a historic lower silesian palaeobotanical collection ...

A LOWER SILESIAN PALAEOBOTANICAL COLLECTION

A TRULY EUROPEAN FOREST: A HISTORIC LOWER SILESIAN PALAEOBOTANICAL COLLECTION (LATE CRETACEOUS) AT THE MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY (BERLIN) BARBARA A. R. MOHR Museum of Natural History, Berlin Invalidenstrasse 43, 10 115 Berlin, Germany [email protected] ABSTRACT

Earth Sciences History Vol. 28, No. 2, 2009 pp. 276–292

A historical collection of late Cretaceous plant fossils from Lower Silesia, comprising about 520 specimens, now located at the Museum of Natural History, Berlin, and formerly in possession of the Prussian Geological Survey, has recently been traced back to its origins. Today this collection can be used as a nucleus to develop future scientific research projects. Due to the historical background of the specimens and the scattered locations of additional material from various geologic sites, such projects may have to be realised as a cooperative effort between scientists from several institutions of the Central European countries that were historically involved, namely the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland.

1. INTRODUCTION The Museum of Natural History Berlin (MfN) holds a historic collection that comprises more than 500 specimens of late Cretaceous plant fossils from the area known as Lower Silesia. Until 1945 this geographic area was part of the German province of Silesia (Schlesien/Sl!sk). Today it is divided between Poland, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Most of its territory is now a part of southwestern Poland and the area from which the fossils came is located in the Voivodeship of Dolny Sl!sk (see Figure 1). Since the year 2000 parts of this area belong to the Neisse–Nysa–Nisa Eurozone: a loose confederation involving several counties, located in the three States of the Czech Republic, Germany and Poland, and established with the aim of removing hindrances created by the existing borders. These activities include especially bilingual education in kindergartens, schools, and at the university level, as well as bilingual or trilingual publications by various cultural institutions. Since this paper primarily describes the historical background of palaeontological collections dating from the mid-nineteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century, the geographical names are given in what was at that time current usage in German. The current valid Polish names are given in parentheses. The present paper is focused on the Berlin collections. Other collections from this region are now located at Wroc"aw, Dresden (Hermann Andert Collection, 1879–1945; ca 45 specimens), and Prague. Minor collections are found in the natural history collections of Görlitz (less than ten specimens; oral comm. Olaf Tietz), and possibly also in Freiberg. A detailed palaeobotanical analysis, combining information from all these collections, will be presented in a future publication.

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Figure 1. Central Europe. Silesia as a part of Prussia/Germany before 1945 with borders to Czechoslovakia to the south and Poland to the east. Insert: Poland’s present borders, and showing the Voivodeship Dolny Sl!sk, where the collections originated.

2. GENERAL HISTORICAL BACKGROUND During the Early to Late Middle Ages, Silesia was divided between several Bohemian, Polish, and German counts and dukes. From 1327 on, most of its territory was part of Bohemia, which from 1486 became part of the territory of the Habsburg Empire. During the eighteenth century most of Silesia came under Prussian rule and when Prussia and the other German States, such as Saxony, Bavaria, Hesse, etc., were united in 1871, the area became an eastern province of the German State. After 1945, as a result of World War II, the area with the fossil localities became part of Poland. The collections now held in Berlin date from the early nineteenth to early twentieth century, when most of Silesia was under Prussian and German rule. Silesia has long been rich in mineral resources. Thus the State and private enterprises both had a major interest in detailed geologic surveys. The first ‘geognostic’ maps, as they were called then, were made in the early nineteenth century. When in the mid-nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution spread into Prussia, efforts in the field of geosciences increased dramatically and many papers were published on stratigraphy and palaeontology, including palaeobotany. Much of the work was initiated and/or carried out by members of two institutions: the Prussian (later German) Geological Survey in Berlin, and the University of Breslau (Wroc"aw). The Berlin institution, nominally founded in 1873, had its beginnings in a mining school dating back to 1770. A new building, located at Invalidenstrasse 44, was opened in 1878 and the collections, including some of the material discussed here, along with related maps and literature, were moved to this location. The building was also meant to be a museum for geology, open to the public. Breslau/Wroc"aw University had its beginnings as a Jesuit College when Silesia was part of the Bohemia/Habsburg Empire. After its (re)foundation as a full university under Prussian rule in 1811, it became an important school during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with highly qualified scholars in the field of (palaeo)botany, such as Johann Heinrich Robert Goeppert (born 1800 Sprottau/Sprotawa–1884 Breslau/Wroc"aw; see also below), Ferdinand Julius Cohn (1828 Breslau–1898 Breslau), Adolf Engler (1848 Sagan/Zagan–1930 Berlin) and Ferdinand Pax (1858 Königinhof/Bohemia–1942 Breslau). 277


3. GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY The first of two separate collection areas was in the region of Glatz (K"odzko), located in the south of the (now) Polish part of Silesia, close to the Czech border and neighbouring the Czech part of Silesia (see Figure 2). The locations where the material was collected are small villages, notably Kieslingswalde (Idzików) (see Figure 3) and Neuwaltersdorf (Nowy Waliszów). Sandstones and claystones of late Turonian and Coniacian age crop out in this area (Badura et al. 2005) but younger, Santonian, strata appear to be missing (Sturm 1901, Scupin 1935). The sandstones and conglomeratic equivalents form the rocky tops of several hills east of Kieslingswalde (Idzików). Radwanski (1961) has studied these deltaic sediments, which are part of the Inner Sudetic Basin, or more precisely part of the Nysa– Graben structure (Badura et al. 2005). The age of the strata in the Basin is thought to be Turonian through Santonian (Walaszczyk 1992). Nannofossils date these strata as mid- to late Coniacian (Kedzierski 2000). McCann (2008) gives a comprehensive account on the geology of this region, including more recent literature citations. Figure 2 Geography of Lower Silesia.

The second collecting area is in the area round several small towns in the counties of Bunzlau (Boles"awiec) to the north, and Löwenberg (Lwówek) to the south, geologically known as the Löwenberg Mulde (Basin)!a part of the North Sudetic Basin (see Figures 4 and 5). This includes Ullersdorf near Naumburg/Queis (O"drzychow near Novogrodziec) to the west and Wehrau (Osiecznica) to the north. The area is located in the northern foothills of the Isergebirge (Góry Izerskie). Hirschberg (Jelenia Góra), a well known resort, is located about 40–50 km to the southeast of the collection area in the Riesengebirge (Karkonosze). The rivers Queis (Kwisa) and Bober (Bóbr) pass Ullersdorf and Bunzlau + Löwenberg, respectively. The names of these rivers are mentioned on several of the labels attached to the specimens. The Löwenberg Mulde has been important in the development of local geologic knowledge, and was mapped (see below) and described very early in local geologic studies. One of the founders of geology, Abraham Gottlob Werner (1749–1817) was born in Wehrau (Osiecznica), located in the northern part of this geologic structure, where his father was inspector of an iron foundry, and where Werner obtained his first scientific training. Primarily known as the proponent of the then widely held Neptunist theory, Werner later taught geosciences and mining at the Mining School at Freiberg in Saxony. His most famous 278


student was Alexander von Humboldt, one of the founders of Berlin University and associated scientific institutions, including the Berlin MfN where the Silesian collection is now held.

Figure 3. Photograph of Kieslingswalde/Idzików and surrounding landscape (before 1945). See also Figure 6.

Figure 4. Geography of the Bunzlau/Boles"awiec area with localities mentioned in the text.

The geology of this area was described by G. Williger in his dissertation of 1881 (Williger 1882) and by H. Scupin (1935). It comprises a wide variety of sediments, from coarse sandstones to clays, and is of Cenomanian to Santonian age (see Figure 6). More recently, Milewicz (1988 and 1997) introduced the terms ‘Racowice Wie"kie Formation’ for the sediments of this region that comprise various facies types of Cenomanian to mid-

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Coniacian age; and ‘Wegliniec Formation’ and ‘Czerna Formation’ for sediments of late Coniacian to early Santonian age (McCann 2008).

Figure 5. Photograph of Löwenberg/Lwówek (postcard ca 1910), showing the Cretaceous sandstone formation (plus a quarry) of Turonian/Coniacian age.

