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The name fox is also common among earth scientists; it requires differentiation. Nothing is easier, especially when the job is unique. The geologist Gerhard Fuchs (1934–2020) received the attribute “Himalayan fox” from his colleagues.
The name doesn't come by chance. Fuchs received his doctorate from the University of Vienna in 1957, took part in the Austrian Greenland expedition as a geologist that same year and then knew: “I want to become an expedition geologist!” During his work at the Federal Geological Survey from 1958 to 1994 and even after his retirement, he took part in no fewer than 18 (!) expeditions in the Himalayas. It was always about creating geological maps, i.e. showing the distribution of rocks over an area.
"From 1980 to 1992 I was part of every one of my father's expeditions, eight times," remembers ethnologist Bernhard Fuchs. "I was also with him in the Silvretta during his mapping. Basically, I could have become a geologist," summed up the youngest of Gerhard Fuchs' three sons. After receiving his doctorate in 1997, Bernhard Fuchs initially worked as a university assistant and later as an assistant professor at the Institute for European Ethnology at the University of Vienna. His two older brothers work as foresters and garden designers in professions closely related to nature.
Bernhard Fuchs: From the roof of the world to Bollywood
The fact that it became ethnology is partly due to his father's expeditions, where he was fascinated by the encounters with the Hindi and Nepali worlds. "It was the respectful nature of the encounters with the people in the Himalayas that fascinated me. It was facilitated by the fact that my father learned their languages," reflects the ethnologist, whose research focus is on media and cultural transfer. Here he devotes particular attention to the topic of "Bollywood" and is one of the experts on Indian film.
"I first became acquainted with Hindi films when I traveled with my father on a night bus - a 'super deluxe couch' - between Delhi and Manali, where videos were constantly playing," remembers Fuchs Jr. The reason why he then decided to study ethnology was not only due to the diversity of peoples and people in the world's highest mountain range, but also to his mother. Ingolde Fuchs received her doctorate in folklore and art history from the University of Graz in 1961 on wayside shrines on the side of the road.
Heinz A. Kollmann: Early fossil fascination
Things were similar for the Kollmann family, although “only” in Austria. "As a middle school student, I often went with my father on his geological field work in Styria and Lower Austria," says Heinz A. Kollmann, retired paleontologist and first director (today: general director) of the Natural History Museum in Vienna from 1988 to 1994, looking back on the 1950s.
His father, Kurt Kollmann (1915–1982), completed his dissertation "Contributions to the geology of the Seeberg area" at the University of Vienna in 1939 and started working at the Rohöl-Aufsuchungs-AG in the same year. On December 4, 1939, he was forced to enlist, became a prisoner of war, and was only able to return to work as a petroleum geologist in Austria ten years later. His area of work was eastern Styria, where it was hoped to find oil and natural gas.
At the beginning there was extensive mapping work, which his son Heinz often took part in during the school holidays. “I collected fossil shells and snails in the sand pits and then identified them,” says the tireless researcher, who even in his retirement regularly goes to the museum, where he has a job. Kollmann continues: "It was clear that I would study geosciences - it was not foreseeable at the time that it would be paleontology."
Lifelong love for fossil snails
When Heinz Kollmann wrote his dissertation on the Gams region near Hieflau in Styria, fossil molluscs, specifically mussels and snails, remained his favorite topic as a researcher. Kollmann became an internationally recognized expert on Cretaceous snails. "When I started at the museum in 1962, my boss at the time, Helmuth Zapfe, wanted me to dedicate myself to corals from the Triassic, but that wasn't my thing," smiles mischievously Kollmann, who remained loyal to the snails.
During his time as head of the museum, he was able to realize the roof extension and the deep storage facility: the latter was built parallel to the construction work on the Volkstheater U3 station, which is located next to the museum.
Eduard Suess, his children and grandchildren Hans
One of the most important geologists, Eduard Suess (1831–1914), who was born in London and lived in Vienna, had seven children, two daughters (Paula and Sabine) and five sons: Adolph, Hermann, Franz, Otto and Erhard. Only Franz Eduard Suess (1867–1941) took up his father's profession. Paula (1861–1921) married the paleontologist Melchior Neumayr (1845–1890) in 1878 and became a widow at an early age, but this is not about marriage relationships.
The handwritten curriculum vitae that Franz Eduard, who received his doctorate in July 1891, submitted on March 4, 1893 together with his application to the k. k. Geological Reichsanstalt (today: Geological Federal Institute). Here he writes, "as the son of the university professor Eduard Suess", that on the one hand he "mainly gave geological and other scientific lectures" and on the other hand he made "many larger and smaller trips for the purpose of geological studies". It is interesting that he writes about himself in the third person. Continuing in the original tone: "... mainly there were excursions in the Alps on which he accompanied his father, Professor E. Suess, the most important of which was an excursion to the Radstädter Tauern ..."
When Franz Eduard was sent to Slovenia on the occasion of the severe earthquake in Laibach on April 14, 1895, to assess the damage on site and search for the cause, he was in close correspondence with his father and his sister Paula. On April 19, he wrote to his father from the quake area: "... I am always very grateful to you for advice and would like to ask you to give me any other instructions." It almost sounds as if the Filius was remotely controlled from Vienna, but essentially he used his father's knowledge, experience and networks.
"Little Sweet"
Interesting details about the history of the Suess family are contained in unpublished memories of the third generation, i.e. Hans Suess (1909–1993), chemist and nuclear physicist, the son of Franz Eduard Suess. While Eduard and his son Franz Eduard had the same profession as geologists, Franz Eduard showed no political ambitions, while his father was a member of the Reichstag.
Franz Eduard was very musical, had two children, but in no way pushed his son Hans to pursue geology. Of course, Hans was also traveling with his father on geological work and gained insights from him into the then new theories of plate tectonics: "… in the early 1920's, [he] explained to me the principles of continental drift, and the existence of continental plates. He explained to me how the Alps had been pushed up by the pressure of the African continent against central Europe". But the senior had to realize that the junior wasn't interested: "... but he realized that I wasn't particularly interested."
When choosing his course of study, Hans Suess leaned towards chemistry and physics. In the 1920s, his father Franz Eduard saw the future in biology: "'Biology', he said 'is the science of the future, and we are approaching an age of biotechnology'."
Hans Suess, who wanted everything but to be called "little Suess", made his career in the United States and was successful, among other things, with work on the radiocarbon method. In doing so, he made important contributions to the absolute age determination of the most recent periods in the planet's geological history. (Thomas Hofmann, September 8, 2020)