Karl Theodor love

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Theodor Liebe (around 1886). On June 7, 1886, he sent this photograph to the Leopoldina , which had accepted him as a member the previous year, and at the same time asked “for the unusual photograph to be sorry” .

Karl Leopold Theodor Liebe (born February 11, 1828 in Moderwitz ; † June 5, 1894 in Gera ) was a German geologist and ornithologist .

Origin, education and professional activity

Karl Theodor Liebe was born on February 11, 1828 in Moderwitz near Neustadt an der Orla . The mother was the daughter of a doctor. His father was a pastor and his grandfather ran an ophthalmological institute, where he watched birds in their garden as a schoolboy. Encouraged by this, he visited the local pastor Ludwig Brehm in nearby Renthendorf , who was well known as an ornithologist. During his school days, Liebe went on geological excursions in East Thuringia and the Vogtland . This led to his desire to study mining and geology, which the family could not support for financial reasons.

At the age of 20 he finished his school days, first in Neustadt and Zeitz, with the Abitur in Weimar . In the course of his studies (1848–1852) in theology , mathematics , education and natural sciences at the University of Jena, his interest in geology and paleontology developed further. In Jena he received his doctorate in 1852 on the stratigraphic structure of the Zechstein deposits in the Orlatal . This work was published in 1853 under the title “ Chemical and geognostic investigations on the Zechstein des Orlatales ” in the New Yearbook for Mineralogy. He then worked from 1852 to 1855 in Hamburg as the main teacher at Schleiden'schen Realgymnasium ( higher educational institution of Dr. Schleiden ).

In 1855, Liebe accepted a position as a teacher at the Gera trade school and became its director in 1860. In 1861 he moved to the Princely High School , where he became a professor of mathematics and physics . After 33 years of teaching, he retired on March 31, 1894 due to his deteriorating health. He passed away two months later. He was buried in the then cemetery at the Trinity Church.

Scientific work

Between 1852 and 1867, Liebe used almost all of his free time for geological research into East Thuringia. In doing so, he was the first geologist to succeed in comprehending the strata of the East Thuringian Old Paleozoic completely and correctly in its essential statements. His results in this regard were published in 1884. For this work with the title “ Overview of the Layer Structure of East Thuringia ” he gained international recognition. In 1885 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . It formed the basis of numerous explanatory reports on geological maps of East Thuringia, which he himself wrote after years of field work and which his student Ernst Zimmermann later continued to work on. It is considered the standard work for the description of the Old Palaeozoic in Thuringia.

In 1869 the Prussian government negotiated with representatives of the Thuringian states for the purpose of coordinated geological mapping . The Principality of Gera-Reuss suggested a love for working on the extraordinarily complicated area in East Thuringia. He was considered an excellent mapper whose method was highly valued by specialist colleagues and served as a model for younger geologists. As a result, at the request of the Saxon Geological State Survey, he worked with Ernst Weise on the Saxon map sheet Plauen-Oelsnitz from 1878 . During his lifetime, Liebe created nine map sheets for Thuringia on a scale of 1: 25000 and six more were published by the Royal Prussian State Geological Institute after his death with final editing by Ernst Zimmermann . Ernst Heinrich von Dechen described the recording work in the Silurian and Devonian around Ronneburg as a masterpiece of tectonic comprehension .

In 1882, a sinkhole occurred in Gera . Liebe examined this phenomenon and issued an expert opinion warning against the development of this area. The apparition gave him the occasion to give a lecture entitled Origin and Disappearance of the Gypsum Seams in Gera. He explained that the instability of the plate dolomite (Oberer Zechstein) is due to the leaching of gypsum deposits below. Due to the slightly inclined seams and the associated mobility of gypsum-containing waters, Liebe was able to predict areas at risk in the urban area of ​​Gera. This work is a very early example of engineering geological protection considerations in connection with urban building planning.

The city of Gera was a recognized center for bird protection and Liebe was very interested in it. In addition to his board work in associations, he also published writings on birds . He was a founding member of the Saxon-Thuringian Association for Ornithology and Bird Protection . Together with his wife, he kept up to 200 birds at times and observed their habits. He also built a laboratory for physical education. In 1874 he led the excavations at the Lindenthal hyena cave .

Among his mineralogical work, the naming of iron tungstate as ferberite and the chemical analysis of beyrichite , which turns into millerite , are noteworthy. In addition, Liebe examined some diabase in the East Thuringian region from a mineralogical point of view.

Honors

Love monument in the Gera city forest

In 1886 he was given the title of " Hofrat ". On the occasion of his retirement on March 16, 1894, he was honored with the Reussian Golden Cross of Merit.

As part of the clearing of the old Trinity cemetery (since 1958/59 "Park of Youth"), his grave was moved to the edge of the park and was preserved there as a memorial. World icon

Furthermore, a monument on the Hainberg in the Gera city forest, which was erected in 1896, commemorates him today. Heinrich Ernst Beyrich , Hermann Credner , Hanns Bruno Geinitz , Wilhelm Hauchecorne and Ernst Zimmermann took part in the preparations for this memorial .

The Karl-Theodor-Liebe-Gymnasium in Gera has been named after him since 1992.

literature

  • Otfried Wagenbreth : The Geraer high school professor Karl Theodor love (1828 to 1894) and his work in the history of geology . In: Hans Prescher (ed.): Life and work of German geologists in the 18th and 19th centuries . Leipzig, 1985, pp. 311-356
  • Treatises on the special geological map of Prussia and the Thuringian states, Volume V, Book 4, Berlin 1884 (K.Th. Liebe: Overview of the layer structure of East Thuringia)
  • E. Zimmermann, obituary in the PGLA yearbook for 1894, LXXIX, archive

further reading

  • Felicitas Marwinski: Karl Theodor love. High school professor , geologist and observer of the local bird world (= contributions to history and urban culture, vol. 12). Weimar, Jena, 2004 ISBN 3-89807-067-0
  • Carl R. Hennicke (Ed.): Hofrat Professor Dr. K. Th. Liebes Ornithological Writings . Leipzig 1893
  • August Rothpletz:  Dear, Karl Theodor . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 51, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1906, p. 702 f.

Web links

Commons : Karl Theodor Liebe  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Marwinski, Karl Theodor Liebe , 2004, p. 49f.
  2. ^ F. Deubel: Ernst Zimmermann. In: Journal of the German Geological Society Volume 102 (1950) Issue 1 (short version)
  3. ↑ Love memorial. Brief description with picture on www.gera.de
personal data
SURNAME Dear Karl Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Liebe, Karl Leopold Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geologist and ornithologist
DATE OF BIRTH February 11, 1828
PLACE OF BIRTH Moder joke
DATE OF DEATH June 5, 1894
Place of death Gera