The sandstones of the Löwenberg area (Rackwitz/Rakowice, Alt-Warthau/ Wartowice) were used for various buildings, the most prominent being the German Parliament in Berlin (Ehling 1999) and the facade of Berlin Cathedral. The plant-bearing clays of the Bunzlau area, as seen in the Berlin collection, are early Santonian in age and have been used to produce ceramics, the durable stoneware having been manufactured locally since the late Middle Ages. In the late nineteenth century, when most of the Lower Silesian specimens now held in Berlin were collected, pottery was economically very important in Bunzlau and the neighbouring towns and villages (e.g. Tillendorf/Tylof and Naumburg am Queis/Novogrodziec). Its characteristic dotted pattern, developed for rapid and profitable production, became a trademark (Müller et al. 1986). 4. HISTORY OF THE COLLECTION As early as 1848 the Prussian Government decided to start a large-scale geological mapping project, ‘The Geological map of Prussia’, on the scale of 1: 25,000. It was decided to start with areas of Silesia where preliminary studies had already been undertaken (Zeitschrift der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft 1, pp. 41–43, 1849). The leader of this project was Heinrich Ernst Beyrich (1815 Berlin–1896 Berlin). In 1840, Beyrich, who had studied at Berlin with Christian Samuel Weiss (1780–1856), and later at Bonn, returned to Berlin from several trips to France, Italy and Switzerland, where he had had the opportunity to improve his knowledge of current trends in geosciences. Later he became Head of the newly founded Prussian Geological Survey/Mining School and in 1865 he was appointed Professor at Berlin University. The maps compiled under his directorship were published by Simon Schropp, one of the oldest publishers of maps and geographic literature in Germany (founded in 1742 and still in business today), and were printed in high quality by the Berliner lithographische Anstalt. 280


Figure 6. Geology of the Glatz (K"odzko) area and legend (from Sturm 1901).

It was during these mapping campaigns that much of the material for the Prussian and later the German Geological Survey was collected, mainly as reference items. The work was done partly by geologists, partly by botanists, and also by local teachers. The collections were further enhanced by donations from private collectors and by acquiring local school and, or, museums collections (see further below). These collections stayed with the German Geological Survey until 1945, more or less unchanged. Walter Gothan (1879–1954) was then Head of the Survey’s palaeobotanical section and Professor of Palaeobotany at the University (prior to 1945 called the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität). After 1945, the old structure of these institutions was changed and an Academy of Sciences was founded along the lines of the Russian model. In 1951, Gothan was appointed head of the newly founded Arbeitsstelle für Paläobotanik, located in Berlin, and was encouraged to take with him the 281


majority of the palaeobotanical collections of the former Prussian/German Geological Survey. When this branch of the Academy was abolished in 1968, the palaeobotanical collections were transferred to the MfN and merged with the even older museum collections, which included important material from Ernst Friedrich von Schlotheim (1764– 1832) (Beschreibung merkwürdiger Kräuterabdrücke, 1804) and Bernhard von Cotta (1800 Zillbach–1879 Freiberg) (this collection having been acquired in 1845). Since 1968, the Lower Silesian collection has been incorporated in the MfN’s Mesophyte Collection and has been curated by the author of this paper since 1996. In 2009, the MfN, which had been part of the Berlin University since its beginnings in the early nineteenth century, became an independent body, but under the aegis of the Leibniz Gemeinschaft, an umbrella organisation of several State-funded research institutions. 5. THE BERLIN COLLECTION 5.1. The Glatz (K"odzko) area The specimens, all contained in a rather coarse sandstone matrix, come from four localities of the Glatz (K"odzko) area (see Figure 6): Kieslingswalde/Idzików (170–180 specimens); Neuwaltersdorf/Nowy Waliszów (about forty specimens); Rengersdorf/Krosnovice (three specimens); and Wölfelsdorf/Wilkanów (two specimens) (see again Figure 6). Two quarries near Kieslingswalde/Idzików are recorded: the Wilhelm Simon and the Pius Reinsch. The geologic age was formerly given as Unteremscher, which is today regarded as late Turonian to Coniacian. The material from the Glatz area was collected by the following persons: A. Bode (a geologist at the Prussian Geological Survey), Cantor Ernst Friedrich Dresler, (?) Finck, Max Grundey, (?) Haenlein (1901), Johann Friedrich Klotzsch, (?) Meister, E. von Otto, P. (?) Richter, P. Wimmel, W. Zimmer (a banker in Löwenberg), E. Zimmermann (a geologist at the Prussian Geological Survey), and J. (?) Zobel (for further details, see Section 7). The specimens from the Dresler collection are marked with blue rhomboids. His collection was purchased (for 420 marks) in 1899 for Löwenberg High School (Steinvorth 1899). It most likely came to the Prussian Geological Survey in 1909, according to the labels. Specimens from the Klotzsch Collection are recognisable by their small orange labels. The oldest items are dated to the early 1860s. However, the specimens of the Klotzsch Collection must have been gathered earlier, since Klotzsch died in 1860. Similarly the specimens of Zobel’s collections may have been even older, possibly from the 1820s, as the labels suggest. The youngest items from the Meister Collection are from 1936. The Glatz area material was partly published by Langenhan and Grundey (1891). Of the slightly more than twenty objects that were drawn and briefly described by these authors, twelve have been preserved in the Berlin Collection (see Table 1). Table 1. Figured specimens by Langenhan and Grundey (1891) Stratigraphy

