Leopold Hacker

Grave of P. Leopold Hacker in the Göttweig convent cemetery

Gudenushöhle, discovered by Leopold Hacker

Leopold Hacker (born April 13, 1843 in Göttweig ; † March 11, 1926 there ) was an Austrian Benedictine who was active in the fields of mineralogy , cave research and entomology .

Ludwig Hacker, son of a teacher and organist, attended grammar school in Göttweig and Krems an der Donau and joined the Göttweig Abbey in 1862 , where he was given the religious name Leopold. In 1867 he was ordained a priest. Afterwards he was active in the parish ministry in Maria Roggendorf and Pfaffendorf . In 1874 he returned to the monastery as curate and catechist , where he had headed the natural history collections since 1876. In 1878 he became parish vicar in St. Veit , in 1881 in Purk . From 1887 to 1895 he was secretary of the central administration in Göttweig Abbey and professor of fundamental theology. In 1895 he became parish vicar in Gansbach , and in 1910 in Haindorf . From 1918 until his death he lived in Göttweig Abbey again.

Hacker was largely responsible for building up the pen's mineral collection, which was largely lost after 1939. In 1883 he discovered the Gudenus Cave near Hartenstein Castle on the Krems and was the first to carry out excavations there. There he made finds from the Paleolithic and the fauna of the Upper Pleistocene . He was a member of several scientific societies.

Publications (selection)

• The Gudenushöhle a reindeer station in the Lower Austrian Kremstal . In: Mitteilungen der Anthropologische Gesellschaft 14, 1884, pp. 145–153.
• Atoms on the biology of the beetle I . In: Wiener Entomologische Zeitung 7, 1888, pp. 49–56 ( PDF; 740 kB ) and addendum . In: Wiener Entomologische Zeitung 7, 1888, p. 116 ( PDF; 276 kB ).
• Atoms for the biology of beetles II . In: Wiener Entomologische Zeitung 18, 1899, pp. 33–37 ( PDF; 527 kB ).

literature

• Clemens Lashofer : Profess book of the Benedictine monastery Göttweig. (= Studies and communications on the history of the Benedictine order , supplementary volume 26). EOS Verlag, St. Ottilien 1983, pp. 326–327 (with list of publications).
• Helmuth Zapfe : Index Palaeontologicorum Austriae. Supplementum (= Catalogus fossilium Austriae issue 15a). Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1987, ISBN 3-7001-0948-2 , pp. 168–169 ( PDF; 903 kB ).