Guerich-georg-1912-06-01-deutsche-kolonialzeitung-jg29-nr22-sonderbeilage

Georg Julius Ernst Gürich (25 September 1859, in Dobrodzień,

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

– 16 August 1938 in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

) was a German geologist, paleontologist and university teacher, who wrote on

Paleozoic The Paleozoic ( , , ; or Palaeozoic) Era is the first of three Era (geology), geological eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. Beginning 538.8 million years ago (Ma), it succeeds the Neoproterozoic (the last era of the Proterozoic Eon) and ends 251.9 Ma a ...

geological formations in Poland and ranged through

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

and

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

(at the time German colonies), in search of unrecorded new species. Georg Gürich studied geology in Breslau/Wrocław (1884–1891, Ph.D. 1882). In 1885, he first went to Africa, participating in a German scientific expedition to

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

and travelled in the western Sudan (1885), and in South-West Africa, now

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

(May 1888 to January 1889), mostly in the western mountains from Otjitambi to Rehoboth, to do geological research on behalf of the "Southwest African Gold Syndicate" (''Südwestafrikanisches Goldsyndikat''), with the aim of exploring alleged deposits of gold. The gold did not materialise, but his published geographical account ''Deutsch-Südwestafrika. Reisebilder aus den Jahren 1888 und 1889'' contains substantial additional information on the current political and social conditions in Namibia. In the following years, he travelled widely in Europe, Australia, Venezuela and Alaska and returned to Africa. In 1898 he was elected to the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In 1910 he became Director of the Geological Institute at the Hamburg Colonial Institute (later part of the

University of Hamburg The University of Hamburg (, also referred to as UHH) is a public university, public research university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by combining the previous General Lecture System ('':de:Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen, ...

). He followed up his paleontological research on Namibia, with another field trip in 1928, resulting in many scientific publications. He retired in 1934, and died in

on 16 August 1938. His collections are partly preserved in the Geological Museum of the University of Wrocław. The

Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a period (geology), geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era during the Phanerozoic eon (geology), eon, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the preceding Silurian per ...

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

bivalve Bivalvia () or bivalves, in previous centuries referred to as the Lamellibranchiata and Pelecypoda, is a class (biology), class of aquatic animal, aquatic molluscs (marine and freshwater) that have laterally compressed soft bodies enclosed b ...

genus ''Guerichia'' Rzehak, 1910, the Devonian tentaculitid genus ''Guerichina'' Bouček & Prantl, 1961, the Devonian

agnatha Agnatha (; ) or jawless fish is a paraphyletic infraphylum of animals in the subphylum Vertebrata of the phylum Chordata, characterized by the lack of jaws. The group consists of both extant taxon, living (Cyclostomi, cyclostomes such as hagfish ...

n genus ''Guerichosteus'' Tarlo, 1964, the Devonian

rugosa The Rugosa or rugose corals are an extinct Class (biology), class of solitary and Colony (biology), colonial corals that were abundant in Middle Ordovician to Late Permian seas. Solitary rugosans (e.g., ''Caninia (genus), Caninia'', ''Lopho ...

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Guerichiphyllum'' Różkowska, 1969, and several animal, foraminifer, and plant species were named in his honour.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gurich, Georg 1859 births 1938 deaths People from Olesno County Scientists from the Province of Silesia 20th-century German geologists 19th-century German geologists