FERDINAND ROEMER—PALAEONTOLOGIST, STRATIGRAPHER, GEOLOGIST: FROM NORTHERN GERMANY TO CENTRAL TEXAS TO UPPER SILESIA

Ferdinand Roemer (1818-1891) developed his scientific interests in the setting of his hometown Hildesheim near Hannover. He studied law and geology at the universities of Göttingen, Heidelberg, and Berlin, and lived a professionally productive, rich, and influential life after finishing his studies at Berlin with a palaeontologic dissertation (1842). His work is based on extensive, geologic field observations and collections of fossils in quite different terrains. In each case, his major publications of the final study results turned out to be very important by being fundamental and providing new, comprehensive, basic knowledge. They include a study of the Rheinisches Schiefergebirge, western Germany (1844), and North American investigations (1849, 1852, 1860), especially in present central Texas. In 1855, he was appointed a full professor at the university in Breslau, Silesia (Prussia). A monumental 'Geologie von Oberschlesien' was prepared (1870) which covers geology, stratigraphy, palaeontology, and economic geology of Upper Silesia. His last major works were monographic studies of Palaeozoic strata and fossils (1876-1883), and of Scandinavian sedimentary rocks found as glacial erratics in the plains of northern Germany (1885). Ferdinand Roemer was a highly recognized academic researcher, teacher, and person of knowledge and Bildung, influencing by example students, friends, laymen alike. As director of the mineralogical museum he was devoted to public education, with his enthusiastic presentations being the attraction of a visit. Roemer was well traveled, and both nationally and internationally widely known and recognized.