Wolfgang Bachmeyer

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wolfgang Bachmeyer , also Bachmayer and Bachmeier, (born January 15, 1597 in Ulm , † December 4, 1685 in Ulm) was a German cartographer , geodesist , astronomer , mathematician and theologian who worked in the Free Imperial City of Ulm. Above-average mathematical talent, he made contributions to astronomy and was particularly productive and trend-setting in cartography. In addition, Wolfgang Bachmeyer was a brief teacher and then worked as a pastor in various parishes in the Ulm area as a Protestant pastor.

Origin and education

Wolfgang Bachmeyer's family came from a craftsman's class. His father Christian Bachmeyer was a weaver and guild master in Ulm.

Wolfgang Bachmeyer studied theology in Strasbourg and Tübingen ; in Tübingen in addition mathematics and astronomy with Michael Mästlin (1550–1631). Through Mästlin he became acquainted with the Württemberg cartographer and astronomer Wilhelm Schickard (1592-1635) and with the great astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630).

Fields of activity

As a master of theology, Wolfgang Bachmeyer returned to Ulm in 1619 and taught there for several years at the grammar school. His spiritual career began in 1623: first he was pastor in Jungingen , then from 1625 to 1631 in Lehr and in Mähringen and finally until 1681 in Altheim .

One of Wolfgang Bachmeyer's first scientific work was the review of the Rudolfinische Tafeln , which was entrusted to him by Johannes Kepler, who came to Ulm in 1626 to bring the work out here, which then happened in 1627.

The map of Eygentlicher Grundt- und Abrisz of the Helffenstein rulership of Ulmischen Theiles from 1651

Extensive cartographic work followed over the next few years and decades. From 1629 to 1646 Wolfgang Bachmeyer triangulated the entire Ulm area. His recording results are recorded in four volumes of Geographical Observations , two volumes of Forest Recording and a series of maps and plans. For this purpose, Bachmeyer combined a number of the photos into maps on a reduced scale, which were painted or engraved by the Ulm painter and engraver Johann Stöltzlin (1594–1680). The most famous works are:

  • Eygentlicher Grundt- und Abrisz of the whole Werdenberg rulership and Langenawischen forest district ... , 1640
  • Eye-catching basic and outline of the Helffenstein rulership of Ulmischen Theiles ... , 1651
  • An eye-catching outline and outline of the high upper level limits of Ulm rulership over the Blaw and Donawstrom rivers towards noon ... , 1651
  • Ulmense territory. That is the description of the Ulm area ... , 1651
  • The Eygentliche Grundt- und Abrisz Der Helffensteinischen Vogts Jagen ... , 1653
  • Eye-catching basic and outline of the rulership of Wain ... , 1657

Wolfgang Bachmeyer's maps are considered the very first land survey of the Ulm area and determined the cartography there for about a century. His maps were copied and engraved a lot. A well-known copy of the Eygentlicher Grundt- und Abrisz map of the Helffenstein rulership of Ulmischen Theiles was created in 1698 by Johann Ulrich Müller (1653–1715). The best known of all subsequent maps is the map Nova et accurata Territorii Ulmensis cum Dominio Wainensi by Johann Christoph Lauterbach (1675–1744) and Johann Baptist Homann (1664–1724), which was published in Nuremberg in 1720 . Up until the reorganization of the empire (1806–1810), a whole series of other maps were created for the Ulm areas, but none of them came close to the work of Wolfgang Bachmeyer: Bachmeyer's cartographic recordings and representations are the culmination of Ulm cartography.

Wolfgang Bachmeyer also continued to be productive in astronomical work. In Ulm in 1654 he published a book about an impending solar eclipse: Thorough and detailed astronomical description of the impending solar eclipse. Twelve years later another work appeared on a solar eclipse in 1666. - For this he played a leading role in the lengthy discourse on the introduction of the Gregorian calendar in the Protestant and Reformed areas. In 1653 and 1654, Wolfgang Bachmayer submitted reports to the Reichstag in Regensburg , in which he demonstrated the advantages of the new calendar and recommended its introduction. On the same subject, he published an extensive work ( Calendar Association ) in 1661 , in which he and other experts - including Bonifacius Stöltzlin - contained contributions to this problem.

reception

Wolfgang Bachmeyer was a generally recognized scientist. This proves, among other things, his work in the calendar reform alongside such authorities as Andreas Goldmayer , Jakob Ellrod , Abdias Trew , Johann Henrich Voigt , Erhard Weigel and Samuel Reyher .

