Otto Kraus (mineralogist)

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Otto Kraus (born February 25, 1905 in Nuremberg , † January 9, 1984 in Bad Tölz ) was a German mineralogist and conservationist.

Live and act

After graduating from high school, Kraus studied engineering at the TH Munich between 1924 and 1929 and then chemistry , biology and geography at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich . He wrote his doctoral thesis on the " crystal chemistry of the mineral apophyllite ". In 1929 and 1930 he passed his first and second state exams in the fields of chemistry, biology and geography. In 1931 he taught at a private school in Seefeld in Tyrol . From 1932 to 1937 he was an assistant at the Mineralogical Institute of the University of Munich. From 1937 to 1940 he was acting head of the Institute for Mineralogy and Crystallography at the University of Munich. In 1943 Kraus was appointed professor of silicate chemistry at the German Technical University in Prague, but was doing military service at that time. In 1949 Kraus took over the management of the State Agency for Nature Conservation in Bavaria, which he held until 1967. In 1952, Kraus shot the documentary Nature in Danger with Eugen Schuhmacher , in which the well-known core statement "Whoever destroys nature destroys himself" was made. In 1957 he reaffirmed the demand made by Alwin Seifert in 1936 that 10 percent of the country must be placed under nature protection. Kraus published around 40 scientific articles on mineralogy and crystal chemistry and around 160 articles on nature conservation problems. His best known book is “ Destruction of Nature. Our fate of tomorrow? “From 1966.

Memorial stone on the Lech

Honors

  • 1963: Bavarian Order of Merit
  • 1967: Ludwig Thoma Medal from the City of Munich
  • 1973: Cross of Merit 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany
  • 2013: There is an Otto Kraus memorial on the “Litzau Loop” on the Lech , which Kraus saved from destruction by building a hydropower plant . It bears the inscription: "The past has attacked him - the present proves him right - the future will honor him" (quote from Emil Egli in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung 1975).

Web links and literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Newsletter of the German Science and Technology, organ of the Reich Research Council (Hrsg.): Research and progress . Staff news. Appointments. tape 19, 23/24 , 1943, pp. 252 .
  2. ↑ Announcement of awards of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany. In: Federal Gazette . Vol. 25, No. 111, June 16, 1973.
personal data
SURNAME Kraus, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mineralogist and conservationist
DATE OF BIRTH February 25, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH January 9, 1984
Place of death Bad Tölz