Richard Baldauf

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Richard Julius Baldauf (* 9. March 1848 in Chemnitz , † 28. April 1931 in Dresden ) was a German mining engineer , entrepreneur , patron and minerals - collector .

Life

From 1864 to 1869 Richard Baldauf studied mining at the Bergakademie Freiberg . In 1870 he traveled to the Laurion silver mines and the Kola Peninsula . In 1871 he worked for a short time in the Planitz coal mine , after which he worked as a senior mining engineer in the Oelsnitz coal mine “Frisch Glück” (1871–1874) and as a mountain administrator at the Hänichener Steinkohlenbauverein (1874–1876). In 1875 he married the one in Oelsnitz / Erzgeb. born Rosalie Rudolph (1855-1918). This marriage resulted in three children.

In 1877 Baldauf traveled to Bear Island to inspect old ore mines. In 1878 he became a corresponding member of the Natural Science Society ISIS Dresden .

In the same year the family moved to north-west Bohemia, and Richard Baldauf took a job as a mountain administrator in the "Eintrachtschacht" in Krinsdorf (Křižanov) near the monastery grave . In 1880 he became director of the Richard Hartmann shafts in Ladowitz . Baldauf, who himself came from a humble background, was heavily involved in social institutions. He created soup kitchens, took good security precautions and gave the workers Christmas presents.

In 1891 he and his brother-in-law Hermann Rudolph founded the Baldauf-Rudolph lignite works in Sobrusan . In order to extract the coal, the village of Sobrusan with a church, two schools, a cemetery, 40 houses and farms were demolished a few years later and rebuilt 1.5 km away.

Richard Baldauf moved to Dresden with his wife in 1904. He had largely entrusted the management of his companies in Bohemia to his son Martin (1879–1967), so in the following years he was able to devote himself increasingly to collecting and scientifically exploring minerals. He sought contact with Ernst Kalkowsky , the head of the State Mineralogical-Geological Museum in Dresden, as well as with the Freiberg professors Richard Beck and Friedrich Schumacher, with whom he maintained a lively exchange of ideas. Travels led him a. a. to Spain (1907, 1909, 1926), South America (1912), Greenland and Iceland (1908). In 1907 he gave his son a longer stay in England and the USA: Martin Baldauf brought 42 boxes of valuable minerals for his father.

One of Baldauf's particular merits was the support of geoscientific institutions in Saxony. He made it possible for the Dresden Museum of Mineralogy and Geology, the Geological Institute of the TH Dresden and the Bergakademie Freiberg to purchase valuable minerals and scientific instruments, and he also supported talented students and young scientists. In 1914, in memory of his daughter Marianne (1887–1901), who died early, he founded the “Marianne Baldauf Children's Foundation” to support sick children in need of recuperation in the Dux district .

In 1916 Richard Baldauf declared his private collection in his Dresden villa to be a public museum, in which he presented his mineral specimens free of charge. In 1922 he published a guide to the public mineralogical museum . Soonauf had the idea of ​​bequeathing his museum with 10,000 exhibits to the Saxon state, but a financial hardship caused by the global economic crisis made him refrain from doing so. Despite numerous sales negotiations, Baldaufs Museum remained in the family's possession until 1939, after which the villa was sold and the collection was sold to the Museum of Mineralogy and Geology in Dresden for 250,000 Reichsmarks. Both Baldauf's Dresden villa at Geinitzstrasse 5 and the family's later residence at Comeniusstrasse 59 were destroyed in the air raids on Dresden on February 13, 1945 . Baldauf's collection survived the Second World War without damage.

Richard Baldauf died on April 28, 1931 in Dresden. His grave is in the Johannisfriedhof in Dresden-Tolkewitz .

Honors (selection)

  • Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Order of Albrecht (without crown) (1910)
  • Honorary doctorate from TH Dresden (1917)
  • Richard Beck named a fossilized fern Protothamnopteris Baldaufi in 1922.
  • Honorary Senator of the Bergakademie Freiberg (1922)
  • Honorary Senator of the Dresden University of Technology (1924)
  • Honorary member of the Natural Science Society ISIS Dresden
  • A mineral was named Baldaufit in his honor in 1925 . However, the mineralogist Hugo Strunz found out that this mineral was already known under the name Hureaulite .

Publications (selection)

  • About an expedition to the Arctic Ocean and the White Sea . In: Meeting reports of the Isis Natural Science Society in Dresden . 1878, pp. 176-177
  • The fossils leading crystalline slate from Bergen in Norway (ed. Leipzig, 1883)
  • Guide to the Public Mineralogical Museum (Dresden, 1922)

literature

  • C. Schiffner: From the life of old Freiberg mountain students . E. Maukisch, Freiberg 1935, pp. 341-343.
  • Hans Prescher : The mineralogist and collector Richard Baldauf (1848-1931) life and work . In: Local history sheets of the Dresden district . 1956 / H. 10/11, pp. 91-93.
  • Martin Baldauf: Dr. Richard Baldauf (1848-1931). Its importance for mineralogy . In: Yearbook of the State Museum for Mineralogy and Geology in Dresden . 1956/57, pp. 116-237.
  • Martin Henglein: A great mineral collector. Richard Baldauf Museum in Dresden . In: The opening . 9/1958, pp. 328-333, ISSN  0004-7856 .
  • Christel Hebig: A patron of science. Reminiscence of the Saxon upper mountain ridge Richard Julius Baldauf. In: Sächsische Heimatblätter . 44/1998/6, pp. 395-397.
  • Mareen Czekalla, Klaus Thalheim: The Richard Baldauf Collection (1848-1931) and its relation to Austria (PDF; 358 kB).
  • Mareen Czekalla: Scientific historical and mineralogical studies on the mineral collection of Dr. Richard Baldauf (1848-1931). TU Dresden, Diss., 2011 ( online edition ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Baldauf: Dr. Richard Baldauf (1848-1931). Its importance for mineralogy . In: Yearbook of the State Museum for Mineralogy and Geology in Dresden . 1956/57, p. 121.
  2. ↑ Martin Baldauf: Dr. Richard Baldauf (1848-1931). Its importance for mineralogy . In: Yearbook of the State Museum for Mineralogy and Geology in Dresden . 1956/57, p. 122.
  3. ↑ Hans Prescher : The mineralogist and collector Richard Baldauf (1848-1931) life and work . In: Local history sheets of the Dresden district . 1956 / H. 10/11, p. 92
  4. ↑ Martin Baldauf: Dr. Richard Baldauf (1848-1931). Its importance for mineralogy . In: Yearbook of the State Museum for Mineralogy and Geology in Dresden . 1956/57, p. 121.
  5. ↑ Martin Baldauf: Dr. Richard Baldauf (1848-1931). Its importance for mineralogy . In: Yearbook of the State Museum for Mineralogy and Geology in Dresden . 1956/57, p. 128.
  6. ↑ http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:14-qucosa-83726 , pp. 75-76
personal data
SURNAME Soon, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Soon, Richard Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German mining engineer, entrepreneur, patron and mineral collector
DATE OF BIRTH March 9, 1848
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH April 28, 1931
Place of death Dresden