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The number 50 is golden when it comes to years of marriage, keyword: golden wedding. It is topped by the diamond wedding (60 years). Scientific institutions know how to celebrate important anniversaries with commemorative publications, celebrations and speeches. 25 years is a first reason, 50 years then a worthy occasion for large celebrations with domestic and foreign guests including political celebrities. Decorations of honor and honorary memberships are often awarded at these celebrations. But the actual anniversaries did not always coincide with the date of the celebrations. Three prominent examples show that the exact timing of anniversaries was not taken so seriously - the reasons were different.
With a handwritten decree dated November 15, 1849, Emperor Franz Joseph approved the establishment of the k.k. Geological Reichsanstalt, later the Geological Federal Institute (today: GeoSphere Austria). This marked the founding date and birthday. The 50th founding day would therefore have been celebrated on Wednesday, November 15, 1899. At the in-house meeting of geologists on November 28, 1899, director Guido Stache (1833 to 1921) addressed the missed anniversary, gave a speech and explained why the celebration would not take place in November 1899, but at Pentecost 1900.
The reason was simple: it was too cold and in 1899 it was no longer possible to heat the hall of the Rasumofsky Palace (Wien Landstrasse), where the geologists had their headquarters. The Meissner heating system, which had made the 25th anniversary celebrations on January 5, 1875 possible with “significant costs for continuous heating over several days,” was dismantled without replacement. The heating system in question, a central heating system based on warm air, goes back to the inventor Paul Traugott Meißner (1778 to 1864), who at that time also equipped parts of the Hofburg, the Polytechnic Institute (today TU Vienna) and numerous other buildings with it.
Stache saw no disadvantage in the postponement. He hoped for the “friendly personal appearance of a large number of friends, patrons and specialists at home and abroad.”
And that's how it happened. On June 9, 1900, at eleven o'clock, the who's who of the domestic and foreign experts appeared in Vienna to properly celebrate the geologists "in the Kaisersaal of the institution building" in Rasumofskygasse, with local political celebrities present. The gala dinner took place at the Grand Hotel. The printed version of Stache's celebratory speech, including a portrait of the young monarch in the founding year of 1849, appeared after the celebration and was presented to the "highly honored patrons, friends and correspondents" as a souvenir.
Less than two years after the founding of the k.k. Geological Reichsanstalt, meteorologists were institutionalized on July 23, 1851. The procedure, a letter from the emperor, was almost word for word as with the geologists. "I authorize the establishment of a central institute for meteorological and magnetic observations." (today: GeoSphere Austria).
Anyone who thinks that July is a more ideal month than November for holding festive events is wrong. In the summer, most scientists were and are in the field, “in the field,” as we still say today. Therefore, there are no events or lectures in the summer months. So the 50th anniversary celebration was postponed to autumn.
The festivities began on Saturday, October 26, 1901 (at that time it was not a national holiday) at Hohe Warte 38 (Vienna Döbling), in the meteorologists' building, a building by Heinrich Ferstl, which was occupied in April 1872. Archduke Rainer, curator of the Academy of Sciences, and Eduard Suess, president of the academy, led the delegation of scholars. The house was finely decorated, "the vestibule was richly decorated with garlands and foliage, while the entrance was adorned with the imperial bust surrounded by a laurel wreath." The host, director Josef Pernter (1848 to 1908), welcomed the guests and, after a short speech, led them first through the house and then into the spacious garden, where there were several rain gauges. After His Highness “expressed his complete satisfaction to Director Pernter,” the guests left the noble Döbling.
At five o'clock in the afternoon a celebratory meeting to mark the anniversary of the k.k. took place in the Academy of Sciences. Central Institute for Meteorology and Earth Magnetism, as the Wiener Zeitung reported on October 27, 1902. Archduke Rainer presided, and among those present were Archduke Leopold Salvator, Minister of Education Wilhelm von Hartel, Minister of Finance Eugen Böhm von Bawerk and numerous other dignitaries and scholars. After Rainer and Hartel had spoken, Pernter gave the ceremonial speech, where he addressed current (hail mitigation through weather shooting and research into higher air layers through weather balloons) as well as future projects (climatography of Austria).
On the occasion of this anniversary, the Emperor honored long-time employees of foreign weather observatories with titles (Imperial Council) and decorations (Knight's Cross of the Franz Joseph Order, Golden Cross of Merit with the Crown). Honored employees of the Crown Lands were appointed by Minister Hartel as correspondents for the institution.
Days later, on October 29th, there were graphic depictions of the keynote speakers at the Academy in the Illustrirten Wiener Extrablatt. But the Fatherland (October 30, 1901) didn't like them at all; the critical editor didn't think the people depicted were well suited, for which he had sharp words. "These alleged portraits are actually caricatures and it is a shame that the famous illustrators of the "Extrablatt" cannot be prosecuted for insulting honor in such cases."
What remains is a commemorative publication called a “jubilation volume”. In addition to a historical introduction about the Pernter Central Institute, it contains eleven scientific articles. They were presented, i.e. submitted, between February 15th and July 11th - before the actual founding day - to the Academy of Sciences, which also published them as volume 73 of the "Memorandums".
It takes meticulous research to identify a 50 as "wrong" to realize that it actually means an 80. But first things first. The German geologist Gustav Steinmann (1856 to 1929), director of the Geological Institute in Bonn, wrote in 1911 about "Geology at the University of Vienna in the last 50 years".
The subtitle, "A Sheet of Congratulations and Remembrance," suggests that it is an anniversary. One would think that the five-page work from 1911 was about 50 years of geology at the University of Vienna or the Geological Institute. But both are wrong: Geology was first read in Vienna in the winter semester of 1849/50 by Philipp Ritter von Holger in his own apartment, under the title "Geognosy". In the summer semester of 1856, Lukas Zekeli presented a "preparatory course in geology with special consideration of volcanism, neptunism and metamorphism". The founding of the Geological Institute also does not coincide with Steinmann's 50s. The institute was founded in 1862, the year Eduard Suess (1831 to 1914) was appointed associate professor of geology.
Steinmann mentions three big names for the five decades: the aforementioned Suess, then Melchior Neumayr (1845 to 1890) and Viktor Uhlig (1857 to 1911). Neumayr, Suess' son-in-law, was a paleontologist but wrote a two-volume "Earth History". Uhlig, in turn, was a geologist and successor to Suess, who had stopped teaching in 1901 at the age of 70. This brings us closer to the real reason for this short work.
The year 1911 is by no means the 50th anniversary of geology. When Steinmann writes in this work, which appeared in the Geological Rundschau (Volume 2), "Today Suess turns 80," he reveals the real reason for his appreciation. Although the title is initially misleading and suggests otherwise, Steinmann continues: "Our young association congratulates its honorary president on the rich life's work that he can look back on!" What is meant here is the Geological Association, founded in Frankfurt am Main in 1910, which has merged with the German Geological Society to form the DGGV since 2015.
So everything is clear, the "Steinmann equation" is: "Geology at the University of Vienna in the last 50 years" = "80 years of Eduard Suess". In a sense, Steinmann is somehow right. (Thomas Hofmann, January 1, 2024)