As a cartographer, Wolfgang Bachmeyer was not an autodidact and proceeded very methodically. With it, the progressive cartography of the Duchy of Württemberg spread to the Ulm area. The German cartographer and geographer Ruthardt Oehme (1901–1987) noted, among other things, that his maps are based not only on triangular measurements, but also triangular calculations. He worked similarly to W. Schickhardt and later Johann Morell . Corresponding calculations have been carried out on his survey sketch for the recording of Langenau. The simple pen-and-ink drawings in the photographs show that he considered the forests, whose boundaries he precisely defined, and the routing of the roads to be the most important cartographic objects. The distances are given in steps, the angles in degrees and minutes. The relief is missing on the recording sheets. The places are treated unevenly, partly in small views, partly only indicated in a sketch. Striking buildings like churches are fairly faithful. And elsewhere Oehme continues: Bachmeyer's work is interesting in various ways. He is progressive in his endeavors to build the maps on more precise surveying documents, but is also a representative of the traditional with the pictorial representation of the terrain and settlement. Some of his landscape scenes are reminiscent of Renlin , and the question is whether this old master's maps might not have served him as a template from time to time. He went his own way in the map labeling. He combined hand drawing with letter printing. [...] This amalgamation of map drawings with printed lettering gives the sheets a certain disharmony. In addition to the linear, Bachmeyer introduced an area scale on his maps, as shown, for example, in the map of the Lordship of Wain for 1–1000 Jauchert in selected squares. This is likely to indicate relationships with Wilhelm Schickhardt, whose handwritten draft Wirtembergiae Tabula VIII also contains a scale in Jaucherten. According to Max Eckert , surface scales should only appear at the end of the 18th century. W. Schickhardt and the pastor of Altheim are far ahead of the development with the addition of the area scale on their maps.

Fonts

  • Thorough and detailed astronomical description of the impending solar eclipse / Which upcoming 2.12. Augusti will be seen by us: Sampt, the native deduction of a number of inconsistent points ...; As with the brief report / how we should behave in a Christian way when the darkness appears , Georg Wildeisen, Ulm 1654 ( digitized version )
  • Calendar Association. That is: Wolmeinend and unpredictable doubts and opinions / like beede / Old and Newe calendars to improve / to unite with each other / and to bring them into a correct and permanent form: Before Anno 1654. written in writing and put on paper except for strange, very important causes; Anjetzo but / with added Calendario perpetuo, and necessary explanation ... multiplied in many ways , Balthasar Kühnen, Ulm 1661 ( digitized versionhttp: //vorlage_digitalisat.test/1%3D~GB%3D~IA%3D~MDZ%3D%0A11218088~SZ%3D00009~ double-sided%3D~LT%3D~PUR%3D )
  • Thorough and detailed astronomical description of the impending solar eclipse, as it will be seen on the coming June 22nd or July 2nd of this 1666th year ... , Johann Gerlin, Frankfurt / Ulm 1666 ( digital copy )

literature

  • Kurt Hawlitschek: Wolfgang Bachmayer's triangulation of the Ulm area in the years 1629 to 1652 . In: Ulm and Oberschwaben (1991), pp. 222-253 (with detailed information on life)
  • Edith Koller: Controversial Times: Calendar Reforms in the Old Kingdom 1582–1700 , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-035891-9
  • Herbert Hummel (Ed.): Inventors and inventors in the Alb-Donau district , Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 1987, ISBN 3-88-294-112-X
  • Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German southwest: With 16 color plates and 42 black and white maps , Jan Thorbecke Verlag, Konstanz and Stuttgart 1961

Web links

Commons : Wolfgang Bachmeyer  - Collection of Images

Remarks

  1. ↑ Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German Southwest (1961), page 101
  2. ↑ Edith Koller: Controversial Times: Calendar Reforms in the Old Kingdom 1582–1700 , (2014), page 278
  3. ↑ Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German Southwest (1961), page 99
  4. ↑ Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German Southwest (1961), page 99
  5. ↑ Ruthardt Oehme: The history of the cartography of the German Southwest (1961), page 100
personal data
SURNAME Bachmeyer, Wolfgang
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bachmayer, Wolfgang; Bachmeier, Wolfgang; Bachmeierus, Wolfgangus
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German cartographer, geodesist, astronomer, mathematician and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1597
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulm
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 1685
Place of death Ulm