Otto Retowski

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Otto Ferdinandowitsch Retowski ( Russian Отто Фердинандович Ретовский ; born November 30, 1849 in Danzig ; † December 29, 1925 in Leningrad ) was a Prussian - Russian entomologist and numismatist .

Life

Retowski came from a noble family and received his initial education at home. He then attended the Johannisschule secondary school in Danzig- Langfuhr , graduating in 1865, in order to then enter the final class of the humanistic grammar school. In 1868 he was accepted into the University of Königsberg . He studied natural history to become a zoologist . At the beginning of the Franco-German War , which he took part in as a translator, Retowski had to interrupt his studies.

Anadrymadusa retowskii , male, from Koktebel

When Retowski did not receive a scholarship for further studies in 1872, he broke off his studies and emigrated to Russia , where he was given the position of tutor in the family of a German manufacturer in the Podolia governorate . After passing the 1874 exam in Odessa , he was approved as a high school teacher for German . In 1875 he became a high school teacher for German in Feodosiya . In 1887 Retowski took on Russian citizenship.

In addition to his teaching activities, Retowski was a versatile natural scientist . He put together a valuable collection of Crimean beetles and locusts . One of the relic and endemic species of Crimea, the locust species Anadrymadusa retowskii (Adelung, 1907), was named after Retowski . He donated a large entomological collection to the Tauride Museum of Natural History in Simferopol . He also set up a herbarium and a mineral collection for the Crimea . In 1884 he carried out an expedition to Abkhazia and the Kuban region on behalf of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research . In 1888 a large expedition followed along the north coast of Asia Minor .

In addition, Retowski was enthusiastic about the history and archeology of Crimea and especially numismatics . He built a rich collection of old Crimean coins . He examined the coins extremely carefully, also with regard to their historical background, so that his resulting publications, for example on the coins of Caffa, are of high scientific value. In 1884 he took part on VI. Attended Archaeological Congress in Odessa.

In 1878 Retowski became part-time director of the Museum of Antiquities in Feodosia. He was constantly completing the collections. He ensured that the museum was financially better equipped and that the monuments were preserved. He was associated with the Odessa Society of History and Antiquities and other scholars. He wrote a description of the museum and described the Genoese inscriptions. He collected fossils in Feodossia's surroundings and in 1893 published his important article on the tithonium of this region.

1900 Retowski following a recommendation from Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich of St. Petersburg to the Hermitage appointed where he succeeded the late Julius Iversen curator was the coins. Retowski donated his fossil collection to the Geological Museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences . In the Hermitage he arranged the important collection of medals and cataloged the Baltic coins. He represented the Hermitage at the 3rd International Congress for Numismatics, Sphragistics and Medal Art in 1910 in Brussels . The comprehensive work planned together with Alexei Konstantinowitsch Markow on the coins of the northern Black Sea region ( Corpus nummorum orae septentrionalis Ponti Euxini ) could not be completed after the October Revolution . In 1924 Retowski left the service at the Hermitage for reasons of age.

Retowski's grave in St. Petersburg's Novodevichy Cemetery has not been preserved.

Memberships

Honors

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Richard Vasmer : Otto Retowski . In: Journal of Numismatics . tape XXXVI , 1926, pp. 289–293 ( numismatics.org [PDF; accessed October 29, 2018]).
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h В.В. Аркадьев: Ретовский Отто Фердинандович (accessed October 28, 2018).
  3. ↑ species Anadrymadusa (Anadrymadusa) retowskii (Adelung, 1907) (accessed October 29, 2018).
  4. ↑ The Tithonic Deposits of Theodosia. A contribution to the paleontology of the Crimea. In: Bulletin de la Société Impériale des Naturalistes de Moscou. NS Vol. 7, 1893, ZDB -ID 160218-4 , pp. 206-301 .
personal data
SURNAME Retowski, Otto
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Retowski, Otto Ferdinandowitsch (full name); Ретовский, Отто Фердинандович (Russian)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian-Russian entomologist and numismatist
DATE OF BIRTH November 30, 1849
PLACE OF BIRTH Danzig
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 1925
Place of death Leningrad