Konrad Miller

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Konrad Miller (born November 21, 1844 in Oppeltshofen , † July 25, 1933 in Stuttgart ) was a Roman Catholic theologian , natural scientist and cartography historian . He was instrumental in the rediscovery of the Tabula Peutingeriana , an early world map that depicts the Roman road network in the late Roman Empire from the 4th century.

Life

education

Miller grew up on a farm in Oppeltshofen near Ravensburg and had ten other siblings. In 1862 he graduated from high school in St. Josef in Ehingen . He then received a spiritual and pastoral training at the Episcopal Theologian Convict Wilhelmsstift in Tübingen . At the same time he studied theology and natural sciences at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen . At the age of 22 he passed the theological exam in 1866, but had not yet reached the minimum age for ordination. Therefore he went to the then Stuttgart Polytechnic to study natural sciences to work in the laboratory of the chemist Hermann von Fehling . In 1867 he continued these studies in Bonn. He was ordained a priest on August 10, 1868. After that he was briefly vicar in Schramberg .

In 1870 Miller did his doctorate with Friedrich August von Quenstedt in Tübingen with a thesis on The Tertiary on Hochstrasse . In the same year he passed the second part of the mathematics and science teaching examination for higher education in zoology, mineralogy, geology and mathematical geography. The effects of the Kulturkampf initially prevented a job in the school service in the Protestant-dominated Kingdom of Württemberg .

Pastor and natural scientist

Miller was appointed vicar in Schwörzkirch , Altshausen and Leutkirch in the Allgäu . In 1872 he took over the parish of Unteressendorf as chaplain , with Pastor Joseph Probst . Probst was also a natural scientist and is considered a pioneer in researching the geology and paleontology of Upper Swabia. Miller was able to continue his studies in addition to his pastoral work. He created natural collections and devoted himself to the local flora and fauna . It originated among other studies on the shellfish and fish bread of Lake Constance, the Molasse and the geological conditions in the Lake Constance region as well as the lowering of water levels.

In the same year he founded the Molasse Club , which later joined the Association for Patriotic Natural History as an Upper Swabian branch association and in which he brought together interested people, aristocrats and citizens, scholars and farmers, Catholics and Protestants. Miller acted as secretary and presented the results of his research in the meetings of the association and in the association for the history of Lake Constance . As a natural scientist and conservationist, he also joined the Federation for Bird Protection , of which he became second chairman.

From 1880 he turned increasingly to archeology. He dealt with old Germanic ring castles, Roman settlements, burial grounds and road networks and carried out excavations near Ravensburg, Altshausen , Mengen , Emerkingen , Ummendorf , Köngen , Jettenhausen , Bavendorf , Weingarten and Mochenwangen . He presented the results of his research to the public in lectures and publications. Again for denominational reasons, he was ignored when the Reichs-Limes Commission, founded in 1890, was occupied .

Teacher and cartographer

Unexpectedly, Miller received the unusual appointment of a professorship in natural sciences at the Dillmann Realgymnasium in Stuttgart in 1882 . There he introduced natural history excursions and geological hikes, took his students with him to excavations and later had them help correct his map editions. In 1886 he was invited by the State Statistical Office in Stuttgart to work on the collection Das Kingdom of Württemberg . Miller worked on the antiquities of Upper Swabia and south of the Danube. He was also involved in the publication of the Oberamt descriptions .

Tabula Peutingeriana, detail with Berya (now Aleppo ) in Syria

He gained national fame when he turned to historical world maps. In 1887 he published the Tabula Peutingeriana , a tracing of a late antique road map from the 12th century, in full and in color. This was followed by the mappa mundi , the Itineraria Romana , the Mappae Arabicae and the Charter Rogeriana . The editions received a lot of attention. Miller developed map editions for use in schools, which he published himself and which the schools offered for sale as Miller's visual aids for geographic lessons . His six-volume work Mappa Mundi. The oldest world maps is "the first comprehensive collection and representation of the Latin maps of the Middle Ages". It is "still of great value today".

