Paul Menzel

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Paul Julius Menzel (born April 27, 1864 in Dresden ; † April 2, 1927 there ) was a German medical councilor and paleobotanist . He published under the abbreviation "PJ Menzel", his official botanical author abbreviation is " Menzel ".

Life

Paul Menzel saw the light of day in Dresden as the son of the superintendent at the military mount depot Friedrich Julius Menzel. After studying medicine at the Universities of Greifswald and Leipzig, Menzel received his doctorate in Leipzig in the field of psychiatry. med. Menzel worked between 1889 and 1898 as a country doctor in Hainitz near Bautzen , where he also married. The marriage had three children, including Heinrich Menzel , who later became the silicate chemist .

In 1898 Menzel worked as an ear, nose and throat doctor in Dresden. He got involved in the expansion of the aid stations and medical teams of the Samaritan Association and the Red Cross in Dresden. In 1908 he was awarded the title of Medical Councilor for his commitment. During the First World War he volunteered as head of a hospital train and was appointed senior physician . Menzel fell ill with oral cancer in 1922 and died as a result of the disease in 1927.

Act

Menzel is considered to be an "important Dresden paleobotanist of the late 19th and early 20th centuries". Menzel had already dealt with the flora of Lusatia in his youth and established contacts with experts in the field of geology and botany . After his death in 1918, he honored his teacher Hermann Engelhardt with the posthumous publication of the text The old tertiary flora of Messel near Darmstadt .

In 1894 Menzel became a member of the natural science society "Isis" in Dresden, after he had already become a member of the Bautzner Verein. He was also a member of the Society for Nature and Medicine. From 1897 to 1898 he headed the Isis Natural Science Society in Bautzen , which made him an honorary member after he left for Dresden. From 1912 he was head of the botanical department of the Dresden Isis seven times.

The main focus of his paleobotanical research was the Central European tertiary and lignite flora, on which he wrote numerous essays in treatises of Isis. Among other things, he examined herbal compositions in Bohemia and in the Senftenberg lignite depot. Contemporaries he was considered the "first specialist in his field", so that museums and the Prussian geological institute commissioned him to determine the tertiary plant finds that had been sent to him. Menzel's publications on Altenburg findings were still published in 1927.

Its large collection of fossil plants is important. After his death, the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology Dresden acquired “11,000 pieces from the tertiary formation of Northern Bohemia”, which made up a large part of the collection. A leaf herbarium that Menzel had created to determine fossil leaf shapes went to Berlin-Dahlem. The Senftenberg lignite museum took over the tertiary plant finds from Central Germany as well as Menzel's large library on tertiary flora, which contemporaries considered "probably the most complete compilation of this area".

Isis paid tribute to him on the occasion of his death in 1927:

“The fact that a general practitioner is active as a researcher in a field unrelated to his occupation can be praised as something special, and it is to be assumed that Menzel's name as a palaeontologist will be mentioned for a long time when the thousands who do the Have enjoyed the benefits of his medical help, are no longer alive. "

- Isis, 1927

Honor

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Menzel the Linné Medal in gold around 1920. In doing so, she paid tribute to Menzel's second work on the Cameroonian tertiary flora, for which Menzel had mainly evaluated material in the Academy's possession since 1909.

Works (selection)

  • 1896: Contribution to the knowledge of the cryptogam flora of Bautzen's surroundings. Festschrift of the "Isis"
  • 1900: The gymnosperms of the North Bohemian lignite formation (in: Isis )
  • 1903: About the flora of the plastic clays of Preschen and Langaujezd near Bilin (in: Isis )
  • 1906: About the flora of the Senftenberg brown coal deposits
  • 1908: Fossil conifers from the chalk and lignite formation of northern Bohemia (in: Isis )
  • 1913: Contribution to the flora of the Lower Rhine lignite formation (special print)
  • 1914: Contribution to the knowledge of the tertiary flora from the area of ​​the Vierwaldstätter See (with Ernst Baumberger )
  • 1920: About plant remains from basalt tuffs in the Kamern area
  • 1921: About Hessian fossil plant remains (special print)

literature

  • Menzel, Paul (Julius) . In: Jan-Peter Frahm, Jens Eggers (Ed.): Lexicon of German-speaking bryologists . Volume 2. BoD, Norderstedt 2001, p. 315.
  • Ernst Lohrmann: Paul Menzel † . In: Reports of meetings and treatises of the Isis Natural Science Society in Dresden. Born in 1927 and 1928 . H. Burdach, Dresden 1929, pp. V – IX.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E. Lohrmann: Paul Menzel † . In: Reports of meetings and treatises of the Isis Natural Science Society in Dresden. Born in 1927 and 1928 . H. Burdach, Dresden 1929, SV
  2. ↑ German Botanical Society: Reports . Volume 45, 1927, p. 219.
  3. ↑ a b See senckenberg.de
  4. ^ E. Lohrmann: Paul Menzel † . In: Reports of meetings and treatises of the Isis Natural Science Society in Dresden. Born in 1927 and 1928 . H. Burdach, Dresden 1929, p. VIII.
  5. ^ E. Lohrmann: Paul Menzel † . In: Reports of meetings and treatises of the Isis Natural Science Society in Dresden. Born in 1927 and 1928 . H. Burdach, Dresden 1929, p. VI.
  6. ^ E. Lohrmann: Paul Menzel † . In: Reports of meetings and treatises of the Isis Natural Science Society in Dresden. Born in 1927 and 1928 . H. Burdach, Dresden 1929, SV
personal data
SURNAME Menzel, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Menzel, Paul Julius (full name); Menzel (botanical author abbreviation)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paleobotanist
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Dresden
DATE OF DEATH April 2, 1927
Place of death Dresden