Otto Möllinger

Otto Möllinger around 1857

Otto Möllinger (born May 19, 1814 in Speyer ; † December 22, 1886 in Fluntern , today City of Zurich ) was a German - Swiss scientist , canton school teacher , inventor and entrepreneur . The daguerreotypist Franziska Möllinger was his sister. After decades of teaching at the Höhern Lehr- und Erziehungsanstalt in the canton of Solothurn , Möllinger was given early retirement against his will in 1869, after he was monistic- pantheistic writing The God idea of ​​the new time had caused a scandal.

Life

Otto Möllinger was born in Speyer as the son of watchmaker David Möllinger (1748–1834) and Rosina, née Ficht (1785–1839) . The family was of Mennonite origin. Otto Möllinger had a sister, Louise Franziska, born in 1817 . He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Munich , placing particular emphasis on road, bridge and hydraulic engineering. After completing his studies, Möllinger joined a construction company as an engineering intern. When, in 1835 , a mathematical and natural science high school professor position had to be filled at the then Höhern Lehr- und Erziehungsanstalt of the canton of Solothurn , today's Kantonsschule Solothurn , Möllinger got in touch and was elected on February 10, 1836 by appointment. He moved to Solothurn with his widowed mother and sister. Möllinger then worked at the grammar school for 33 years. In 1845 he acquired through naturalization in the municipality Günsberg the Swiss citizenship . On September 30th of the same year he married Elisabeth Nanette Fluri, a citizen of Selzach . The couple had five children, two of whom, Oskar and Mathilde, reached adulthood. While Otto Möllinger lived as a Protestant in Solothurn, his wife was Catholic and the children were raised in the Catholic faith. After his early retirement in 1869, Möllinger left Solothurn in autumn 1872 and moved with his family to Fluntern near Zurich , which at that time was still an independent municipality. There he ran a mathematical institute and boarding school. Otto Möllinger died on December 22, 1886 at the age of 72 of a liver disease.

Works

The young Otto Möllinger in the botanical garden of Solothurn in 1840. Drawing by Martin Disteli

Otto Möllinger, together with Joseph Anton Dollmayr and Heinrich Schröder , who had been appointed to Solothurn as professors shortly before him and who had recommended Möllinger in Solothurn, formed a “learned clover” which, according to Hans Rudolf Stampfli in his Möllinger biography, “within a very short time for radical innovations in the scientific and cultural area ». In addition to his teaching activities as a professor of mathematics and geometric drawing at the grammar school, Möllinger was involved in various societies promoting science, education and trade in the canton of Solothurn. As early as 1836, he was involved in the revitalization of the Natural Research Society . The industrial school on Sundays and public holidays proposed by pharmacist Josef Anton Pfluger at the end of 1836 was also strongly supported by Möllinger. Until then, there had been a lack of training opportunities in the technical and commercial sectors in Solothurn. Like Schröder, Möllinger taught at this school every Sunday free of charge. After a well-attended first year, however, interest waned and the Sunday and public holiday school was stopped again. Möllinger was one of the founders of both the trade association of the city of Solothurn (1842) and the agricultural association of the canton of Solothurn (1845). He gave general educational public lectures, including from 1857 in the Solothurn pottery society on topics such as “The construction of the universe”, “Kepler and his time” or “About the spirit in matter and the cycle of water”. For years Möllinger enthusiastically campaigned for the construction of an "industrial hall" that was to serve as an exhibition and sales location for local businesses. After neither the trade association nor the authorities wanted to support him, Möllinger finally opened the hall on his own in 1858. The company failed and the hall had to be closed again in 1859.

Möllinger also developed activities as an inventor, entrepreneur, editor and publisher. His inventions include a universal compass , a logarithmic auxiliary board , which transfers the functions of a slide rule to a board, and a modified telegraph , the construction of which, however, could not prevail due to its complexity. He produced and sold a roofing felt that was "unfortunately not completely watertight" and that was therefore also unsuccessful, just as Möllinger's electroplating company is said to have achieved little. He operated the galvanic gold plating more successfully . Möllinger's Mathematical Institute , first in Solothurn, later in Fluntern, attracted students from various European countries from Norway to Hungary , who were offered propaedeutic courses with a view to studying at the Polytechnic.

From 1839 Möllinger was the editor of the popular education magazine Der Verbreiterischer charitable knowledge, printed in Solothurn by Franz Joseph Amatus Gassmann , until it was discontinued in 1849. From 1840 to 1844 he was also, together with Pompeius Bolley, editor of the Schweizerischer Gewerbeblattes . In 1855 Möllinger founded the Allgemeine Schweizer-Zeitung for industry, trade and commerce, housekeeping and agriculture in connection with an address and sample newspaper together with a general advertisement , which had to stop its publication after a year.

