Karl Zöppritz (geographer)

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Karl Jakob Zöppritz

Karl Jakob Zöppritz (born  April 14, 1838 in Darmstadt ; †  March 21, 1885 in Königsberg i. Pr. ) Was a German mathematician , physicist and geographer . From 1880 until his death he worked as a professor of geography at the University of Königsberg and devoted himself in particular to cartographic and geophysical topics.

Life

Karl Zöppritz was born in Darmstadt in 1838 as the son of the factory owner and member of the state parliament, Karl Zöppritz , and graduated from high school and the higher trade school in his hometown. He then studied mathematics and physics from 1856 at the Universities of Heidelberg and Königsberg and at the University of Paris , where he also received his doctorate . In 1865 he completed his habilitation at the University of Tübingen , where he also lectured in physics in the same year.

Two years later he moved to the University of Giessen , where he worked as an associate professor for mathematical physics until 1880. In the same year he was appointed professor of geography at the Königsberg Albertina, succeeding Hermann Wagner , where he worked until his death and where he also headed the Königsberg Geographical Society, which he founded in 1881 at his suggestion. His teaching activities in Königsberg included general geography , special geography and ethnography, as well as meteorology and climatology .

Karl Zöppritz was married to a daughter of the Giessen chemist Heinrich Will , one of his nephews was the seismologist Karl Bernhard Zoeppritz . He died unexpectedly in 1885 at the age of 46 in Königsberg of an acute and unspecified illness. Friedrich Hahn followed him in his chair . His collection of around 1,800 maps formed the starting point for the map and photo collection of the Geographical Institute of the University of Berlin after the widow von Zöppritz had sold the collection to the university.

Scientific work

Karl Zöppritz's research focused on cartographic and geophysical issues, on which he published various works. In particular, he dealt with the derivation of location and altitude determinations from travel and expedition reports. His most important work is a treatise on the theory of ocean currents published in 1878 in the Annalen der Physik .

Karl Zöppritz was accepted into the Leopoldina in 1883 and was involved in the founding of the German Meteorological Society in the same year .

Works (selection)

  • Hydrodynamic problems related to ocean currents theory. In: Annals of Physics. Vol. 239, No. 4, 1878, pp. 582-607
  • Guide to card design theory. Two parts. Leipzig 1884, second edition 1899–1908

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Karl Zöppritz (geographer)  - sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Zöppritz, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zöppritz, Karl Jakob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician, physicist and geographer
DATE OF BIRTH April 14, 1838
PLACE OF BIRTH Darmstadt
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 1885
Place of death Königsberg (Prussia)