Karl Hager (clergyman)

Karl Hager 1914

Karl Hager (born November 19, 1862 in Kaltbrunn SG ; † July 12, 1918 in Ilanz ) was a Swiss Benedictine priest in the Disentis monastery in the canton of Graubünden and a scientist.

Life

Photo by Karl Hager: Disentis 1908, from the west.
In the center of the picture in the background the Hotel Disentiserhof

Karl Hager came as the son of the shoemaker Christian Hager and his wife Theresia geb. Steiner to the world. From 1875 to 1880 Hager attended the monastery school of Engelberg Abbey . Since the Great Council of the Canton of Graubünden had lifted the 1861 novitiate ban on monasteries in 1880, Hager, on the advice of Caspar Decurtins , joined three other high school students in 1881 as a novice at Disentis Monastery , where he was ordained priest in 1886 and henceforth as a teacher of natural science subjects worked at the convent school.

From 1900 to 1904 Hager studied botany, zoology, mineralogy, geology and meteorology at the University of Freiburg and received his doctorate in 1905 with the thesis The jaw muscles of snakes and their relationship to the salivary glands .

In addition to his teaching post at the monastery school, Hager dealt intensively with alpine, natural and cultural-historical research in the Bündner Oberland . His work Die Arven und Föhren in the Lukmanier area brought him the contract from the Swiss Federal Forest Inspectorate in Bern to research the wild wood species in the Surselva. In 1914 the work was finished. Hager's main work, Distribution of Wild Wood Species in the Vorderrheintal, brought him into contact with Johann Coaz and Carl Schroeter , his later friend and mentor at the ETH Zurich .

In addition, Hager wrote several articles about the country and folklore, some of which were linked to the work of Pater Placidus a Spescha . As an enthusiastic alpinist, Hager promoted the establishment of the Piz Terri section of the SAC . He gave the ceremonial sermon at several consecrations of mountain huts.

literature

• Gion Condrau (Hsg): Disentis / Mustér Past and Present . Disentis / Mustér municipality, 1996

Web links

• Heinrich Zoller: Hager, Karl. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .