Theodor Braeucker

Theodor Braeucker (born April 1, 1815 in Langenscheid in the municipality of Halver ; † May 3, 1882 in Derschlag ) was a teacher, local researcher and an important collector of beetles, minerals, shells, fossils and flowers from Gummersbach . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Braeucker ".

Life

Theodor Braeucker attended school in Halver. In 1829 he went to Cologne and returned to Halver after spending a year in the cathedral city. From then on, he conducted private studies there in mathematics, physics and music. With great interest he devoted himself to the art of drawing. Pastor Pol brought the then nineteen-year-old student to Hedfeld as a teacher . Here he lived and lived for three years in the pastor's house and joined the Pietist . After his practical teaching activity in Hedfeld, he attended the teachers' seminar in Soest . Theodor Braeucker continued his journey to Marienborn near Siegen . Here he worked as a teacher from 1838 to 1845. In the second half of 1845 Braeucker was appointed to the factory school in Derschlag. He stayed there until the end of his life. His retirement took place in 1877. As a salary he was paid the paltry amount of 150 thalers per year for many years .

plant

He teamed up with three colleagues to study psychology and logic. He became an expert in the study of plants, minerals and fossils of his closer and wider homeland. During the holidays he wandered through the Sauerland , the Siebengebirge , the Eifel , Westphalia and Belgium. When he saw his thirst for research fulfilled here, he turned to botany . He examined and described rose plants (Rosa), blackberries ( Rubi ), willows (Salices), orchids (orchids), mints (Menthen), sedges (Carices) and cryptogamic vascular plants ( ferns , horsetail and bear moss ). For seventeen years he worked on researching these plants, which he called “mes enfants horribles” - my terrible children. He regards the natural sciences as a spiritual and, because of the related excursions, also as a physical compensation for his work.

When he died, he left behind a natural history collection that was second to none. It comprised 20 types of stuffed mammals, 90 types of birds, 100 Oberberg butterflies, 420 Oberberg beetles, 335 minerals (2,600 individual specimens), 340 types of mussels (4,000 specimens), 1,000 fossils (20,000 specimens), 2,892 types and forms of flowering plants ( phanerogams ), 1,470 species and forms of flowerless plants. This collection was sold by the heir.

Theodor Braeucker acquired knowledge of Latin, Greek, English and French in order to put his research on a scientific basis.

Honors

In Derschlag, the “Theodor-Braeucker-Platz”, a park with benches and a fountain, is named after him. In the complex there is a monument dedicated to Theodor Braeucker, which was built by the Derschlager architect Helmut Neukäter.

Fonts

Theodor Braeucker's printed writings included a volume of poetry with simple, sensitive poems and sounds from the Franco-German war as well as religious poems, published by his son Hugo Braeucker's publishing house in Derschlag. Several manuscripts, including a history of the Oberbergisches Land, a chronicle by Derschlag, can be read in the district and city library in Gummersbach as well as a scientific description of the river basin of the Upper Agger. This remained unprinted.

• A directory of Devonian petrefactions that have recently been found in the district of Gummersbach and Waldbröl , in: Negotiations of the Natural History Association of the Prussian Rhineland and Westphalia 17, 1860, 199–202.
• 292 German, preferably Rhenish Rubus types and forms, ana-lytically arranged and described for reliable identification , Berlin 1882.
• Germany's wild roses, 150 types and shapes. Arranged and described for easy identification and identification . Berlin 1882.
• “Remember my!” - poems by Theodor Braeucker, teacher in Derschlag , Derschlag, Verlag Hugo Braeucker 1885.
• Derschlager school chronicle by Theodor Braeucker (1815–1882) , kept in the Gummersbach district and city library.

literature

• Andrä: Obituary , in: Negotiations of the Natural History Association of the Prussian Rhineland and Westphalia 39, 1882, 133-134, of which Theodor Braeucker was a member.
• Hensgen: Obituary , in: Gummersbacher Zeitung 56, 1882.
• Preface (pp. 5-33). In: “Remember my!” (There further information).
• Theodor Braeucker, a Bergisch teacher original . Wolfhagen, printing and publishing house Wilhelm Borner 1895.