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The geologist Thomas Hofmann looks at three careers of renowned researchers in his guest blog.
Everyone has hobbies and passions. Everyday working life is often a tight constraint that leaves little room for freedom. Only the pension opens up new possibilities. Wilhelm Haidinger, renowned geologist in the 19th century, found time at the age of 75 to write “Remembrance of Swimming Lessons” on May 22, 1870. Before that, he found the k. k. Geological Institute founded, simply did not have the necessary muse.
Others lived out their passions much earlier. Some chose a pseudonym in order to strictly separate their alter ego as an artist from their academic career.
Born on February 23, 1884 in Innsbruck, Bruno Sander died there on September 5, 1979. So much for the geologist's key data. When geologists wrote the obituary in the fall of 1979, they sought support from the Innsbruck Germanist Walter Methlagl, who honored the literary work - including the catalog raisonné - of Anton Santer, the alter ego Bruno Sanders.
But first to the geologist, whose name has lived on since 1987 in the mighty building of the University of Innsbruck's Bruno Sander House at Innrain 52, which was built in 1975. The Faculty of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences is now based in the eight-story glass-concrete block near the University Bridge on the Inn. Sander had studied geology in Innsbruck and received his habilitation in 1912. From 1913 he was in Vienna at the k. k. Geological Institute employed to take geological photographs in South Tyrol; in 1922 he accepted an appointment as full professor at the University of Innsbruck; Of course, his appointment was not without controversy, as the historian Peter Goller explained in detail: "On October 1, 1922, Bruno Sander was appointed professor of mineralogy and petrography against the sharp resistance of the 'Vienna School' around Friedrich Becke." Sander made a name for himself as the founder of structural science, including the two-volume textbook "Structural Science of Geological Bodies" (1948/50).
Now to the literary figure, the author of poetry and prose. Santer was already active in literature before the First World War and had contact with the authors of the "Brenner Group", including Georg Trakl. He preferred to publish with the Innsbruck Brenner Verlag, which also published the literary magazine “Der Brenner” from 1910 to 1954. Important aspects about the person of Anton Santer, or Bruno Sander, can be found in a letter from the writer Friedrich Punts to the German scholar Walter Methlagl dated March 17, 1969.
"But what, in my opinion, made Sander particularly special, what distinguished him as a poet, thinker and scientist, were his years of solo expeditions in the mountains as a recording geologist." Here is a passage from Santer's "Obituary" (1921): "All around me, the depths of space captivated me. Under my left, stripes of white firn beckoned, like longing wishes pointing into gray stone deserts. To my right stretched the empty sky. In front of me the rock rested; it rested in lines that threw and broke like screams to the sky. So I sat king and child and felt how I was creating what I was mountain call." Punt continues: "Such an activity requires a hermit's life and S. was a hermit as a scholar and as a poet."
Julius von Payer (1842–1915) is best known in connection with Carl Weyprecht (1838–1881). The two polar explorers made headlines with the Austro-Hungarian North Pole expedition from 1872 to 1874. Even though they had to abandon their research ship, the Tegetthoff, in the eternal ice, they became famous through the discovery of Franz Josefs-Land on August 30, 1873. When they returned to Vienna's North Station on September 25, 1874, they were celebrated as heroes.
Payer, who first completed the military academy in Wiener Neustadt, then went on alpine tours in the South Tyrolean mountains before dedicating himself to polar research in 1869, had a talent for drawing: this is proven by numerous sketches of his polar journeys. Seen from this point of view, it was no coincidence that he would later devote himself entirely to painting, but the dimensions are astonishing. This applies to both the size of his pictures - his most famous work "Never back!" (1892, oil on canvas) measures an impressive 330 by 460 centimeters - as do the exhibition locations and its international recognition.
Payer's oil paintings can be found, among other places, in the Natural History Museum, which opened in 1889. The Tegetthoff (1884) and Franz Josefs-Land (1886) can be seen in Hall VI, where the origins of the earth and life are discussed today. Here he is united with the who's who of landscape painters of the time, because only the best was good enough for the Haus am Ring.
After the polar journey, Payer completed an artistic training at the end of the 1870s, first in Frankfurt and from the 1880s also in Munich. His time as an artist began in Paris in 1883. His paintings were rewarded with medals several times, and from the 1890s Payer moved to Vienna in the third district of Vienna (Bechardgasse 14). The monumental painting mentioned, today in the Military History Museum, impressed the emperor on April 1, 1892 in the Vienna Künstlerhaus. "The picture 'Never Back' by the North Pole explorer Payer was particularly applauded by the monarch, who honored him with a gracious speech." (Prager Tagblatt, April 2, 1892).
Theodor Billroth, born on April 26, 1829 in Bergen on the German island of Rügen, died in 1894 in Abbazia (today: Opatija in Croatia) and is known as a surgeon. But a career as a musician was also initially on the cards. No wonder, his mother came from a Berlin family of musicians; Billroth's father was a Protestant pastor. In 1834, his mother, who was widowed at an early age, moved with Billroth and his four brothers to Greifswald, where he practiced playing the piano and violin. “He would have preferred to be a musician,” writes the doctor and historian Sonia Horn. If it had been up to him, he would have had a career as a musician. But Mama Billroth urged the child to study medicine, which he did; initially in Greifswald and from 1849 in Göttingen. In 1852 he received his doctorate in Berlin and turned to surgery under Bernhard von Langenbeck (1810–1887). In 1856 he received his habilitation in surgery and pathological anatomy. Two years later he married Christel Michaelis, daughter of a doctor and a singer (Karoline Eunike).
From 1860 to 1867 they both lived in Zurich. His textbook “General Surgical Pathology and Therapy in 50 Lectures” was published here in 1863. He also worked for the “Neue Zürcher Zeitung” as a competent music critic. On the occasion of a concert by Clara Schumann on February 18, 1862 - she played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major - he wrote: "Was it the magic that hovers around the artist, was it the conductor, was it the enthusiasm for the composers that animated the orchestra? - We have never heard such good orchestral accompaniment to a solo piece..."
Billroth was not only a critic, he also composed numerous pieces, including trios, a piano quintet and a string quartet. Only three have survived; he wrote about the whereabouts of the others in 1883: "I gave all of my compositions to the flames a few years ago; they were terrible stuff and smelled horrible when they burned!"
Brahms (1833–1897) and Billroth met in Zurich in 1865. Later, as fate would have it, both of them would go to Vienna. Billroth was appointed senior surgeon at the AKH in 1867, and from 1869 Brahms also had his permanent residence in the Danube metropolis. Billroth's achievements lay primarily in visceral surgery; gastric resection is closely linked to his name. His free time was devoted entirely to music; he had set up a music salon in his apartment (Alser Straße 20). Many of Brahms' works were heard here. The music critic Eduard Hanslick (1825–1904), who was on friendly terms with both of them, was almost always there.
Billroth's correspondence with Brahms is worth reading. The range of topics is surprisingly broad. When the geologist Eduard Suess gave his inaugural speech, “On the Progress of the Human Race,” as rector of the University of Vienna on October 16, 1888, Billroth was thrilled. On the same day he wrote to his friend Johannes Brahms: "I am sending you today's speech from Sueß under Kreuzband [= printed matter]. [...], you have to read from page 21. How clever and fine everything, how gripping the examples chosen, how moderate everything that is rejected between the lines." (Thomas Hofmann, February 18, 2022)