Theodor Wolf

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Memorial plaque for Franz Theodor Wolf at the house at Hohe Str. 62 in Dresden-Plauen

Franz Theodor Wolf SJ (born February 13, 1841 in Bartholomä near Aalen , † June 22, 1924 in Dresden ) was a German Jesuit as well as geologist , geographer and botanist , who became famous primarily for his work in Ecuador .

Live and act

As the third of seven children of a schoolmaster, Theodor Wolf grew up in simple circumstances. At the age of 16 he joined the Jesuits , went through the novitiate in Gorheim , graduated from grammar school, studied theology in Aachen and Münster and from 1862 natural sciences in Bonn. As early as 1864, at the age of 23, he was appointed lecturer in natural sciences at the Collegium Maximum of the Jesuits in Maria Laach .

In 1870, the year he was ordained priest, Wolf was appointed professor of geology and mineralogy at the Central University of Ecuador and the Polytechnic in Quito (today: Escuela Politécnica Nacional ). He had to give up this position after he left his order in 1874. In 1875 he explored the Galápagos Islands and described their flora. Thereupon he was appointed "geólogo oficial de Ecuador" (Official Geologist of Ecuador) by President Antonio Borrero Cortázar. Last but not least, he dedicated himself to this office with many excursions through the Ecuadorian provinces. From this grew his main work, the Geografía y Geología del Ecuador (published in Leipzig in 1892).

In 1891 Theodor Wolf returned to Germany and settled in Dresden-Plauen , where he continued his research as a private scholar. He was buried in the family grave in the Inner Cemetery in Dresden-Plauen, which was dissolved in 2000 and reconstructed in 2013.

estate

The 27 volumes of his important herbaric collection of potentilles ( finger bushes ) are kept in the Institute for Botany of the TU Dresden on Zellescher Weg.

Honors

  • In 1921, the National Congress of the Republic of Ecuador named the scholar an honorary citizen on the occasion of his 80th birthday, together with the granting of an honorary salary . There is a memorial plaque on his last home on Hohen Strasse 62 in Dresden-Plauen.
  • In his hometown Bartholomä a street bears his name.
  • Numerous schools in Ecuador, the Galápagos Island Wolf , the volcano Wolf and a glacier on the Chimborazo are named after him.

Namesake for animal and plant species

Theodor Wolf's official botanical author's abbreviation is " Th.Wolf "; earlier the abbreviation " wolf " was also in use. The following are named after him:

Fonts

  • About the ground movements on the coast of Manabí (Department of Guayaquil), together with some contributions to the geognostic knowledge of Ecuador . German Geological Society, Berlin 1872.
  • Crónica de los fenómenos volcánicos y terremotos en el Ecuador: Con algunas noticias sobre otros países de la América central y meridional, desde 1533 hasta 1797 . Escuela Politécnica de Quito, Quito 1873.
  • Geognostic reports from Ecuador. The Cotopaxi and its last eruption on June 26, 1877 . o. O. 1878.
  • A visit to the Galápagos Islands . Carl Winter's University Bookstore, Heidelberg 1879.
  • Viajes cientificos por la Republica del Ecuador. Verificados y publicados por órden del supremo gobierno de la misma república . Imprenta del comercio, Guayaquil 1879 (3 volumes).
  • About the geographical conditions of the Republic of Ecuador and especially the high Andes . Dietrich Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1891.
  • Geografía y Geología del Ecuador . Brockhaus, Leipzig 1892.
  • Potentilles ( finger herbs ) - studies
    • Volume 1: The Saxon potencies and their distribution especially in the Elbe hill country . Published by Wilhelm Baensch, Dresden 1901.
    • Volume 2: The potentials of Tyrol . Published by Wilhelm Baensch, Dresden 1903.
  • Monograph of the genus Potentilla . Schweizerbart'sche Verlagbuchhandlung, Stuttgart 1908.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Entry in "Catalog of the Vascular Plants of Ecuador" .
  2. ↑ Short entry at tmbl.gu.se (Engl.).
  3. ↑ a b Anne Christin Kleppisch: A project for the Columbus of Plauen. Saxon Newspaper, 2nd / 3rd January 2014.
  4. ^ Paul Dittrich: Between Hofmühle and Heidenschanze. On the history of the Dresden suburbs Plauen and Coschütz . 2nd revised edition, Verlag Adolf Urban, Dresden, 1941, p. 171.
  5. ↑ Werner K. Mayer presented his biography about the natural scientist Franz Theodor Wolf , from the Rems newspaper of February 7, 2010, accessed on February 22, 2010.
  6. ↑ International Plant Names Index (IPNI), see also David Gledhill: The Names of Plants . Cambridge, 3rd ed. 2002. ISBN 978-0-521-81863-6 . P. 307.
  7. ^ Gerhard Wülker : Cephalopods of the Aru and Kei islands. In: Abhandlungen der Senckenbergische Naturforschenden Gesellschaft, Vol. 34 (1913), pp. 451–488.
  8. ↑ Luis Sodiro. In: Anales de la Universidad central del Ecuador, Vol. 17 (1902), Issue 120, pp. 262-264.
  9. ^ Karl Johansson and Gunnar Samuelsson. In: Svensk Botanisk Tidskrift, Vol. 21 (1927), p. 138.

Web links

Wikisource: Theodor Wolf  - Sources and full texts
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wolf, Franz Theodor (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Jesuit, geologist, geographer and botanist
DATE OF BIRTH February 13, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Bartholomä
DATE OF DEATH June 22, 1924
Place of death Dresden