Retirement and travel

He retired on October 1, 1910. He was now the organizer and leader of pilgrimage and study trips. On one of these trips Miller discovered the ancient amphitheater in Cumae near Naples . He arranged for the land there to be purchased and founded the Societas Cumaena , for which he built a rest home. As early as 1903 he had bought a villa on the Stafflenberg in Stuttgart. Over the years, it served as a student residence, commercial vocational school, military hospital, private clinic and retirement home. Services were also held in the villa in a small chapel. He read Holy Mass there every day . In 1926 he transferred his property to the church building association he founded . In 1933, shortly before his death, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Salzburg . He rejected the papal honorary title of monsignor .

In order to help the Catholic university planned in Salzburg , Miller transferred his self-publishing to the Salzburg University Association. The Gestapo abolished the University Association and the publishing house came to Miller's niece and former colleague Gertrud Husslein in Göppingen in 1939 . He left his natural history cabinet largely to the Württemberg natural history collection. In 1967 a church he had planned near the Villa Reitzenstein in Stuttgart was handed over to its intended use. Contrary to Miller's ideas, who had thought of a Christ the King's Church , it was consecrated to Saint Conrad , his namesake.

Memberships

Works

  • The Tertiary on Hochsträss , Diss. Rer. nat. Stuttgart 1871.
  • World map of Castorius called the Peutinger table . Ravensburg 1887.
  • The Roman forts in Württemberg . Stuttgart 1892, with 2 map sketches and 18 situation plans (special print from the communications of the "Bauhütte" association).
  • Collection of old sea maps . Bregenz 1903.
  • The Peutinger table or world map of Castorius . Stuttgart 1916.
  • Itineraria Romana. Roman travel routes illustrated by the Tabula Peutingeriana , with 317 map sketches and text images. Stuttgart 1916.
  • The measurement of the earth in antiquity and its fate . Stuttgart 1919.
  • Mappae Arabicae 1 . Stuttgart 1926.
  • World map of the Arab Idrisi from 1154 in three parts . 1928 (reprint: Stuttgart 1981)
  • The oldest separate maps of the 3 continents, probably designed by Nikephoros Gregoras around 1350 in Constantinople . Stuttgart 1931.
  • Mappaemundi: the oldest world maps , Stuttgart: Roth, 1895-
Essays
  • Die Schalthiere des Bodensee , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 4th year 1873, pp. 123-134 ( digitized version )
  • About the Fischbrod des Bodensee , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 6th year 1875, pp. 60–62 ( digitized version )
  • The Molasse Sea in the Lake Constance region , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 7th year 1876, pp. 180–256 ([scan missing digitized])
  • About the geognostic conditions of Meersburg and the formation of Lake Constance , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 9th year 1878, pp. 103–111 ( digitized version )
  • The geological formations on the Untersee and in Höhgau , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 10th year 1880, pp. 145–150 ( digitized version )
  • Lowering the flood levels of Lake Constance , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 10th year 1880, pp. 151–157 ( digitized version )
  • Old Germanic ring castles and Roman settlements north of Lake Constance , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 11th year 1882, pp. 33–42 ( digitized version )
  • Das lower Argenthal , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 14th year 1885, pp. 80-101 ( digitized version )
  • The Roman road network in Upper Swabia , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 14th year 1885, pp. 102–128 ( digitized version )
  • On the Reichslimesforschung , in: Deutsches Volksblatt of January 3, 1896, pp. 1–7.
  • Old tertiary terrestrial and freshwater snails from the Ulm area , in: Annuals of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg , year 1907, pp. 435–457, with plates 7–9.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anna-Dorothee von den Brincken: Studies on universal cartography of the Middle Ages. P. 445.
  2. ^ Honorary members of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg
  3. ↑ Harald Derschka : The association for the history of Lake Constance and its surroundings. A look back at one hundred and fifty years of club history 1868–2018. In: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 136, 2018, pp. 1–303, here: p. 229.
personal data
SURNAME Miller, Konrad
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Catholic clergyman, natural scientist, cartography historian
DATE OF BIRTH November 21, 1844
PLACE OF BIRTH Oppeltshofen
DATE OF DEATH July 25, 1933
Place of death Stuttgart