Region

Locality

Late Cretaceous (Turonian/ Coniacian) " " "

Glatz/K"odzko

Neuwalterdorf/ Nowy Waliszów

" " "

" " "

282

Taxon/ Original determinations Wood with coaly remains

Inventory Number 2001/1411

‘Alnus glutinosa’ Phyllites sp. ‘Salix viminalis’ Geinitzia cretacea

2001/1413 2001/1416 2001/1422 2001/1424


"

"

"

" " "

" " "

" " "

" "

" "

" "

"

"

"

Phyllites geinitzianus ‘Quercus’ sp. Phyllites sp. Flügelfrucht?/ winged seed? ‘Alnus glutinosa’ Remains of horsetails Phyllites sp.

2001/1425 2001/1426 2001/1412 2001/1415 2001/1414 2001/1421 2001/1421

5.2. Material from the Bunzlau (Boleslawiec) area The specimens were collected from the following localities: Wehrau (Osiecznica), Ullersdorf near Naumburg/Queis (Oldrzychów at Kwisa near Nowogrodziec), Bunzlau (Boles"awiec), Uttik (Otok), Possen (Mierzwin), Löwenberg (Lwówek) (see Figure 5), NeuWarthau (Wartowice), Wenig Rackwitz (Rakowice Ma"e), Sirgwitz (Zerkowice) and Ottendorf (Ocice) and Hockenau (Czaple) quarry of Künzel & Hüller near Gröditzberg (Grodziec). The former owner of this collection is shown, by the old labels, as having been with the Prussian Geological Survey (later the Geologische Reichsanstalt) in Berlin. The collecting phase spanned more than sixty years, the oldest specimens date back to 1865, the youngest to 1929. The following names of collectors are recorded: H. E. von Beyrich (see above), E. F. Dresler, Johann Heinrich Robert Goeppert (see Figure 7), M. Grundey, Wilhelm(?) Haacke (zoologist), J. F. Klotzsch, Dr(?) Peik, (?) Schäfer, Christian Ernst Weiss (Professor of Palaeobotany in Berlin; 1833–1890), G. Williger (geologist), W. Zimmer, and E. Zimmermann. And there are specimens from the former collection of the Gymnasium (high school) in Löwenberg (Lwówek). Figure 7. Original label by J. H. R. Goeppert of a specimen from Ullersdorf/O"drzychów.

The material comes from various Upper Cretaceous localities, and is of slightly differing ages. The specimens were collected from sediments with several different lithologies: rather coarse sandstones, coaly clays, marl, iron-rich clays and claystones. Few of the specimens seem to have organic material preserved and cuticle studies are therefore impossible. While the specimens preserved in sandstones seem to be more complete, their venation patterns are difficult to study. The impressions in clay facies sometimes show tertiary venation but the leaves are fragmentary due to the fact that they were apparently stacked tightly, as in a forest litter (see Figure 8).

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Figure 8. Bunzlau Clay, with fragmentary leaf litter of Debeya sp. (MB. Pb. 2008/348).

