Oskar Hecker

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Oskar Ernst August Hecker (born May 21, 1864 in Bersenbrück , † September 19, 1938 in Munich ) was a German geophysicist.

Live and act

Oskar Hecker (in some sources Oscar Hecker ) studied astronomy at the universities in Bonn, Berlin and Munich. In 1891 he was at the University of Munich with Hugo von Seeliger with the work over the presentation of the proper motions of the stars and the movement of the solar system to Dr. phil. PhD.

Then he went to the Prussian Geodetic Institute as an auxiliary computer , which from 1892 had its seat on the Potsdamer Telegrafenberg and whose director Friedrich Robert Helmert was. After the early death of Ernst von Rebeur-Paschwitz in 1895, Hecker took over his horizontal pendulum , with which Rebeur-Paschwitz was able to register the ground movement of an earthquake that occurred in Japan in 1889 . Hecker suspected that this device was also suitable for detecting the vibrations caused by explosives. Together with the Japanese Fusakichi Omori (1868–1923) he succeeded in registering small ground vibrations on a shooting range near Berlin with a further developed horizontal pendulum.

In 1895 he became an assistant at the Geodetic Institute, and in 1896 the earthquake house built according to his plans was put into operation on the Telegrafenberg. He made important discoveries in the decade 1901–1910. For the first time he was able to provide reliable evidence of the tides of the solid earth with pointed horizontal pendulums in the deep well on the Telegrafenberg. He became very famous for his groundbreaking measurements of the earth's gravity on the oceans. In 1901 he undertook a first measurement trip to determine gravity on the Atlantic Ocean as well as in Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon and Madrid. On this and on other trips he was able to determine normal gravity values ​​by means of air pressure measurements at sea, which corresponded to the land values ​​and thus confirmed the theory of isostasis .

In 1907 he became the main observer of the Potsdam Institute. In 1910 he moved to the Imperial Main Station for Earthquake Research in Strasbourg as Acting Head , where he was soon appointed Director and Privy Councilor. The main station specialized in gravimetric, seismic and geomagnetic measurements and in the construction of special equipment. In 1915, Hecker became an honorary professor at the University of Strasbourg . After the end of the First World War and the dissolution of the main station in Strasbourg, he founded the Reich Institute for Earthquake Research in Jena, which opened in October 1923 and became a center for earthquake research in Germany.

In 1922 he was one of the founding members of the German Seismological Society, which was renamed the German Geophysical Society (DGG) in 1924 . 1922–1925 and 1927–1929 he was deputy chairman, from 1925 to 1926 chairman and from 1934 honorary member of the DGG. On November 26, 1910 ( registration number 3320 ) he was elected a member of the Leopoldina . In December 1923 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences . The Academy of Sciences in Göttingen he belonged since 1919 as a corresponding member.

The painter and graphic artist Franz Hecker was his brother.

Fonts (selection)

  • Oskar Hecker: Determination of the force of gravity on the Atlantic Ocean as well as in Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon and Madrid . P. Stankiewicz, Berlin 1903, p. VI, 137 .
  • Oskar Hecker: Observations on horizontal pendulums about the deformation of the earth's body under the influence of the sun and moon . P. Stankiewicz, Berlin 1907, p. IV, 95 .
  • Oskar Hecker: Determination of gravity on the Indian and great oceans and on their coasts as well as geomagnetic measurements . Georg Reimer, Berlin 1908, p. VIII, 233 .
  • Oskar Hecker: Determination of gravity on the Black Sea and on its coast as well as new adjustment of the gravity measurements on the Atlantic, Indian and Great Ocean. With four panels . P. Stankiewicz, Berlin 1910, p. VIII, 160 .

literature

Web links

  • Hecker, Oskar. History of the Telegrafenbergs. Geoforschungszentrum Potsdam, accessed on August 28, 2017 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oskar Hecker in the Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)Template: MathGenealogyProject / Maintenance / id used
  2. ^ Michael Börngen, Joachim Homilius, Franz Jacobs: The German Geophysical Society, 1922-1997 . In: H. Neunhöfer u. a. (Ed.): On the history of geophysics in Germany . Hamburg 1997, 1., p. 7-26 .
  3. ↑ Member entry by Oscar Hecker at the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina , accessed on August 28, 2017.
  4. ^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Hecker, August Oskar Ernst. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed August 24, 2017 (Russian).
personal data
SURNAME Hecker, Oskar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hecker, Oskar Ernst August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German geophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Bersenbrück
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1938
Place of death Munich