Carl Ernst Arthur Wichmann (9 April 1851 Hamburg – 28 November 1927 Hamburg) was a German geologist and mineralogist. He was professor in geology at Utrecht University from 1879 to 1921, where he founded the geological institute. His daughter was the

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

anarchist Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that is skeptical of all justifications for authority and seeks to abolish the institutions it claims maintain unnecessary coercion and hierarchy, typically including, though not neces ...

- socialist

Clara Wichmann Clara Gertrud Wichmann (17 August 1885 – 15 February 1922) was a Germans, German–Dutch people, Dutch lawyer and anarcha-feminism, anarchist feminist activist, who became a leading advocate of criminal justice reform and Prison abolition movem ...

, his son the

artist An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, th ...

and

fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

Erich Wichmann. Arthur Wichmann spent his youth in Hamburg, where his father ran a boarding school. From 1871 to 1874 he studied at Leipzig University, where he was a pupil of

Ferdinand Zirkel Prof Ferdinand Zirkel Royal Society of London, FRS(For) HFRSE (20 May 183811 June 1912) was a German geologist and petrography, petrographer. Biography Zirkel was born in Bonn. Educated in his native town, he graduated PhD from the University o ...

, from whom he got his interest in mineralogy. After he spent a few years as assistant to Zirkel he became professor at Utrecht University. Geological research was never done at Utrecht before, and Wichmann committed himself to the task of starting a geological institute. Apart from setting up research and education Wichmann had to start a geological collection, for which reason he participated in expeditions to Dutch colonies, in 1888-1889 to the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

( Celebes,

Flores Flores is one of the Lesser Sunda Islands, a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia. Including the Komodo Islands off its west coast (but excluding the Solor Archipelago to the east of Flores), the land area is 15,530.58 km2, and th ...

, Timor and Rotti) and in 1902-1903 to New Guinea. As a scientist Wichmann was mainly interested in mineralogy and

petrology Petrology () is the branch of geology that studies rocks and the conditions under which they form. Petrology has three subdivisions: igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary petrology. Igneous and metamorphic petrology are commonly taught together ...

. After his retirement in 1921 he returned to his city of birth Hamburg, where he died in 1927. His successor at Utrecht was L.M.R. Rutten.

Sources

*P. Marks: ''Honderd jaar geologisch onderwijs aan de rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'', 1979 *R.W.L. Vissers: ''Arthur Wichmann, grondlegger van de Aardwetenschappen in Utrecht'', 2004

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wichmann, Arthur 1851 births 1927 deaths German mineralogists Petrologists Explorers of New Guinea 19th-century German geologists 20th-century Dutch geologists Scientists from Hamburg Utrecht University faculty