Joseph von Hauer (March 6, 1778 Vienna–February 2, 1863 Vienna) was an Austrian finance official, statesman and paleontologist.

Life

Joseph von Hauer, son of Karl Josef von Hauer, member of the Austrian Imperial War Council, studied law until 1798 at the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich histor ...

. In 1800 he became district commissioner in

Korneuburg Korneuburg () is a town in Austria. It is located in the state Lower Austria and is the administrative center of the district of Korneuburg. Korneuburg is situated on the left bank of the Danube, opposite the city of Klosterneuburg, and is 12&nbs ...

. After 1807 he worked at the Imperial Finance Bureau in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, serving as its vice-chairman from 1831 until his retirement in 1848. He also performed various diplomatic tasks. In 1805 he served in the army

commissariat A commissariat is a department or organization commanded by a commissary or by a corps of commissaries. In many countries, commissary is a police rank. In those countries, a commissariat is a police station commanded by a commissary. In some ar ...

with the Russian troops, and after the

Battle of Austerlitz The Battle of Austerlitz (2 December 1805/11 Frimaire An XIV FRC), also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was one of the most important and decisive engagements of the Napoleonic Wars. The battle occurred near the town of Austerlitz in ...

with the French troops. In 1807 he carried out an economic tour of the Alpine districts. In 1809 he was involved in the relocation of archival and artistic materials, including the Imperial "Cabinet of Curiosities" (''Naturalienkabinett''), from Vienna to Hungary to escape the French. He was able to return this to Vienna in 1810. In 1810 he traveled with Karl Chotek of Chotków to France to survey economic and political conditions there for the imperial government. In 1811 he became a member of the commission for the elimination of

banknote A banknote—also called a bill (North American English), paper money, or simply a note—is a type of negotiable instrument, negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes w ...

s, and in 1816 he was involved in the regulation of the coinage. He also published writings on topics of the financial and administrative system. In addition to his profession Hauer was interested in science, especially in

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

. For example, he explored the

Tertiary Tertiary ( ) is a widely used but obsolete term for the geologic period from 66 million to 2.6 million years ago. The period began with the demise of the non-avian dinosaurs in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, at the start ...

strata of the

Vienna Basin The Vienna Basin (german: Wiener Becken, cz, Vídeňská pánev, sk, Viedenská kotlina, Hungarian: ''Bécsi-medence'') is a geologically young tectonic burial basin and sedimentary basin in the seam area between the Alps, the Carpathians and t ...

. Fossil material of

foraminifera Foraminifera (; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class of amoeboid protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell biology), ectoplasm for catching food and ot ...

which he discovered and collected was used by

Alcide d'Orbigny Alcide Charles Victor Marie Dessalines d'Orbigny (6 September 1802 – 30 June 1857) was a French naturalist who made major contributions in many areas, including zoology (including malacology), palaeontology, geology, archaeology and anthrop ...

in 1846 for his monograph on the foraminifera of the Vienna Basin. In 1846 Hauer became a member of the Association of ''Freunde der Naturwissenschaften''. In 1847 he was admitted to the Geology and Paleontology Section of the

Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

. Von Hauer is buried at the

St. Marx Cemetery St. Marx Cemetery (Sankt Marxer Friedhof) is a cemetery in the Landstraße district of Vienna, used from 1784 until 1874. It contains the unmarked grave of the famous composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. History The cemetery was named after a nearb ...

in Vienna. His collection is now in the Mountain Museum of the Geological Survey in Vienna. His son,

Franz Ritter von Hauer Franz Ritter von Hauer, or Franz von Hauer (January 30, 1822 – March 20, 1899), was an Austrian geologist. Biography Hauer was born in Vienna, the son of Joseph von Hauer (1778-1863), who was equally distinguished as a high Austrian offic ...

, was also active as a geologist and paleontologist, another son, Karl von Hauer, was a captain in the imperial army and a chemist. As such he was a director of the Laboratory of the Imperial Geological Institution (''Geologischen Reichsanstalt'').

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hauer, Joseph von 1778 births 1863 deaths Scientists from Vienna Austrian paleontologists Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina