Paul Sarasin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Sarasin-Hohenester (1856–1929), Dr. phil., naturalist, explorer, versatile author. Dr. hc of the Univ. Basel and Lausanne, family grave in the Hörnli cemetery, Riehen, Basel-Stadt
Family grave in the Hörnli cemetery , Riehen, Basel-Stadt
Fritz and Paul Sarasin during their expedition to Celebes

Paul Benedict Sarasin (born December 11, 1856 in Basel ; † April 7, 1929 there ) was a Swiss naturalist. He is considered a co-founder of the Swiss National Park .

Life

Paul Sarasin was the son of Karl Sarasin . After completing primary and secondary school in Basel, he studied medicine at the University of Basel . After the first preparatory course , he moved to Würzburg to the institute of the zoology professor Karl Semper . There he devoted himself to zoological studies and received his doctorate in 1882 with a dissertation on the development history of the water snail Bithynia tentaculata . During his student days he became a member of the Swiss Zofinger Association .

From 1883 to 1886, Paul Sarasin and his great-cousin (second cousin) Fritz Sarasin went on a trip to British Ceylon to do zoological and anthropological field research. For the next six years they lived in Berlin and evaluated the collected material there. They were funded by the Geography Society there under Ferdinand von Richthofen and the Anthropological-Ethnological Society under Rudolf Virchow . In 1889 they traveled with Leopold Rütimeyer to do ethnological research in Egypt and the Sinai . In 1891 Sarasin was elected a member of the Leopoldina . From 1893 to 1896 they went to Celebes . They were doing geographical and geological work in a largely unexplored area. The results of this and a second research trip between 1902 and 1903 were published in a five-volume work. In 1907 they made another trip to Ceylon.

In 1896 they returned to Basel and continued their common living and working community. In the mansion Faesch house at the Spitalstrasse 22 they had on three floors enough space for their extensive collection holdings. Her house soon became the center of scientific life in Switzerland. Both rose to become the most influential natural scientists in Switzerland. Awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Basel and Geneva, as well as the highest scientific awards from Germany and the Netherlands. The Carl-Ritter-Medal of the Berlin Geography Society was one of the two most important scientific awards . Thanks to their wealth, they were able to publish great scientific works, which in turn expanded their reputation as natural scientists.

In 1906, on the occasion of the annual meeting of the Swiss Natural Research Society (today SCNAT ), a nature conservation commission was founded in St. Gallen . Sarasin was President of the Commission. At the international zoological congress in Graz in 1910 , he presented the idea for a "world nature conservation" for the first time. Sarasin was able to persuade the Swiss Federal Council to invite delegates from 17 “white” countries to an International Conference for World Conservation in Bern . Sarasin was elected by the conference as chairman of the commission based in Basel, which was set up only with very limited powers. Alongside Johann Wilhelm Coaz , he is one of the pioneers of the national park idea . As President of the Nature Conservation Commission, he proposed the establishment of the national park, to which the Federal Assembly granted a federal guarantee in 1914. Sarasin's demand to include the protection of " primitive peoples " in the field of activity also failed. The outbreak of World War I threw international nature conservation back decades until the IUCN was founded in 1948.

Paul and Fritz Sarasin had a lifelong friendship and cooperation. Paul married Marie Hohenester (1881–1940) in 1918 at the age of 62 and had two children with her.

Increasing health problems forced Paul Sarasin to withdraw into private life. On April 7, 1929, at the age of 72, he died of pneumonia .

Awards and prizes (selection)

literature

  • Bernhard C. Schär: love for the tropics. Swiss natural scientist and Dutch imperialism in Southeast Asia around 1900. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-593-50287-8 .
  • Eduard His : Basel scholars of the 19th century. Benno Schwabe, Basel 1941, pp. 364–372.
  • Christian Simon : traveling, collecting and researching. The Basel natural historians Paul and Fritz Sarasin. Schwabe Verlag, Basel, 2015, ISBN 978-3-7965-3386-0 .

Web links

Wikisource: Paul Sarasin  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ^ National Park - Brief Portrait - Historical ( Memento of July 14, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Website of the Swiss National Park. Retrieved August 24, 2015.
  2. ↑ Bernard C. Schär: Tropical love. Swiss natural scientist and Dutch imperialism in Southeast Asia around 1900. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-593-50287-8 , pp. 44–46.
  3. ^ Eduard His : Basel scholars of the 19th century. Benno Schwabe, Basel 1941, p. 366.
  4. ^ Eduard His: Basel scholars of the 19th century. Benno Schwabe, Basel 1941, p. 367.
  5. ↑ a b c Patrick Kupper: Stop the zeal for destruction. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , November 16, 2013, p. 31.
  6. ↑ Bernhard C. Schär: Tropical love. Swiss natural scientist and Dutch imperialism in Southeast Asia around 1900. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-593-50287-8 , p. 42ff.
  7. ↑ Bernhard C. Schär: Tropical love. Swiss natural scientists and Dutch imperialism in Southeast Asia around 1900. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2015, ISBN 978-3-593-50287-8 , p. 58.
personal data
SURNAME Sarasin, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sarasin, Paul Benedict
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss naturalist
DATE OF BIRTH December 11, 1856
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH April 7, 1929
Place of death Basel