Friedrich Adolph Roemer

Friedrich Adolph Roemer ( born April 14, 1809 in Hildesheim, † November 25, 1869 in Clausthal ) was a German geologist, botanist and lawyer. He served as Bergrat the Mountain School of Clausthal and converted it into the Mining Academy, which became the Technical University of Clausthal later.

Life

Adolph Roemer was the eldest son of the Justice and Tribunal Council Christian Friedrich Römer and his wife Charlotte Lünzel. He had seven younger siblings, including the brothers Hermann and Ferdinand Roemer Roemer. When he was eleven years old, his father died. His mother lived with their children then in modest economic conditions. She managed, however, to allow three of her four sons to visit the university. Before Adolph attended high school Andreanum in Hildesheim. In 1828 he went to the University of Göttingen to study law. He also wrote a science and studied with Friedrich Gottlieb Bartling botany. Then Roemer studied at the University of Berlin. In November 1831 he went as an official auditor ( trainee ) to the Office Steuerwald - Marienburg, where he was named after three years of training and state examination for official assessor. His duties in the Royal Hanoverian government service included, among other things, the perception of royal rights, the implementation of regulations in the police, churches and schools, and the use of indirect taxes.

In addition to his professional activities, he began to be interested in paleontology and to explore the Jurassic layer sequences in the vicinity of Hildesheim. He maintained contacts with his brother Hermann, who studied in Göttingen, among others geology, and with the geologist Friedrich August von Quenstedt. In addition, he continued his education with work which he borrowed in the libraries of Göttingen and Hanover. 1836 and 1839 he published the description of the North German law and described for hundreds of new fossils. 1841 was followed by a description of the North German chalk layers, which was based on the description of more than 800 fossils. He coined this stratigraphic terms such Hilston or Serpulit.

1840 Roemer was transferred to Bovenden. From there he undertook, first walks in the resin. To this end, he had probably been described stratigraphically by the 1840 published report by the two British geologist Roderick Murchison and Adam Sedgwick, the various means mountains of Europe, stimulated. From his writings it is evident that he migrated all the north of the Harz mountains of Seesen and Gander home until after Blankenburg and Halberstadt to describe and classify the most important insights. In 1843 he described in The fossils of the Harz Mountains, the paläozonischen units of the resin, but moved several wrong conclusions, which were criticized by Fridolin Sandberger in the Yearbook of Mineralogy 1845. In later publications Roemer corrected these errors.

During his walks through the resin Roemer made ​​contacts to Clausthal, where the Royal Mining and Forestry School, the only montane training center of the kingdom, had a good reputation. From the entire northern Germany and even from England and the Netherlands, families sent their sons, who should take the leading mining professionals to Clausthal in training. Roemer asked for a transfer and was from April 1, 1843 Official Assessor at Mining Office in Clausthal. To him, the "Civil - process stuff " in Altenau, Wilde man and Lautenthal been transferred. He also had duties of a mayor in Wild man and Lautenthal. Since his salary was not enough to fund his scientific work, Roemer practiced addition of secondary activities.

Roemer turned first to mosses and algae of the environment, which he collected and certain. He noted that species occurred up to that altitude and published in 1845 The algae Germany. From 1843 to 1850 he also published a number of releases in the new year book of mineralogy.

From the autumn of 1846 Roemer began to hold in the subjects of mineralogy and geology lectures at the mountain school. He also led the Mineralogical Collection. He worked quickly a scientific reputation. Among his pupils were some who were professors of geology later. One of them, Joseph Grailich, described a previously unknown iron sulfate mineral that was named on the suggestion Römerit. From Monday to Wednesday he exercised his official activities in the Official House and neighboring cities and from Thursday to Saturday he taught.

1847 Roemer traveled from July to October to France and Italy, where he attended the French chalk areas among others. In 1849 he was excused at his request by the court activity, instead it was one of two members of Cassen and accounting Commission on Mining and Forestry Office. He also held the position of mayor in Wild man and Lautenthal. From 1851 he was the Commission's work on his teaching commitments at the mountain school were more numerous and now also included legal encyclopedia and mining law. 1852 entered a new city regulations come into effect, which led to Wilde man and Lautenthal lost their full-time mayor and Roemer exclusively able to return to his teaching and research activities. 1853 died the head of the mountain school, Christian Zimmermann, who had been from 1811 until his death in office. Roemer was temporarily put in charge of the school.

Reforms

In the Clausthal society he found only limited access, on the one hand, because he probably has not wanted him intense, but Georg Müller describes the structures as " dense Bergbeamtenfilz " in the Romans invade only one chance would have had if he would have married one whose daughters. Friendships developed Roemer to families Osthaus and Schuster, and to a lesser extent, to Hermann Koch, the father of Robert Koch, who was Bergrat in Clausthal.

1865 Ernst -August- tunnels, a water tunnel solution after 16 years of construction was completed. This was a huge step forward for the energy production and drainage of the mines. Roemer has been involved in the preparations for the opening ceremony and was required for official reasons for the navigation of the new gallery on August 3.

Roemer died in 1869 at the age of 60 years from the effects of ascites after he was already restricted some years by gout and rheumatism and had therefore asked in 1867 to his retirement.

Honors

Writings

• The fossils of the North German chalk mountains, 136 pp., 16 plates. Hahn, Hannover 1841. Digitalisat
• The fossils of the Harz Mountains, 60 pp., 12 plates. Hahn, Hannover 1843.
• The algae Germany. Hahn, Hannover 1845.