Georg von Neumayer
Georg Balthasar Neumayer, since 1900 Ritter von Neumayer ( born June 21, 1826 in Kirchheimbolanden, † May 24 1909 in Neustadt an der Haardt ) was a Bavarian- Palatine geophysicist and polar explorer.
Life and work
Georg Neumayer was the fifth child of the notary Georg Neumayer and his wife Teresa, born Kirchner. 1832 the family moved to Frankenthal, there Neumayer visited the Progymnasium times also the high schools in Speyer and Kaiserslautern. Then he studied until 1851 geophysics and hydrography at the Ludwig- Maximilians- University in Munich. Since 1849 he was an assistant at the Institute for Physics and at the observatory in Bogenhausen. In 1848 he competed in the German fleet, but was rejected. Instead, he traveled with the Hamburg barque Louise to South America and attended the school of navigation in Hamburg, where he was the helmsman exam. Between 1852 to 1856 he toured as a sailor on the brig Reiherstieg Australia, where he is active in the gold fields as a teacher under German emigrants. In 1857 he visited Australia for a second time, this time as part of a scientific expedition to South Australia. In 1857 he founded with the financial support of King Maximilian II of Bavaria, the Flagstaff Observatory of Geophysics, Magnetism and Nautical in Melbourne, which he directed until 1864 as director. Also he is taking to address a number of expeditions and surveys in the interior of the continent. He also climbs Mount Kosciuszko. In 1864 he returned to Germany. On the Geographers 1865 in Frankfurt, he designed the objectives of creating a focal point for hydrography and maritime meteorology and the implementation of a South Polar Expedition. Politically, he was active in the association for the protection of German interests on the left bank of the Rhine and ran unsuccessfully for a seat in the Customs Parliament. In 1868 he was elected to the board of the natural history association Pollichia.
After the Empire, he moved to Berlin and will hydrograph at the Admiralty. In this position he organized, among others the circumnavigation of the gazelle, and called the Observatory Wilhelmshaven to life. He founded the German Naval Observatory in Hamburg and managed it from 1876 to 1903, he further introduces the synoptic meteorology. Roald Amundsen lived in that time as a young man at Neumayer in Hamburg and learned there to run geomagnetic measurements. He devoted himself especially to the South Pole and was from 1879 Chairman of the International Polar Commission. In 1900 was awarded the Commander's Cross Neumayer of Merit of the Bavarian Crown, which the personal title of nobility was connected. In 1903 he retired and moved to town, where he died and is buried in the main cemetery.
Others
From Neumayer Fritz Neumayer grandnephew in the 1950s was the Federal Minister of Justice.
Honors
The research stations of the Federal Republic of Germany on the Ekström Ice Shelf in Antarctica are named after Georg von Neumayer, see:
- Georg von Neumayer Station
- Neumayer Station II
- Neumayer Station III
The Göttingen Society of Sciences appointed Neumayer 1901 an honorary member. He also became an honorary member in 1906 of the Berlin Society for Anthropology, Ethnology and Prehistory.
In his birthplace, a school was named after him (Georg -von- Neumayer - school), as well as in Frankenthal ( Neumayer school). In both cities, and in Neustadt, he also received an honorary citizen.
In addition, numerous geographic points and the moon crater Neumayer are named after him.
Writings
- As editor: Instructions for scientific observations while traveling. Berlin 1875
- The international polar research. 2 volumes, Berlin 1886
- At the South Pole. 45 years ministry to promote research into the South Polar region. Berlin 1901