6. PALAEOBOTANICAL COMPOSITION AND COMPARISON The leaves of the Glatz (K"odzko) area are generally speaking smaller than those of the Bunzlau (Bole"awiec) area. Besides a few remains of ferns and conifer twigs and cones of Geinitzia reichenbachii and possibly cycads such as Encephalartos commelionoides (Rüffle and Knappe 1977), the majority of the remains are leaves that belong to a variety of angiosperms. Remains of fruits and seeds are rarely preserved. But a large, broken carpel may have belonged to a magnolialian taxon (see Figure 9). The first investigators, who had worked on similar material from other Central European localities, compared these dispersed leaves to extant taxa belonging to relatively basal angiosperm families such as Magnoliales, Laurales and basal eudicots. Hamamelids (Fagales), the producers of a morphologically defined pollen type called Normapolles, were probably, besides Platanaceae, the mother plants of additional leaf taxa (see Figure 10). Figure 9. Carpel of a magnolialean angiosperm? (MB.Pb. 2008/282).

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Figure 10. Left: drawings of ‘Phyllites geinitzianus’ (from Langenhan and Grundey 1891, Plate 6); Right: the original fossil (MB. Pb. 2001/1425).

The palaeobotanical specimens from the Bunzlau area differ in composition from the material from the Glatz area and seem to be younger, most likely of Santonian age. Since none of the localities has been sampled adequately by modern standards, the overall diversity and ecology remain rather vague. The localities that yielded the most specimens were those of Wenig–Rackwitz/Racowice Male (about 125 specimens), and Bunzlau/Boles"awiec (about ninety specimens). Fern remains are rare, with only half a dozen fragments of Gleicheniaceae, and possibly Schizaeaceae, having been identified. Gymnosperms are more common, especially conifer twigs and cones of Geinitzia reichenbachii or cone scales of the Dammara type. The majority of the slabs bear imprints of angiosperm leaves. Among these the most common are several species of Debeya (see Figure 11). These leaves vary in habit and size. Several specimens belong to Credneria and some possibly also to Platanus (see also below). Thorough studies on (older) Bohemian material were carried out back in the 1880s and later, and are still going on (Velenovsk# 1882, 1884, 1886, 1887; Velenovsk# and Viniklá$ 1926, 1927, 1929; N%mejc and Kva&ek 1975; Kva&ek 1983; Knobloch and Kva&ek 1997; Kva&ek and Pacltova 2001; Kva&ek and Eklund 2003; Kva&ek and Váchová 2006). The flora preserved in the Bunzlau clays seems to have been dominated by hamamelids and Platanaceae, and thus reflect a restricted vegetation, while the Kieslingswalde flora seems to have been somewhat more diverse and may reflect a wider range of environments.

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Figure 11. Bunzlau/Bole"awiec clay with Debeya haldemiana Upper Senonian (Santonian), Bunzlau Chaussee to Looswitz/#aziska, det. Haacke 1890 (MB. Pb. 2008/323); scale = 1 cm.

7. THE PALAEOBOTANISTS INVOLVED AND THEIR WORK From the mid-nineteenth century onwards, Silesia was a region where extensive palaeobotanical studies were undertaken. The work was mostly carried out by professionals, but also by laymen naturalists and collectors. One of the most influential palaeobotanists of the nineteenth century, J. H. R. Goeppert (1800 Sprottau/Sprotawa–1884 Breslau/Wroc"aw), studied and taught at Breslau University. He enrolled in the Breslau medical school in 1821, but was ‘de-matriculated’ because he was a member of an outlawed liberal student movement, whose goal was to install a democratic government in a united Germany. Nevertheless, he was eventually able to finish his studies, and in 1827 he obtained his Habilitation (in the German system, the final degree that allows one to apply for a professorship) in medicine and botany. Thus in 1831 he was appointed Professor of Botany and Curator at the Breslau Botanical Garden, in addition to his duties as teacher at the medical school. And in 1852 he was appointed to the directorship of the Breslau Botanical Garden. Among Goeppert’s (palaeo)botanical work his publications on fossil pollen, on amber, on the formation of coal, and on the palaeofloras of Silesia (Goeppert 1841, 1844, 1852 and 1855) are especially important. He also published on Cretaceous floras and their importance for stratigraphy (1866). Goeppert’s original labels are still attached to about half a dozen of the specimens in the Berlin collection. Among these, several were originally owned by a music teacher and cantor named Dresler who also taught natural history at Löwenberg High School (Realgymnasium) (ca 1875–1891). He was an active naturalist who contributed to various books, including a geological guide to Silesia (Gürich 1900). Besides Dresler’s interests in palaeobotany, he must have been a well-known botanist, his name being mentioned as a contributor in two books on the moss and cryptogam floras of Silesia (Cohn 1876–1877). He was, it seems, also involved in the curation of the palaeontological collection at Löwenberg High School, of which about thirty specimens are now incorporated into the collections of the MfN.