The natural scientist Franz Vinzenz Lang (1821–1899), also professor at the Solothurn grammar school from 1846 and its rector from 1872 to 1883 , paid tribute to Möllinger in an obituary with the words:

“Möllinger was a restlessly forward striving spirit who was able to immerse himself in a wide variety of fields of knowledge with tireless perseverance; in addition, he had a philanthropic character, which earned him the affection of all those who came into contact with him. You could perhaps reproach him for not having the necessary cleverness to appreciate and understand the living conditions from all sides, but his harmless disposition was based on the justice and goodness of humanity. "

- Franz Vinzenz Lang : Obituary in the "Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society"

"The God Idea of ​​the New Age"

With the publication of his little essay "The God Idea of ​​the New Age and the Necessary Expansion of Christianity in Six Lectures Developed from the Laws of the Natural Revelations of God", Möllinger, to his surprise, sparked an uproar in the canton of Solothurn and beyond in 1869. In it he represents a monistic - pantheistic doctrine of faith, according to which nature is the only revelation, and recognizes neither divine providence nor the immortality of the soul. Möllinger had chosen a particularly unfavorable time for his publication because the higher education institution was currently exposed to strong criticism from the Catholic-conservative side, for example because of the many pupils who had absented the obligatory attendance of the mass without excuse. As a result, Möllinger was particularly violently attacked by the Catholic Swiss Church newspaper , which portrayed his writing as the "eyesore of our century". The Protestant Johann Mollet , chief justice and former Governing Council , wrote a first Entgegnungsschrift. Under conservative pressure, the government of the canton of Solothurn finally gave in, although there was no legal basis for Möllinger's removal from office. Möllinger was given early retirement at full annual salary, which he described as “a substantially unjustified dismissal, which, however, was carried out in a very mild form”. When Möllinger had already been deposed, another reply from three professors of theology, including the future Bishop Friedrich Fiala , appeared under the title "Old Truths and Old Errors" . In the "Solothurner Briefe" by the strictly conservative Alois Johann Zürcher, also published in 1869 (as a special print from the Nidwalden Volksblatt in Stans ), a polemic against the liberal professors of the Solothurn school, Möllinger is ridiculed as "Höllinger". However, the man from Zurich , who appears under the pseudonym Hilarius Immergrün , is the only one of those attacked to have friendly words for Möllinger, describing him as "basically (in human terms) a good, morally pure soul".

Works (selection)

• Logarithmic auxiliary board, as a substitute for the English slide rule, for use by all kinds of workers ... Solothurn 1839.
• Instructions for the construction and use of the movable sky map with horizon, together with a detailed description of the individual constellations . Brodtmann, Schaffhausen 1840.
• Calculator's pocket book for mechanics, surveyors, foresters, pharmacists, merchants, technicians and tradespeople of all kinds . Jent & Gassmann, Solothurn 1842.
• The God Idea of ​​the New Age and the Necessary Development of Christianity . Developed in six lectures from the laws of the natural revelations of the Godhead. Publishing magazine, Zurich 1869.
• The inductive philosophy of force, as the basis for the development of the God idea . Reply to the speech given by Dr. V. Kaiser, professor of philosophy in Solothurn. KJ Wyss, Bern 1869.
• The cyclical administration system, or the answer to the question: How must gifts and legacies intended for humane and charitable purposes be administered in order to increase the financial resources of our charitable and non-profit institutions indefinitely? A contribution to solving the social question. Caesar Schmidt, Zurich 1879.

literature

• Hans R. Stampfli: Otto Möllinger, 1814–1886 . Teachers and scientists. In: Yearbook for Solothurn History . tape 65 . Historical Association of the Canton of Solothurn, Solothurn 1992, p. 5-105 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-325117 .
• Franz Lang: Professor Otto Möllinger . In: Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society in Frauenfeld . tape 70 , annual report 1886/87. Huber, Frauenfeld 1887, p. 162–166 ( e-periodica.ch [PDF; accessed on January 11, 2015]).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Stampfli, pp. 44-45.
2. ↑ Stampfli, pp. 10-11.
3. ↑ Stampfli, p. 78.
4. ↑ Stampfli, p. 8.
5. ↑ Stampfli, p. 37.
6. ↑ Stampfli, p. 38.
7. ^ Franz Lang: Professor Otto Möllinger . In: Negotiations of the Swiss Natural Research Society in Frauenfeld . tape 70 , annual report 1886/87. Huber, Frauenfeld 1887, p. 165 .
8. ↑ Stampfli, pp. 68-69.
9. ↑ Stampfli, p. 74.
10. ↑ Stampfli, p. 50.