Richard Gehenn

Richard Otto Gehenn (born May 9, 1916 in Hagenau ; † after 1962) was a French-born German geologist .

Life

Richard Otto Gehenn grew up in Hagenau and attended the Lyceum in Hagenau until 1936. From November 1936 to June 1939 he studied mineralogy, botany and geology at the University of Strasbourg . In September 1939 he was drafted into the French army, wounded in fighting against the Wehrmacht near Lilles on May 31, 1940, and discharged from military service at the end of August 1940.

From the winter semester 1940 until March 1942 he studied at the University of Heidelberg . His prepared diploma thesis on the Eocene from Cernay near Reims he was unable to carry out because of an entry ban imposed by the Wehrmacht High Command and therefore spent the last two semesters 1941–1942 as an assistant at the Geological Institute. At the end of March 1942, he signed up as a volunteer for the Wehrmacht. After military operations in Bosnia and in the retreat from Saarbrücken to Heilbronn, Richard Gehenn was taken prisoner on April 4, 1945, from which he was released in October 1945.

After returning to Alsace, Richard Gehenn was interned by the French authorities for collaboration near Strasbourg and sentenced in April 1946 by a special court to two years in prison and 10 years of national unworthiness. On February 8, 1948, after serving his sentence, he was released from prison. Further study in France was not possible due to national unworthiness. Richard Gehenn therefore worked as an office worker in Reichshofen until May 1953 .

Since all attempts to find a job related to geology in France were refused, Richard Gehenn fled to Germany in June 1953 and immediately began preparing for his dissertation at the Geological Institute of Heidelberg University. In August 1953 he received German citizenship. In March 1955, his French nationality was revoked at his request.

In 1962 Richard Otto Gehenn was able to submit his inaugural dissertation at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität zu Heidelberg with Wilhelm Simon (speaker) and Arno Schüller (co- speaker) . He managed to improve the fine stratigraphy of the Upper Buntsandstein significantly by recognizing new, far-reaching leading horizons .

The detailed palaeontological and stratigraphic processing of the fossil finds made during his profile recordings in 1957, which was intended according to his preliminary communication from 1959, could no longer be realized by Richard Gehenn himself.

His collection material is kept in the collections of the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. The limulides he found "west of Dallau" were scientifically processed by Norbert Hauschke and Volker Wilde in 2008.

Fossil fish from the upper red sandstone from the Karlsruhe-Durlach site were processed in 1969 and 1970 by Erwin Jörg . Richard Gehenn's collection material deposited in Heidelberg and his dissertation were not taken into account.

Fonts

• Remarkable and rich fish and arthropod finds in the Upper Buntsandstein in southern Germany (on the right bank of the Rhine). In: New year book for geology and palaeontology, monthly books, Stuttgart 1959, pp. 521-522
• Fine stratigraphic investigations in the upper red sandstone of the Kraichgau border. 98 + 123 p., 27 ills., Heidelberg 1962 (inaugural dissertation)

literature

• Richard Otto Gehenn's curriculum vitae. In: Fine stratigraphic investigations in the Upper Buntsandstein of the Kraichgau border. Heidelberg 1962, pp. 99-100 (inaugural dissertation)
• Norbert Hauschke & Volker Wilde: Limulides from the Upper Buntsandstein of southern Germany. In: Hallesches Jahrb. Geowiss., 30, Halle 2008, pp. 21–26