Wilhelm Roessler

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Wilhelm Rössler (born October 10, 1909 in Milan , Kingdom of Italy ; † September 14, 1995 ) was an Austrian botanist who was primarily involved in paleobotany .

life and career

Wilhelm Rössler was born on October 10, 1909 as the son of the kk civil servant Rudolf Rössler and his wife Hermine (née Makuz) in Milan in the Kingdom of Italy. He attended elementary school in Kerschdorf im Gailtal and in Kreuth near Bleiberg , where his maternal grandparents came from. His father served as a combat soldier in the First World War . Due to the poor economic situation of the family, Rössler began an apprenticeship in a tailor's shop, which he graduated with honors in October 1928. After private preparation, he passed the external Matura at the Academic Gymnasium Graz on February 16, 1933 and began studying at the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Graz as early as April 1933 , where he gave lectures and exercises in botany, chemistry , geology , mineralogy , physics , zoology as well as philosophy and pedagogy . His goal at the time was to become a teacher in natural history and physics.

At the suggestion of the then head of the phytopalaeontological teaching apparatus, Bruno Kubart (1882–1959), Rössler began investigating fossil woods in autumn 1935. He completed his studies with the work “Pliocene coniferous woods around Gleichenberg in Styria” and received his doctorate on July 3, 1937. After a brief activity as an assistant at the Botanical Institute of the Technical University of Munich with Friedrich Boas (1886-1960), Rössler returned to the beginning Back to Graz in February 1939. There, at the suggestion of the then board member Felix J. Widder (1892–1974), he succeeded Gustav Kielhauser (1909–?) At the Institute for Systematic Botany (now the Institute for Botany) and worked there until his retirement. With a thesis on "Content and systematic importance of the phloroglucin genetic cells in the leaves of European VW <z-species" followed in 1943 the habilitation . Two years later, in 1945, he received the Venia Legendi .

On August 23, 1966, Rössler was appointed senior assistant, and at the same time he was transferred to permanent employment. After being appointed tit. ao. Univ.-Prof. on March 10, 1969, on January 17, 1973 he was appointed associate professor (ao. Univ.-Prof.) and at the same time head of the “Department for the Training of Pharmacists”. After Friedrich Ehrendorfer (* 1927) was appointed to the Institute of Botany at the University of Vienna , Rössler appeared as interim director of the institute and director of the Botanical Garden from October 1, 1970 to February 29, 1972 and took over the supplementation of the main lecture and the Head of the Institute for Paleobotany. On December 31, 1974, Rössler, meanwhile 65 years of age, was retired, but he did not take it; he therefore continued to work regularly at the institute in the following years. Under the professorships Widder, Ehrendorfer and Josef Poelt (1924–1995), he continued to teach at the institute until the end of the 1990 summer semester.

After his initial occupation in the paleobotanical field, he later also dealt with systematic-taxonomic questions and problems of nature conservation. At the suggestion of Josef Poelt, the work “History of the Institute for Systematic Botany” was published in 1988. This work also includes a portrait of Rössler, in which he sometimes describes the retrieval campaigns of outsourced institute inventory in the first post-war years. Rössler died on September 14, 1995 shortly before his 86th birthday. He was the last employee of the institute to emerge from the "Laboratory for Phytopalaeontology" headed by Kubart. Today, collections of herbarium material from his excursions, which brought him mainly to Styria, Carinthia, Upper Italy and Corsica, are mostly housed in the herbarium of the Institute for Plant Sciences at the University of Graz and a small part at the Universalmuseum Joanneum . Numerous contributions were collected for the Exsiccatenwerk Plantae Graecenses , which was published at the Institute for Botany.

Rössler belonged to the Natural Science Association of Styria from 1946 to 1950 as a member of the executive committee and in 1947 also acted as a specialist group board. In 1948 he was then president himself, and throughout these years he endeavored to rebuild the club's life in the post-war period. In the decades that followed, he remained loyal to the club and held various positions and offices. Among other things, he was the second vice-president behind Otto Burkard (1908–2015), father of Rainer Burkard , and co-editor of the association's publications, such as the association's announcements . From 1964 to 1965 he was the editor in charge of the publication of the communication volumes 94 and 95 and from 1976 to April 1977 he was the treasurer.

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personal data
SURNAME Rössler, Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian paleobotanist
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Milan , Kingdom of Italy
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1995