Thaddäus Haenke

Thaddeus Xaverius Peregrinus Haenke, Cz Tadeáš Haenke, in non-German texts and publications also Tadeo Haenke (December 6, 1761 Kreibitz ( Cz Chřibská ), Bohemia, † November 14, 1816 in Cochabamba, Bolivia ) was an Austrian geographer, chemists, a botanist, a PhD philosopher, polymath, musician and explorer from North Bohemia. His botanical author abbreviation is " Haenke ".

Life

Thaddeus Haenke came from the German glassmaker Frederick family in northern Bohemia. Because of its high and many talents (first balloon to Bohemia 1784) artistic ( music, drawing ) and scientific terms enabled him several sponsors from 1780 to 1789 studied at the Charles University in Prague and further studies in Vienna in medicine, chemistry, astronomy and botany. Researchers such as Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin and Ignaz von Born, musicians such as Baron Gottfried van Swieten and to Emperor Joseph II himself recommended him in 1789 the Spanish government as accompanying scientist for the upcoming, guided by Alessandro Malaspina di Mulazzo Expedition ( 1789-1794 ) in the Pacific Ocean and its adjacent coastal regions conducting scientific exploration, which corresponded to a circumnavigation. When Squidward Haenke you wanted to join in the Spanish port of Cadiz output according to plan, he missed his ship allegedly by a full two hours, for which he had traveled from Vienna for weeks burdensome across revolutionary France. Haenke decided to embark on the next sailor to Argentina. During the La Plata estuary, however, the ship and Haenke capsized could in addition save a few belongings with which he crossed the Andes to Chile on foot to Santiago de Chile on April 2, 1790 but still happy on the Malaspina to push expedition.

At the subsequent research trip polymath collected several thousand plants ( herbaria ), insects and stuffed animals, which he sent to Madrid. He cataloged languages ​​of the locals and made this study ethnology and ethno- linguistics, examined in the Pacific volcanoes and hot springs in the Philippines, which it medically particularly interested in Peru silver mines ( Potosí ), in Ecuador rivers and their gradients. He mounted the first European to Chimborazo (1804 ) and other peaks of the Andes. His travel and research later earned him the name " Austrian Humboldt " field. Malaspina named Haenke Iceland in Disenchantment Bay in Alaska after him. The World Travel Mala Spina took another three years. In July 1793, he left the expedition in Callao ( the port of Lima) and traveled to the South American continent from 1793 to 1810. Thereafter he settled in Cochabamba (Bolivia ), where he married the mestiza Sebastiana Orozco and had a son.

Haenke was always suspicious considered part of the state and society as an outsider. He continued to work on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of the Viceroys in Lima and Buenos Aires. To this end, he took over research contracts, in which he ran geographic and cartographic, botanical and zoological, mineralogical and geological studies, further chemical tests and pharmaceutical experiments conducted to recommend science-based development projects and also can if possible be carried out, even. He improved the extraction of copper and glass production in Cochabamba, led a self-developed and effective smallpox vaccination one - the first in South America - and opened South America's first pharmacy, which he supplied with products of a self- constructed pharmaceutical manufacturing. In these undertakings, he became friends with the local population, which esteems him today, learned their language and studied their shamanic medical methods. He is regarded as one of the great national heritage precursor of Alexander von Humboldt.

His work in Peru, Bolivia and Chile, among others, helped his smallpox vaccination because of the significant prophylactic effect ( decrease in the death rate ) the final breakthrough that earned him recognition from the largest Indians. He was due to its high musical talent with his cause geschafften from Austria specially about his brother harpsichord together with notes music concerts mainly contemporary composers ( Mozart, Haydn ), on the occasion of his expeditions through the Atacama desert to a process for the conversion of Chilean nitrate and potassium chloride to potassium nitrate, discovered for the largest water lily, others later called from worship of the English Queen Victoria regia, the Riesenbromelie Puya raimondii, named after the later "discovered ", the Italian researcher Antonio Raimondi (1824-1890), as well as the curative effects of thermal baths. He also developed explosives, for example, the black powder with far improved properties "new", its results benefited from the Spanish army.

During the revolutionary turmoil and unrest Thaddeus X. P. Haenke died on November 14, 1816 at the age of 54 years in his adopted hometown of Cochabamba in his house under mysterious circumstances. A poisoning is not excluded. The Spanish government pulled away his fortunes. His remains were buried by representatives of the local population in the Atacama desert at an unknown location. Even today, living descendants of him in South America.

His scientific reports, evaluations, plant and animal drawings and preparations reached largely the authorities in Madrid, but much was lost. Because of its unexpected, plus unexplained death during the independence struggles in Cochabamba, his remaining in South America instead of a home with subsequent publications and recognition of his works, to the intrigues of the expedition leader Malaspina Thaddeus Haenkes works were little known and remained virtually unpublished, yes he even fell into oblivion. The present state of research suggests that distributed its sent to Spain herbaria specimens and drawings in many universities and collections all over Europe. Part of his literary estate ( letters, reports ) was not published until the early 20th century. Later (1960 ) they found a large part of his writings in the archives of the "Royal Botanical Gardens " (Spanish for "Real Jardin Botanico " ), Madrid, in the years 1966 ( Dr. Renée Gicklhorn - Czernin ) and 1992 ( Dr. María Victoria Ibáñez Montoya ) have been published in part in a commented version.

Works

• La Expedición Malaspina (1789-1794) - Trabajos Científicos y corespondencia de Tadeo Haenke - Part IV Lunwerg, Madrid, 1992; Co-author ( comments): Dr. María Ibáñez Victoria Montoya

• Collegit Reliquiae Haenkeanae, seu icones et descriptiones plantarum, quas in America Meridionali et Boreali in insulis Philippinis Mariani et. Thaddaeus Haenke, Philosophiae Doctor, Phytographus Regis Hispaniolis / redegit et in ordinem digessit Carolus Bor Presl, Medicinae Doctor, in Museo Boh. Custos, Botan. Prof. EXTRAORD. / Cura Musei Bohemici. / Apud JG Calve, Prague 1830 Prague edition reprint of the 1830/31 in Asher, Amsterdam 1973; ISBN 90-6123-237-6