Heinrich Zollinger
Heinrich Zollinger ( born March 22, 1818 in Feuerthalen in the canton of Zurich, † May 19 1859 in Kandangan Java ) was a Swiss botanist. Its official botanical author abbreviation is " duty. ".
Life and work
The highly talented farmer's son attended the cantonal teacher's seminar in Küsnacht, which was led by the charismatic director Ignaz Thomas Scherr (1801-1870), the Zollinger patron and friend was and should remain up to its end of life. During the formation of the 18 -year-old Zollinger worked as a substitute teacher at an elementary school. His real dream, however, was to be naturalists.
1837/38 studied Zollinger two semesters botany in Geneva in Augustine and Alphonse de Candolle, but his studies had to retire again from financial hardship. However, he could not be dissuaded from his dream.
In 1842 he gave up his secondary teaching job in Herzogenbuchsee and went as a private citizen after the Dutch East Indies, on the island of Java. He tried his living as a plant collector for herbaria European museums and private individuals to earn a difficult task, despite support from both de Candolle. At first he lived free in a Swiss plantation owners in West Java. After his death in 1843 he helped the head gardener of the Botanical Garden at Buitenzorg, now Bogor, Johannes Elias Teysmann and publicist Baron Wolter Robert van Hövell to make ends meet. Zollinger ordered the Herbarium of the Botanical Garden, worked on the catalog and wrote articles for Hoevells magazine " Tijdschrift voor Neerlands Indië ". Every now and then he got from the Dutch colonial government approval and financial support for research trips.
In 1844, he spent nearly a year in the little known regions of East Java, simultaneously with Franz Wilhelm Jung chicken, but he went out of his way because he regarded him as a competitor. 1845 and 1846 was Zollinger each for a short time in Bali as a companion of punitive military actions against the Balinese. In the ruined city nordbalinesischen Buleleng, Singaraja today, he collected manuscripts and art objects and drove from there to the island of Lombok.
In 1847 he received the Governor-General Jan Jacob Rochussen commissioned to explore the Lesser Sunda Islands and went on Makassar to the island of Sumbawa, where he made an ascent of Mount Tambora, an excursion that in since the great eruption of this volcano year 1815 had never been done before.
1848 Zollinger returned completely frustrated back to Switzerland because he saw no future for themselves in Java. His efforts for a permanent position in the colonial government service were repeatedly failed. In Zurich, a brilliant career in the teaching profession seemed to wait for him. He became director of the seminary in Küsnacht, but Java does not let him go.
In 1855 he gave up his position as director. Together with his wife, two sons, a daughter and a private teacher Catharina Alder from Küsnacht, Switzerland, he traveled back to Java to create a coconut plantation in Rogojampi at Banjuwangi in East Java. The company has already made good progress, as Zollinger seriously ill, long-term consequence of malaria from an earlier period. The doctor sent him to relax into Bromo Mountains, according to Kandangan. There Zollinger died in 1859, only 41 years old.
He had wanted to write a big scientific book on Java, but abandoned the plan when he learned that his rival Franz Jung chicken was doing the same thing and was already on. So he left only a number of scientific articles and an unpublished private diary from the years 1841 to 1848. The plant genus of the family of short Zollingeria Soapberry ( Sapindaceae ) is named after him.
Swell
Discount Heinrich Zollinger in the Central Library Zurich, diaries 1841-1848
Works
- Heinrich Zollinger: journey through East Java. In: Frorieps progress of the Geography and Natural History, No. 47, 1847.
- Systematic list of collected in the Indian Archipelago, in the years 1842-1848, and received from Japan plants. Zurich from 1854 to 1855.
- About Pflanzenphysiognomik in general and that of the island of Java in particular. Zurich, 1855
- Ascent of Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa and description of Erupzion of the same in 1815, Winterthur 1855.