Rudolf Theodor Simler

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Rudolf Theodor Simler, founder of the Swiss Alpine Club

Rudolf Theodor Simler (born July 16, 1833 in Wollishofen , today Zurich ; † December 22, 1873 in Zurich) was a Swiss chemist , mountaineer and founder of the Swiss Alpine Club .

Life

Rudolf Theodor Simler was the son of a spinning mill owner in Wollishofen near Zurich, a direct descendant of the theologian and Alpine researcher Josias Simler . He attended schools in Winterthur and Zurich, studied chemistry in Zurich and Heidelberg with Carl Löwig , whom he accompanied to Breslau as an assistant .

From 1859 to 1861 he taught at the canton school (grammar school) in Chur and qualified as a professor at the University of Bern in general chemistry, agricultural chemistry and chemical geology. From 1864 he taught at the agricultural institute Muri and from 1872 at the agricultural school Strickhof near Zurich. Orders for chemical analyzes of mineral springs regularly took him to the Alps for work.

Simler was married to Maria Färber (1841–1906) from Chur; the couple had three children: Theodora Maria (born 1868), Bettina (born 1870) and Eduard (born 1872, died as a toddler).

On July 30, 1861, he climbed the 3,614 meter high Piz Russein , the highest peak of the Tödimassiv, together with the merchant Georg Sand from St. Gallen and the mountain guides Heinrich Elmer and Gabriel Zweifel . He believed in a first ascent, which was later refuted. The first to climb it was Johann Heinrich Speich .

At the summit of Piz Russein, he wrote, in view of the many unclimbed peaks, "the thought of an association" occurred to him. On April 19, 1863, he invited mountaineers and alpine friends to the Olten station buffet , where the “35 Swiss mountain and glacier riders” founded the Swiss Alpine Club. In the same summer the club designated the Tödi and Clariden area as an official research area under the direction of the first SAC Central President Simler. Simler was secretary of the Bern section and from 1865 vice president of the Zurich section Uto .

A few weeks after the publication of his main work “Die Lötrohr-Chemie”, he died of a lifelong liver disease after nine weeks of acute illness.

The Simlergrat, connecting ridge between Piz Russein and Glarner Tödi, commemorates the founder of the Swiss Alpine Club.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Thomas Schmid, Daniel Anker, et al .: Helvetia Club - 150 years of the Swiss Alpine Club SAC . Ed .: Daniel Anker. SAC Verlag, Bern 2013, ISBN 978-3-85902-362-8 , pp. 60 f .
  2. ↑ «This is how the idea of ​​an association matured». In: Emil Zopfi : Tödi - longing and dream. AS Verlag, Zurich 2000.
  3. ↑ «The priority in relation to reaching the Tödigipfel». In: Emil Zopfi: Tödi - longing and dream. AS Verlag, Zurich 2000.
  4. ^ Rudolf Theodor Simler: The Tödi-Rusein and the excursion to Obersandalp. Haller'sche Buchdruckerei and Verlaghandlung, Bern 1863.
  5. ↑ Rudolf Theodor Simler: General report on the excursions in the official area during the summer of 1863. In: Yearbook of the Swiss Alpine Club 1864.
  6. ^ Paul Sieber: Theodor Rudolf Simler. In: Die Alpen, yearbook of the Swiss Alpine Club 1963.
  7. ^ Rudolf Theodor Simler: Die Löthrohr chemistry. Orell Füssli Verlag, Zurich 1873.
personal data
SURNAME Simler, Rudolf Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss alpinist, founder of the Swiss Alpine Club
DATE OF BIRTH July 16, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Wollishofen near Zurich
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1873
Place of death Zurich