Rudolf Richter (geoscientist)

Carl Albert Rudolf Richter (born November 7, 1881 in Glatz , County Glatz , Province of Silesia ; † January 5, 1957 in Frankfurt am Main ) was a German paleontologist and director of the Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt am Main.

Family and education

Albert Richter was a son of the doctor Paul Richter, who resided in Glatz, whose family originally came from Salzburg , and his wife Ottillie Steinhauss (* 1859), who came from a family of Hessian theologians and lawyers. His younger brother Hans was later among others prosecutor .

Rudolf Richter studied geology and natural sciences at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and the Philipps University in Marburg from 1900 to 1904 , completed teaching exams and legal clerkship and did his military service before becoming an assistant to Emanuel Kayser in Marburg . In 1908 he did his doctorate there on trilobites from the Devonian of the Rhineland.

Rudolf Richter was married to Emma Richter , née Hüther, (1888–1956) since 1913 . They had a daughter who was born in 1924.

Career

Rudolf Richter became a teacher in Frankfurt am Main and initially worked there on a voluntary basis for the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research . During the First World War he was an officer and military geologist.

In 1920 he completed his habilitation in geology and paleontology at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main . Here he was associate professor from 1925 and full professor of geology and palaeontology from 1934 as the successor to Fritz Drevermann , which he remained until his retirement . He made the career leap with the help of the National Socialists , whose leadership principle he enforced in Senckenberg. Then he increasingly turned away from National Socialism. In order to disguise his entanglement with National Socialism, he forged the "reports in the advisory board meetings [of the Senckenberg Research Institute ] from 1933 to 1944" in his favor after the Second World War . Rudolf Richter headed the Geological Institute until 1952 after his retirement.

In 1932 he became managing director of the Senckenberg Society for Nature Research. From 1934 to 1946 he was director of the Senckenberg Nature Museum in Frankfurt am Main. He performed both offices on a voluntary basis. Until his death he headed the geological and paleontological department of the museum.

On a trip to Romania he was taken prisoner of war in July 1944, from which he was only released two years later.

Scientific focus

In Germany, Richter advocated the use of international zoological nomenclature and published introductions and guidelines. From 1930 to 1940 he was the German representative in the International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature.

The focus of his work was on trilobites and their use in the stratigraphy of the Paleozoic Era , starting with the Devonian of the Rhenish Slate Mountains (especially the Eifel ), but then extended to other epochs and sites (including Mediterranean countries). In the Eifel he created the first directional cuts for the precise determination of stratigraphic boundaries, first in the Prümer Mulde , and promoted micropaleontology for stratigraphic purposes, which is of great economic importance in petroleum geology. The work was classified as "important to the war effort" in the Second World War. He and his wife Emma have published around 70 works since 1917, mostly on trilobites. Richter contributed to the Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology trilobite band , completed after his death by his colleague Herta Schmidt and his colleague Wolfgang Struve .

In 1910 he was elected deputy secretary of the newly founded Geological Association .

Rudolf Richter was a pioneer of palaeontological studies on recent habitats and founded the Senckenberg Institute in Wilhelmshaven in 1928 .

In 1933 he was President of the International Paleontological Union.

Publications and editorships

More than 200 scientific publications (without papers) come from Rudolf Richter, including around 70 papers on trilobites since 1917. He was the first editor of the Senckenbergiana magazine , which he founded in 1919, of the Senckenberg magazine Natur und Museum from 1919 to 1922 and 1931 to 1944, of the essays of the Senckenberg Natural Research Society from 1931 to 1944 and of the Paläontological magazine from 1928 to 1930 .

Memberships

Rudolf Richter was a member

the National Research Council of the USA (1929),
of the Institut royale des sciences naturelles de Belgique (1930),
the Geological Society of London (1950),
of the Academy of Bologna,
of the Lucas Mallada geological institute in Madrid.

Honors

Rudolf Richter was an honorary member of the Paleontological Society and the Belgian Geological and Paleontological Society.

In 1951 he received the Hans Stille Medal and also the mammoth plaque in gold of the Paleontological Society , in whose re-establishment he was significantly involved in 1948 and whose first chairman he was.

Fonts

Introduction to zoological nomenclature by explaining the international rules . Senckenbergische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, 1943, 2nd edition 1948
with Emma Richter: The trilobites of the ebb saddle and species to be compared: (Ordovician, Gotlandian / Devonian) . Senckernbergische Naturforschende Ges., Frankfurt am Main, 1954
with Emma Richter: The Cambrian at the Dead Sea and the oldest Tethys . Senckenberg Natural Research Society, Frankfurt a. M., 1941
with Emma Richter: The fauna of the Lower Cambrian of Cala in Andalusia . Senckenberg Natural Research Society, Frankfurt a. M., 1941
with Emma Richter: The Saukianda stage of Andalusia, a strange fauna in the European Upper Cambrian . Senckenberg Natural Research Society, Frankfurt a. M., 1940

literature

in alphabetical order by authors / editors

Andreas Hansert: Falsification of history on the "Senckenberg" . In: Archivnachrichten aus Hessen 18/1 (2018), pp. 23-25.
Andreas Hansert: The Senckenberg Research Center under National Socialism. Truth and poetry . Wallstein, Göttingen 2018, ISBN 978-3-8353-3173-0 .
W. Simon, Rudolf and Emma Richter, Paläontologische Zeitschrift 31, 1957, 111–115 (obituary).
Herta Schmidt, obituary. In: Natur und Volk 87 (1957).
List of publications compiled by Wolfgang Struve in Senckenbergiana lethaea 38, 1957.
Willi Ziegler : Richter, Karl Albert Rudolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , pp. 519-521 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Remarks

↑ His birth certificate with his maiden name is archived in the Landesarchiv Berlin .
↑ Senckenberg Research Center for Marine Geology and Marine Paleontology, also known as Senckenberg am Meer for short .
↑ It has since appeared under the title Nature and People .
↑ Their No. 485 from 1951 was a commemorative publication for his 70th birthday.

Individual evidence

↑ Hansert: History falsification , p. 24.
↑ Hansert: History falsification , p. 24f.
↑ Hansert: History falsification , p. 24.
^ German website trilobita.de with biographies of trilobite scientists

personal data
SURNAME	Judge, Rudolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Richter, Carl Albert Rudolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH	November 7, 1881
PLACE OF BIRTH	Glatz , County Glatz , Province of Silesia
DATE OF DEATH	5th January 1957
Place of death	Frankfurt am Main

[1] His birth certificate with his maiden name is archived in the Landesarchiv Berlin .

[6] Senckenberg Research Center for Marine Geology and Marine Paleontology, also known as Senckenberg am Meer for short .

[7] It has since appeared under the title Nature and People .

[8] Their No. 485 from 1951 was a commemorative publication for his 70th birthday.

[2] Hansert: History falsification , p. 24.

[3] Hansert: History falsification , p. 24f.

[4] Hansert: History falsification , p. 24.

[5] German website trilobita.de with biographies of trilobite scientists