Peter Johann Hecker

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Peter Johann Hecker, professor of mathematics

Peter Johann Hecker (born October 18, 1747 in Stargard in Pomerania , † September 17, 1835 in Rostock ) was a German mathematician and university professor.

Life

Peter Johann Hecker's father was Andreas Petrus Hecker , who was born in Werden on the Ruhr. He was the founder of the Stargarder Realschule in 1759, most recently archdeacon at the Stargarder Marienkirche and a brother of the school reformer Johann Julius Hecker . The school man and theologian Gotthilf Samuel Hecker was his brother.

Hecker grew up in Berlin with his uncle Johann Julius Hecker and from 1757 to 1764 attended the economics-mathematical secondary school founded by him, later the Königliche Friedrich-Wilhelm-Gymnasium . He studied from 1764 to 1767 at the University of Halle , where he devoted himself to theology, mathematics and physics. a. with Johann Andreas von Segner . From 1767 he worked in Berlin as a teacher of mathematics and physics at the first Prussian teacher training college attached to the aforementioned secondary school .

In 1775 he came to teach at the Pädagogium the Frederick University in Bützow . In 1778 he was appointed to the University of Bützow by Duke Friedrich von Mecklenburg as the successor to Wenzeslaus Johann Gustav Karsten . Although he had not yet received a PhD, he was made a full professor of mathematics. The required doctorate to PhD phil. did not take place until 1779 at the Philosophical Faculty in Bützow. During his work at the Bützow University he was its rector in 1780, 1783 and 1787 and dean in 1782/83.

After Duke Friedrich Franz I reunified the Universities of Rostock and Bützow in April 1789 , he was appointed ducal professor of mathematics in Rostock. During his time at Rostock University, he was dean of the Faculty of Philosophy several times and rector in 1799/1800 .

He held further administrative functions at both universities: from 1787 he was the head of the widows' fund for court and state servants, from 1796 to 1835 he was administrator of the professors' widows' fund and from 1797 to 1835 Inspector Stipendiorum et Convictorii. He conducted research on astronomy and meteorology. From 1788 to 1832 this brought him responsibility for the mathematical part of all Mecklenburg-Schwerin (state) calendars, which he supplemented with popular scientific articles for the population. In Rostock he was the overseer of the academic buildings, director of the observatory, co-head of the savings fund, from 1801 an honorary member of the Mecklenburg Natural Research Society and from 1817 of the Mecklenburg Patriotic Association and director of the Rostock Biblical Society.

Hecker provided the Rostock university and other stately buildings with lightning rods, something that his council professor colleague Gustav Schadeloock had already started at the Jakobikirche before him . He determined the latitude of Rostock (54 degrees, 5 minutes and 45 seconds) with a quadrant borrowed from Count Friedrich von Hahn from Remplin . In the years 1799/1800 he wrote a three-part work on the common presentation of the beginnings of the doctrine of the opposite quantities - the negative numbers.

On December 12, 1828, Hecker celebrated his 50th anniversary as a professor. On the occasion of this anniversary, Duke Friedrich Franz I. commissioned two gold and 50 silver medals of honor from Obermünzmeister Franz Anton Nübell. Professor Hecker received a gold copy worth 25 ducats. On September 17, 1835, Hecker died in Rostock, still in office and as a senior at the university (since 1823).

Peter Johann Hecker was a son-in-law of pastor Johann Herbold Plitt (1732-1807) in Neukirchen near Bützow, a promoter of Mecklenburg potato cultivation and known as the "potato pastor ". His brother-in-law was Heinrich Gustav Plitt , councilor of the Hanseatic city of Lübeck.

Fonts (selection)

  • Over the custody again the lightning. In: Scholarly contributions to the Mecklenburg-Schwerin news , 1780
  • How determines the size of that part of the surface of the earth which can be overlooked from a certain height, along with applications to some pleasure voyages hitherto undertaken. In: Scholarly contributions to the Mecklenburg-Schwerin news , 1785
  • About the usual presentation of the beginnings of the doctrine of opposite quantities. 3 volumes, Adlersche Officin, Rostock 1799/1800.
    ( Volume 1 - Volume 2 - Volume 3 - Digital copies, GDZ - University of Göttingen)

literature

  • Paul Falkenberg : The professors of the University of Rostock from 1600 to 1900. Manuscript, Rostock around 1900.
  • Wolfgang Engel: Peter Johann Hecker. In: Angela Hartwig, Tilmann Schmidt (ed.): The Rectors of the University of Rostock 1419–2000. In: Contributions to the history of the University of Rostock. Booklet 23, Universitätsdruckerei Rostock - Universitätsarchiv 2000. ISBN 3-86009-173-5 , p. 129.
  • Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 3957 f .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Doctorate: Dr. phil. or Magister:
    - In the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium Hecker's academic degree is awarded with “Doctorate 1779, Dr. phil., Univ. Bützow ” .
    - The Rostock matriculation portal calls the "Doctorate to Magister 29.03.1779, Univ. Bützow / Phil. Faculty " .
  2. ↑ Interactive catalog of Mecklenburg coins and medals
  3. ↑ Grete Grewolls: Who was who in Mecklenburg and Western Pomerania. The dictionary of persons . Hinstorff Verlag, Rostock 2011, ISBN 978-3-356-01301-6 , p. 7664 .
  4. ^ Entry in the Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium.
personal data
SURNAME Hecker, Peter Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mathematician and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1747
PLACE OF BIRTH Stargard in Pomerania
DATE OF DEATH September 17, 1835
Place of death Rostock