Paul W. Thomson

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Paul William Thomson (born December 22, 1891 at Reval ; † December 13, 1957 in Bonn ) was a German paleobotanist and paleynologist , known for lignite research . Its official botanical author abbreviation is " PWThomson ".

Paul W. Thomson, around 1930

Life

Thomson was a son of Konstantin Adolph Thomson, Protestant pastor and provost (dates: December 9, 1865 - March 15, 1938) and Meta Helene, née Wieckmann (February 20, 1866 to January 10, 1948).

After studying natural sciences and completing his doctorate, he was a teacher in Estonia and then headed the bog research station in Tooma. He was also a private lecturer in palaeobotany and peatland geology in Dorpat . Afterwards he was an adjunct professor in Königsberg and from 1941 during the Second World War he was a full professor at the University of Posen .

During the German conquest of the Soviet Union, Thomson drove book robberies from the main office on behalf of the ERR . He was the head of the ERR's "Special Science Unit" in Ukraine, spoke the language and was previously director of a "Geological-Paleontological Institute" in Poznan. He plundered various public collections of the mining academy in Dnepropetrovsk and in this city as a whole, from paleontology , mineralogy and geology , confiscated books and fossils, also from scientists in the city, for the National Socialists . He "secured" over 400,000 volumes there, as the Nazi euphemism for book theft was called. In addition to the subject-related books, from 1943 onwards Thomson also stole specialist humanities literature on history, Bolshevism , communism and Judaism .

In October 1942 Thomson complained in writing about undifferentiated killings, public abuse, etc. of Ukrainians by the Germans. This would only drive the natives into the hands of Bolshevism. He looked at the Ukrainians mentally like children, they just have to be properly supplied with propaganda, then they would believe everything. The IMT , International Military Tribunal in Nuremberg used the letter as Document 303-PS on German war crimes. Thomson said:

“ We can break a Polish or Czech question over our knees, the biological powers of our people are sufficient. National splinters like the Estonians , Latvians or Lithuanians have to adapt to us or they perish. Things are completely different in the huge Russian area, which we urgently need as a raw material base "

- Thomson, October 19, 1942

After 1945 he worked as a gardener in the alpine garden on the Patscherkofel in Innsbruck and mapped as a geologist in Oldenburg before heading the brown coal research center of the State Office for Soil Research of North Rhine-Westphalia, which was located in the Liblar lignite mine . After his retirement he was visiting professor in Bonn .

He published first on the forest history of Estonia (analyzing pollen from the local moors) and on the flora of the Devonian in Estonia. He turned to brown coal in Posen. In 1953 his atlas of the spores and pollen in the Central European tertiary brown coals was created with his student Hans D. Pflug . But he also dealt with the Devonian with a publication on spores and pollen from the Devonian in 1952 and the upheaval of vegetation from the lower to the middle Devonian that was evident from it.

Regarding the angiosperm problem (sudden appearance of angiosperms in the chalk), he took the view that this was due to the fact that in the Jura they did not grow near bogs and bodies of water and only penetrated there in the lower chalk. He also dealt with inferences from the spore and pollen findings on the climate in the Tertiary and its fluctuations.

His students include Hans D. Pflug (* 1935), Hilde Grebe and Gerhard Kremp . Thomson was married to Mary, née Grube (born April 20, 1899 in St. Petersburg ).

Fonts

  • The regional development history of Estonia's forests. Acta et Comm. Univ. Tartuensis (Dorpatiensis), A, 17.2, Dorpat 1929
  • The formation of coal seams based on micropalaeontological investigations of the main seam of the Rhenish lignite, in: Braunkohle, Wärme und Energie 2, 1950, 39–43
  • with H. Pflug: For the fine stratigraphic investigation of brown coal seams, Geolog. Yearbook 66, 1950, 559-576
  • with Robert Potonié , F. Thiergart: On the nomenclature and classification of the neogene Sporomorphae (pollen and spores), Geologisches Jahrbuch, 65, for 1949, Hanover 1951, pp. 35–69
  • Basic information on the tertiary pollen and spore stratigraphy based on an investigation of the main seam of the Rhenish lignite in Liblar, Neurath, Fortuna and Brühl. (On the geology of the Rhenish lignite 5), Geologisches Jahrbuch, 65, for the year 1949, Hanover 1951, pp. 113-126
  • Contribution to the knowledge of the sporomorphic flora of the Lower and Middle Devonian. Paläontologische Zeitschrift 25, 1952, pp. 155–159
  • Short-term and long-term vegetation changes in the Tertiary and their paleoclimatic interpretations, Geologische Rundschau, 40, 1952, 92–94
  • with H. Pflug, pollen and spores of the Central European Tertiary, Palaeontographica B, 94, 1953, pp. 1–138

literature

  • Ulrich Horst, Obituary, in "Paläontologische Zeitschrift", 35, 1961, pp. 235–241

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Spelling variants Viikmann, Vieckmann
  2. ^ Full text , dissertation University of Gießen , 2014, by Nazarii Gutsul. Thomson (without professor title) with 38 mentions in the text, here especially p. 215 f.
  3. ↑ a b Volume 25 IMT, p. 342 ff. Trial of the main German war criminals, November 1945 - October 1946, Nuremberg 1947. Thomson calls his letter "Political Report".
  4. ↑ The emergence and spread of angiosperms in the mesophytic . Paläontologische Zeitschrift, 27, 1953, pp. 47-51.
personal data
SURNAME Thomson, Paul W.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomson, Paul William (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German paleobotanist and paleynologist, lignite researcher
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH near Reval , Russian Empire
DATE OF DEATH December 13, 1957
Place of death Bonn