together they published the two-volume natural history letters on Austria, Salzburg, Passau and Berchtesgaden in 1785 . He published Canestrini's Historia de utero duplici and, after the death of Franz Damian Friedrich Müllenkampf, continued his collection of the forest regulations of various countries from 1796 onwards as a continued Müllenkampf collection of the forest regulations of various countries . In addition, he corresponded with the most important natural scientists of his time, including Alexander von Humboldt , who often used Moll's library in Salzburg from late autumn 1797 to spring 1798.

Karl von Moll

In 1797, Moll founded the series of publications by Berg- und Hüttenmanns , which was devoted to mining science, geognostic and mineralogical topics and was then renamed the Yearbook of Mining and Metallurgy in the same year . From 1801 it was continued as the Annals of Mining and Metallurgy , from 1805 as the Ephemeris of Mining and Metallurgy , from 1809 to 1826 as the New Yearbooks of Mining and Metallurgy and was then combined with Karl Cäsar von Leonhard's pocket book for the entire mineralogy .

In 1800 von Moll was appointed to the Privy Council. After the Battle of Hohenlinden he was one of the five governors appointed by the French occupiers from 1800 to 1803. After its secularization , Moll belonged to the Intergovernmental Conference and was on November 28, 1803 by Ferdinand III. appointed regional president of the Duchy of Salzburg . In the same year he acquired Heuberg Castle . In 1801 he was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences .

After he could not come to an agreement with Johann von Österreich about the conditions for taking over the vacant position of director of the Viennese court natural history cabinet, Moll entered the service of the Electorate of Bavaria on December 7, 1804 and became a full member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences ; In 1829 he was made an honorary member.

Introduced by him and u. a. Reforms supported by Samuel Thomas von Soemmerring met with fierce opposition. Moll therefore concentrated on his scientific work in Munich. He leased parts of the Fürstenfeld monastery to accommodate his collections of 80,000 books and 5,000 pieces of minerals, a herbarium of 2,000 exhibits, a 62-volume portrait collection and 269 coppers . From 1812 he was a corresponding member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and the Académie des Sciences in Paris.

In 1832 von Moll retired, where he lived either at his summer residence in Mollsheim near Dachau or in Augsburg .

Several plant and animal species were named after Moll.

Memorial plaque at the Salzburg University

Works

• Moll / Cabinet: Natural history letters about Austria, Salzburg, Passau and Berchtesgaden , 2 vols., 1785
• Upper German contributions to natural science and economics for the year 1787 (ed.)
• Antonio Canestrini : Historia de utero duplici, alterutro quarto graviditatis mense rupto 1788 (ed.)
• Continued Müllenkampf collection of forest regulations in different countries , 1796 (Ed.).
• The Freiherr KE von Moll messages from his correspondence as a prodrome of his autobiography , 1829-1835

literature

• Constantin von Wurzbach : Moll, Karl Ehrenbert Freiherr von . In: Biographisches Lexikon des Kaiserthums Oesterreich . 19th part. Imperial and Royal Court and State Printing Office, Vienna 1868, pp. 2–8 ( digitized version ).
• Wilhelm von Gümbel :  Moll, Karl Ehrenbert Freiherr von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1885, pp. 111-115.
• FJ Fischer:  Moll Karl Ehrenbert Frh. Von. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 6, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1975, ISBN 3-7001-0128-7 , p. 353 f. (Direct links on p. 353 , p. 354 ).
• Robert Hoffmann: Knowledge transfer through networking. Karl Erenbert von Moll and the beginnings of scientific regional studies in Salzburg. In: Martin Scheutz / Wolfgang Schmale / Dana Štefanová (ed.): Places of knowledge. Yearbook of the Austrian Society for Research in the 18th Century. 2004, Vol. 18/19, Bochum 2004, pp. 135-151.
• Belshazzar Hacquets and Ehrenbert von Molls "Journey to the Nordic Alps" 1785. 225 years of geological field research in the Eastern Alps. Vienna, Federal Geological Institute 2011.

Web links

Commons : Karl von Moll  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Karl von Moll in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon )
• Picture of the pupil of the Knight Academy Karl Ehrenbert von Moll
• SalzburgWiki
• Paolo Cont, Cronache familiari e genealogia dei baroni De Moll. La visita del poeta James Henry , “Quaderni del Borgoantico”, 16, 2015, pp. 11–34.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baptismal Register - TFBVIII | Thalgau | Salzburg, rk. Diocese | Austria | Matricula Online. Retrieved November 7, 2019 . 
2. ^ Member entry by Karl Marie Frhr. von Moll at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on February 3, 2016.
3. ↑ Hanno Beck, Alexander von Humboldt, Volume 1, Steiner, Wiesbaden 1959, pp. 100-101.
4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 171.
5. ^ Member entry of Karl Ehrenbert Freiherr von Moll (with picture) at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences , accessed on February 3, 2016.
6. ^ Karl Maria Ehrenbert Freiherr von Moll. Members of the predecessor academies. Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities , accessed on March 25, 2016 . 
7. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter M. Académie des sciences, accessed on January 24, 2020 (French).