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Other contributors to the Berlin collection were botanists such as J. F. Klotzsch (1805 Wittenberg–1860 Berlin), who had worked at the Royal Botanical Gardens in London (1830–1831). In 1834, he came to Berlin, studied medicine, and in 1838 started work as a curator for the Botanical Museum in Berlin. His main scientific interest was in mycology. Not much is known about the person responsible for creating the Zobel Collection. Zobel co-authored papers with the mining geologist R. Carnall (1804 Glatz–1874 Breslau) (Zobel and Carnall 1831, 1832), who had studied in Berlin in 1823–1824 and became a well-known specialist for the mining industry in Prussia. He must also have been a mining geologist at Reichenstein (Z"oty Stok), because he is listed as such in a list of attendees at the inaugural meeting of the German Geological Society in 1848, together with Carnall, another of the founding members. Ferdinand Roemer (1818 Hildesheim–1891 Breslau) studied and held a position at Bonn University. In the 1840s he travelled through the United States, especially Texas, and published the first comprehensive book on the geology of that State. In 1855, he became Director of the Mineralogical Institute and Museum at the University of Breslau (Wroc"aw). Even though Roemer undertook various studies in neighbouring countries, such as Poland, Bohemia and Moravia, his work was chiefly focused on the stratigraphy of Silesia, especially Upper Silesia (Roemer 1870). The Prussian Ministry for Commerce, Trade and Public Enterprises contracted him to compile a geologic map of Upper Silesia in twelve parts on a scale of 1: 100,000!a project that took seven years (1862–1869) to complete. In 1870, the scientific results were printed in three volumes, with fifty plates, including pictures of fossils and many maps (see Langer 1991). Roemer was also one of the first scientists besides Goeppert to describe fossil plants from the Bunzlau area (Roemer 1889). He gave a short overview of the composition of this flora, and remarked on the dominance of two species Debeya haldemiana and D. serrata, as also seen in the Berlin material. In the introduction to his paper he mentioned as collectors a Dr (?) Jonas (a teacher at the Gymnasium in Bunzlau) and Arthur Heidenhain (1862 Breslau–1941 Tübingen). Heidenhain, who later became a librarian in Jena, was a cousin of Gerhard Anschütz, one of the most influential scholars concerned with the Weimar Republic’s constitution (Anschütz, 1993). Roemer’s and his collectors’ fossil plant material is understood to be stored today at Wroc"aw University. The botanical material (and also the fauna) from Kieslingswalde and Neuwaltersdorf were described by Alwin Langenhan and Max Grundey (1891). Langenhan (from Liegnitz/Legnica, born before about 1850–1916 Friedrichroda) was an active naturalist and collector who published on palaeontological and historical themes, including Silesian and Thuringian localities of the Permian and Mesozoic, but also younger strata (Langenhan 1885, 1902, 1909, 1914, 1915). Details of his personal life are not known. Many specimens of the Kieslingswalde Collection bear the name of Langenhan’s coauthor Grundey (1856 Cosel/Co'le–1946 Berlin), who was a mining geologist employed at the German Geological Survey in Berlin. In 1934, he became Director of the Mineralogy Department of the museum at Gleiwitz (Gliwice). He retired in 1945 and died in Berlin the following year. His plant collection is thought to have been incorporated into the collection of the Prussian Geological Survey in 1912. 8. THE SILESIAN COLLECTION: A MIRROR OF THE ‘SCIENTIFIC LANDSCAPE’ OF NINETEENTH-CENTURY PRUSSIA/GERMANY The sources of the specimens of the Silesian collection are thus various, and in some ways they are a random accumulation of objects, but they reflect ‘in a nutshell’ the social conditions under which scientific collections were put together at that time. Mostly collected during the nineteenth century, two categories of collectors may be identified. In the first 287


