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In his guest blog, geologist Thomas Hofmann looks back on the history of a family of scientists.
The progenitor Joseph Ritter von Hauer (1778–1863) studied law and, according to the epitaph, was a “k. k. w. secret councilor”. The year 1809, when the Napoleonic army invaded Vienna for the second time, was to be a defining year. Hauer received the order together with Karl von Schreibers, the head of the k. k. Hof-Naturalien-Cabinets (today: Natural History Museum, NHM), whose collections were brought to safety in "southeastern Hungary" to protect them from Napoleonic troops.
After everything was safely back in Vienna in January 1810, Hauer, probably inspired by Schreiber, discovered his love for paleontology. The father of eight children sacrificed his meager free time for this and became a passionate collector. His preference was for microscopic shell remains of fossil single-celled organisms in the Vienna area. In France, Alcide d'Orbigny (1802–1857) was working on the fossil group of foraminifera, which are single-celled organisms. So Hauer contacted d'Orbigny and, starting in 1838, sent him his Viennese microfossils in tiny glass bottles, barely larger than breadcrumbs and almost unknown here. D'Orbigny was thrilled, as Hauer had collected "the most numerous fauna of foraminifera that had ever been encountered in any country." The Frenchman invested two years in processing the Viennese material, Emperor Ferdinand I granted a subsidy for printing costs and allowed "the work to be published under the auspices at most". He also purchased 100 copies of the bilingual monograph to give to the who's who of the international scientific community.
On September 14, 1846, the 24-year-old Franz von Hauer presented in Vienna the opus initiated by his father "The fossil foraminifera of the tertian basin of Vienna, discovered by his Excellency Ritter Joseph von Hauer and described by Alcide d'Orbigny". This work was a milestone among foraminiferal experts well into the 20th century; In 1985 it was reworked based on the original material.
Of Joseph Hauer's four sons, three turned to earth sciences. Carl, who was born on March 3, 1819 and committed suicide on August 2, 1880, succeeded from 1853 onwards, after he had ended his military career as a captain, as a career changer in the chemical laboratory of the k. k. Geological Reichsanstalt. This was founded by Wilhelm von Haidinger in November 1849. As head of the laboratory, Carl carried out countless chemical analyzes on rocks, ores, coal and water from throughout the monarchy in the Rasumofsky Palace, the headquarters of the Reichsanstalt. From 1860 he published “Crystallogenetic Observations”. He made headlines with his crystal growth, for which he was honored with a medal at the London World Exhibition in 1862.
There was a brotherly bond between Carl and Franz. In 1860, when the Geological Institute was to be incorporated into the Academy of Sciences, Carl wrote to his younger brother on August 13th: "Dearest Franz! Through a bold and deceitful maneuver I managed to see the two files that contain our organization, although only for a few moments, but they were enough to extract everything important from them. One is the result of those perfidious consultations which the Angle Committee of the Academy [...] "The independent position, the publications as well as the existence of a number of temporary employees, including myself, sought to be destroyed."
Franz, born in 1822, attended the Schottengymnasium in Vienna, then studied at the University of Vienna before being trained as a mountain worker from 1839 to 1843 at the Mining Academy in Schemnitz (today: Baňská Štiavnica in Slovakia). At the end of 1844 he gave Austria's first paleontological lectures at what was then the Montanisches Museum (director: Wilhelm Haidinger) in Vienna. In Prince Metternich, whose fossil collections he worked on in 1846, he found a patron and named an ammonite "metternichi" in his honor. With Haidinger he was the first geologist at the k.k. from 1849. Geological Reichsanstalt. After Director Haidinger's retirement, he became his successor in 1866 and became one of the country's most important earth scientists. Hauer was also one of the teachers of Eduard Suess, born in 1831.
His main work, the Geological Map of the Monarchy in twelve sheets, was published in time for the Vienna World Exhibition in 1873. After Ferdinand von Hochstetter's death in July 1884, he became his successor and director of the k.k. natural history court museum (today: NHM). On August 10, 1889, the emperor opened the museum at eleven o'clock. Before he left at half past one o'clock, he said "Hofrath v. Hauer, once again his joy and appreciation for the museum." Hauer's museum guide from 1889 is still a standard work today - especially because of the comprehensive description of the house's architecture.
Franz von Hauer, who died at the age of 77, was well connected in the highest circles. The diaries edited by Marianne Klemun from the years 1860 to 1868 provide highly personal insights into his daily routines and interactions.
Franz von Hauer was married twice, had a daughter from his second marriage and was widowed twice at the age of 40. In 1866 he had another son. Spicy detail: the child's mother was Rosina Motesiczky, who was married to the Hungarian aristocrat Matthias Motesiczky de Kesseleökeö. Edmund, the child's name, was the father of the painter Marie-Louise von Motesiczky (1906-1996), who in turn had a love affair with the writer Elias Canetti (1905-1994). You can read it in Ines Schlenker's great Motesiczky monograph: "[…] he (= Edmund) was actually the result of his mother's relationship with Franz Ritter von Hauer, a distinguished geologist [...]." In other words: Hauer was "one of the first masters of geological research in Austria" (funeral inscription).
The internationally renowned Geological Institute was a sought-after place where young geologists initially worked as volunteers without pay. This was also the case for the German-born (Breslau) Emil Tietze, who came to Vienna in 1870 and had a career here that reached the position of director of the institution (1902–1918). It is not known when and where he met his director's daughter, Franz von Hauer, but in any case he married Rosa von Hauer in 1879. Their marriage has four children, a son and three daughters.
Tietze was elected president of the International Geological Congress in Vienna in 1903 and was president of the k.k. for seven years. Geographical Society and received its highest award, the Franz von Hauer Medal. Geologically, Tietze was always in the shadow of his all-powerful father-in-law, whom he honored in a 148-page (!) obituary.
One of Tietze's daughters, Hilde, married Wilhelm Petrascheck (1876–1967), he was - who is surprised? – Geologist. Petrascheck taught and worked as an internationally renowned deposit geologist at the Montanhochschule in Leoben, where he was also rector. His son, Walther E. Petrascheck (1906–1991), was also a well-known deposit geologist. He had "the gift for clear analysis and creative ideas" (Walter Pohl) and, as his father's successor, was both a professor and rector in Leoben. The “Deposit Theory,” published jointly by father and son, went through several editions and became a classic.
The youngest of Hauer's three sons, Julius, born in 1831, had made a career at the mining university in Leoben. In 1862 he was appointed lecturer in mechanics and general mechanical engineering and was also rector from 1893 to 1895. In 1867 his book about “The Metallurgy Machines” was published, followed in 1870 by “The Ventilation Machines of the Mines”. His brother-in-law Emil Tietze gave him roses in his obituary (1910): "The deceased was considered an outstanding expert in the field of mining machinery and his services in this regard were also externally recognized by the fact that both the Mining Academy in Leoben and the Technical University in Vienna included him among the currently still very small number of their honorary doctors."
One thing applies to everyone: The Hauers, Tietze and the Petraschecks - all in their own way - left behind research results in their constant search for new things that are still valid in the 21st century. (Thomas Hofmann, January 24, 2022)