Robert Schwinner

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Robert Gangolf Schwinner (born May 11, 1878 in Ottenschlag (Lower Austria) , † November 10, 1953 in Graz ) was an Austrian geologist and geophysicist.

Life

After finishing high school and doing military service, Schwinner began studying engineering in Vienna, but switched to studying mathematics and physics at the University of Vienna, Jena and Munich. During his studies in 1899 he became a member of the Vienna academic fraternity Bruna Sudetia . He had to interrupt his studies for three years due to illness and then continued it with a focus on meteorology in Vienna and then studied geology and mineralogy. In 1911 he received his doctorate in geology in Zurich. There he was a student of Arnold Heim and Paul Arbenz . He was drafted in the First World War, worked as a war geologist on the Italian front from 1915 to 1918 and completed his habilitation during a leave from the front in Graz, where he was a private lecturer in 1917. In 1919 he became an assistant at the Geological Institute in Graz, in 1923 an associate professor with a teaching position in physical geology (although he still had to fulfill assistant duties until 1940). He also taught geophysics. In 1946 he retired.

plant

Schwinner tried to reconstruct the pre-alpine tectonics of the Alps, first the Variscan paleozoic ceiling structure near Graz, later in the crystalline areas of the entire Alps. In addition, he tried to combine geological and geophysical considerations (such as gravity measurements, heat balance, isostasis , deep earthquakes, eustatic sea level fluctuations). That went up to astrophysical investigations (moon, sun). According to Metz's obituary, his writings show his temperament and critical streak.

Of importance is his theory of thermally induced convection currents in the earth's mantle, which he established in 1919 and which Alfred Wegener assumed in the 4th edition of his book on continental drift (The Origin of the Continents and Oceans) as a possible cause of this, similar to today's ideas Causes of plate tectonics . Strangely enough, both taught at the same time in Graz at the same time without any closer contact.

He published a three-volume textbook on physical geology, of which only the first volume appeared (volume 2 was supposed to deal with static geology and volume 3 with dynamic geology). The manuscript of the second volume was considered lost for a long time, but was found in the Geological Institute in Graz in 2007.

Fonts (selection)

  • Volcanism and mountain building. An attempt, Zeitschrift für Vulkanologie, Volume 5, 1920, pp 175-230
  • About the shape of the earth, Z. Geophysik, Volume 2, 1926, pp: 213-216.
  • For the utilization of severe disturbances for tectonic geology, Z. Geophysik, Volume 2, 1926, pp. 126-132.
  • For isostatic compensation of the edge depressions of the chain mountains, Geologische Rundschau, Volume 17, 1926, pp. 268–274.
  • Astrophysical basics of geology, communications from geol. Ges., Vienna, Volume 19, 1926, pp. 140-149.
  • Crystallization and directed pressure, Tschermaks Mineralogisch-Petrologische Mitteilungen, Volume 37, 1926, pp. 219-235
  • Textbook of physical geology, volume 1: The earth as a heavenly body, Berlin: Gebrüder Bornträger 1932
  • The problem of isostasy, Geologische Rundschau, Volume 29, 1938, pp. 1–26
  • Eustatic sea level fluctuations - today due to climate change?, Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, 1942, pp. 52–53.
  • About the heat balance of the globe, Gerland's contributions to geophysics, Volume 58, 1942, pp. 234-296
  • The bright ray systems of the moon, geological interpreted, Astronomische Nachrichten, Volume 274, 1944, pp. 137-139
  • The large fields of the earth's crust, laid out as cells of the Benardian current, meeting reports Akad. Wiss. Vienna, Math.-Naturwiss. Class, Volume 156, 1947, pp. 441-455
  • Homologies and analogies in the tectonics of the Eastern Alps, Jahrbuch Geolog. Bundesanstalt, Vienna, Volume 90, 1945, pp. 95–115
  • The central zone of the Eastern Alps, in FX Schaffer (Ed.), Geologie von Österreich, 1951, pp. 105–232 (he also wrote the corresponding section for FX Schaffer, Geologie der Ostmark 1939)

literature

  • Bernhard Hubmann : Robert Schwinner (1878–1953) and his textbook on physical geology, reports from the Federal Geological Institute, Volume 78, 2008, p. 43, pdf
  • Karl Metz : Univ.-Prof. Dr. Robert Schwinner, natural scientist. Association f. Steiermark, Volume 84, 1953, pp. 7-14, pdf (with list of publications)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Directory of the old men of the German fraternity. Überlingen am Bodensee 1920, p. 245.
  2. ^ Title associate professor, appointed in 1929 with full remuneration
  3. ↑ Christine Reinke-Kunze, Alfred Wegener, Birkhäuser 1994, p. 70
  4. ↑ Reinke-Kunze, p. 173
personal data
SURNAME Schwinner, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Schwinner, Robert Gangolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian geologist and geophysicist
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Ottenschlag (Lower Austria)
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1953
Place of death Graz