Hermann Schmitz (entomologist)
Johann Hermann Schmitz, SJ ( born August 12, 1878 in Elberfeld, † September 1, 1960 in Bad Godesberg ) was a German entomologist, priests and teachers. His research focus was the scuttle flies ( Phoridae ) for which he described several new species and genera. He began as a fifteen- year-old training with the Jesuits, where he received a scientific and theological education. As a professor, he taught at the Jesuit College Valkenburg, until it closed in 1942 was arrested by the Gestapo and Schmitz. After the end of World War II he taught at Aloisiuskolleg in Bad Godesberg, where he died in 1960.
- 3.1 Literature
- 3.2 External links
- 3.3 Notes and references
Biography
Origin and Youth (1878-1899)
Schmitz came in 1878 in Bergisch Elberfeld, the eldest of seven children of Gertrud Schmitz (nee Breuer ) and her husband August, a teacher, was born. Schmitz visited first in Elberfeld, later in the nearby Rhine river school. When he was twelve years old, his father died. 1894 Schmitz became a novice in the Dutch Jesuit College Afferden, where he continued his schooling. Two years later he moved to Exaten in Limburg, where he deepened his Latin studies especially. In Exaten he met the Jesuit and biologists Erich Wasmann know. Wasmann took the young Schmitz three years on his entomological excursions on which Schmitz served as his assistant, and led him into the entomology.
Teachers, scientific beginnings and Promotion (1899-1929)
Beginning of 1899 moved Schmitz to the Jesuit College Valkenburg, where he studied philosophy until the end of 1901. After completing his studies in 1902 he Oudenbusch on Aloisiuskolleg in Sittard worked as a teacher of mathematics and natural sciences. In the same year Janós Thalhammer left the Aloisiuskolleg his 3000 preparations comprehensive collection of Diptera and instructed Schmitz with the collection of mosquitoes and flies around Sittard what this marked the entry point into the dipterology. At the same time, but Schmitz continued to work with ants. During this time he wrote his book The ants and their guests. In 1906 he was for a year assistant Wasmann in Luxembourg before two years studied theology in Maastricht in 1907 and was subsequently ordained. In Loewen, he graduated from in 1911 and 1912 to study natural sciences and then returned as a teacher to Sittard. In the same year he also took over the presidency of the Natuurhistorisch Genootschap Limburg. In 1915 he published his study ants De Nederlandsche Mieren s hair gassed in the Yearbook of Genootschap and attracted considerable attention in professional circles. Schmitz went in 1921 to Bonn, where he studied until 1922 Biology. In 1923 he assisted for another two years Erich Wasmann in Valkenburg. After that he went to the University of Freiburg, 1926 doctoral degrees awarded him. His dissertation, a taxonomic revision of scuttle flies ( Phoridae ), appeared in 1929 and was supervised by August Reichenspergerplatz.
Research trips, Third Reich and the postwar period (1930-1960)
Following his promotion Schmitz received a professorship at the Valkenburger Ignatius College. Und1939 1937 he went to the Irish Tullaberg to explore the local fauna and scuttle flies to teach at the Jesuit high school. Schmitz remained four years in Ireland and then returned to the occupied Netherlands from Germany back to teach at the Jesuit College Valkenburg as a professor. 1942 sparked the Gestapo on the college and detained the faculty. Schmitz ' entomological collection was confiscated and taken to Waischenfeld where they should be part of the German Reich " Ahnenerbe ". Schmitz was released from prison already in the same year and went into occupied Austria, where he explored the Phoridenflora the Alps. After the fall of the Nazis, he returned to Germany in 1946 and taught from then on Aloisiuskolleg in Bad Godesberg. He got back his collection and continued his research until he died in Bad Godesberg on September 1, 1960 of a heart attack.
Work
Schmitz made himself especially to the study and systematic development of the humpbacked flies deserves. His three monographs on classification of Phoridae remained the relevant works of the department for over 60 years. Throughout his life Schmitz described about 80 genera and 650 species, and put on an extensive collection of about 40,000 specimens, which is now home to the Museum Alexander König. His journalistic major work is in addition to his original descriptions and revisions mainly from the comprehensive 500 pages part " Phoridae " in Erwin Lindner The flies of the Palaearctic region.