Karl Mandl

Karl Mandl (born October 18, 1891 in Kritzendorf ; † August 21, 1989 in Vienna ) was an Austrian coleopterologist and botanist . Its botanical author's abbreviation is " Mandl ".

Life

The son of the accountant Carl Mandl and his wife Anna attended the Radetzky Realschule in Vienna III, where he graduated from high school in 1909 . Then he studied chemistry at the Technical University of Vienna and passed the second state examination in 1913. Then volunteered at the Agricultural Research Institute in Vienna as an analytical chemist.

On October 1, 1913, he was drafted as a one-year volunteer for military service. When the First World War broke out in 1914, he was employed as a corporal on the Russian front. He was soon promoted to officer, but in the same year he was taken prisoner by the Russians near Ivangorod .

Mandl, who had already done entomology at an early stage, intensively collected natural produce during his six years as a prisoner of war. For some time he worked as a botanist at the Nikolsk-Ussuriysk branch of the Russian Geographical Society . With the help of comrades, he was able to bring about 40,000 beetles, 3,000 butterflies and many other insects as well as petrefacts and plants back to his homeland on his return to Austria in September 1920 .

He now took over a position at the research institute for construction and machine materials at the Technological Trade Museum in Vienna IX. From 1922 to 1926 he was assistant at the chair for botany, technical microscopy and goods science at the Technical University in Vienna. In 1926 he also became a contract teacher for chemistry and chemical technology at the Technological Trade Museum. In 1928 he was given the professional title of professor and later until 1945 he headed the research institutes for chemical-technical material testing, material protection and paper testing. Then he produced and sold teaching materials with the appropriate trade license until his retirement in 1947.

Scientific work

Mandl now completed his dissertation on the technical-microscopic examination of economically important seeds of milkweed plants and received his doctorate in technical sciences in July 1951. He published other scientific papers in the technical field and also acquired several patents.

However, he became more and more interested in the beetles, and since his return from the First World War he has been working closely with the Natural History Museum . Here he revised the museum material of the tiger beetles (Cicindelinae) and other ground beetles (Carabidae). Since 1950 and especially since he left the Austrian Productivity Center in 1959, he devoted himself increasingly to coleopterology. He always took care of the interests of the Natural History Museum, whose holdings he was able to increase and improve.

Mandl mainly worked on the tiger beetles, of which he described about 30 new species and subspecies, as well as on the ground beetle subfamilies Carabinae, Cychrinae and Chlaeniinae. He also examined the circumstances of their spread. From 1951 to 1967 he was editor of the journal Koleopterologische Rundschau . Mandl, who worked entomologically until two years before his death, left a total of 277 entomological and six botanical publications.

Awards

On May 1, 1960 he was appointed correspondent for the Natural History Museum. In 1970 he was awarded a Theodor-Körner-Preis in double the amount. On November 19, 1980 he received the Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art and on December 17, 1986 an honorary doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Vienna .

literature

• Maximilian Fischer: In memory of Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Dr. hc Karl Mandl . Koleopterologische Rundschau, Vol. 60, Vienna, August 1990, pp. 147-149

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Mandl in the catalog of the German National Library
• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Karl Mandl at the IPNI