category were professionals, scientists, or scientifically trained people in an applied profession, such as the leading personnel of mines or surveys. The second category included a varied group of amateurs, among them the educated bourgeois élite and to a minor degree craftsmen of cities and small towns, and increasingly teachers who started or improved the school collections that played an increasing role during the second half of the nineteenth century. Professionals and amateurs were intimately linked in that the professionals mostly provided the modern scientific background and ideas while the laymen often delivered study-material through their collections. The support of the general public and of a growing number of scientific staff in various institutions and museums, and of publishers, was also part of this interaction. The second half of the nineteenth century was marked by an increasing specialisation in the natural sciences, with more laboratory-oriented work but also an increasing number of well-informed amateurs. This trend was visible in all the Anglo-Saxon countries, though with some variations. It seems that in Britain the amateur culture intensified a few decades earlier, and was more gender specific in some fields such as botany (Allen 1976, Keeney 1992). The increasing specialisation was most marked in Germany by the establishment of professorships. In 1811, for example, two professorships were installed exclusively for Zoology (Berlin and Breslau); and by 1910 the number was more than thirty (Daum 1998). This was just one example of the rapidly increasing number of university institutions, museums, mining schools, geological surveys, and similar institutions that had been built up in those hundred years. Parallel to this process, there was an increasing body of specialised scientific journals publishing ever more detailed papers. But a need also developed for broader science education and the popularisation of scientific knowledge, which paralleled the rise of a broad democratic movement based on the assumption of the public’s right of access to new scientific results began to develop. This movement was a part of the general emancipation of the bourgeoisie and was interwoven with liberal political ideas of freedom and equality. And perhaps it was also a substitute for political activities, since political parties were banned. In order to learn about and participate in fields such as mineralogy, palaeontology, zoology, botany, and other topics, interested laymen started to collect, identify and even work scientifically on natural objects. Many of these amateur scientists had contacts with scientists in public institutions, but they also supported ‘salons’ and founded scientific clubs, circles, and associations. These associations had their beginnings at the end of the eighteenth century, as for example in the case of the Berlin association of the ‘Friends of Science’ (Berliner Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde, 1773). However, the high tide of these clubs or societies in Germany was certainly the nineteenth century, with a peak of new associations between 1840 and 1880. While at the beginning of this movement the study of ‘natural objects’ was the main goal, the societies’ social and political functions changed during the 1870s and became concerned with the education of youth and the working classes in scientific topics, by various means such as local museums, journals, and regular talks given by members and invited speakers. The movement culminated in the attempt to propagate a new, non-religious (or naturalistic) view of the world, as seen in associations based on Darwin’s and Haeckel’s ideas and books on evolution. As one of the more industrialised areas of Prussia, Silesia experienced these developments in both academic and lay spheres. On one side, the University of Breslau (Wroc"aw) was built up during the second half of the nineteenth century to become an élite institution in many fields, including geology, botany, and palaeobotany. Roemer, Cohn and Goeppert taught there (see above), the latter being a contributor to the MfN collection. But the foundations of some associations occurred partly before and shortly after 1800 (e.g. Oberlausitzische Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften in Görlitz 1779, Daum 1998). Goeppert 288


most likely had contact with one of the more active members of the Löwenberg (Lwówek) amateur group such as Cantor Dresler, who authored of a flora of Löwenberg (1883). In any case, Dresler was certainly in contact with Cohn, since the latter acknowledged him in the introduction to his work on the cryptogam floras of Silesia. And as mentioned, it was Dresler who was involved in the curation of the collection of the Löwenberg High School, one of the main sources of the Silesian collection at the MfN. Other laymen such as Langenhan belonged to the group of amateurs who published in cooperation with amateur associations such as the Schlesische Gesellschaft für vaterländische Cultur (1809–1945) and the Glatzer Gebirgs-verein (founded 1881). Silesia was also the centre for a movement initiated by Emil Adolf Roßmäßler (1806 Leipzig–1867 Leipzig): the foundation of Humboldt-associations combined with Humboldtfestivals. Based on the popularity of the polymathic scientist Alexander von Humboldt (1769 Berlin–1859 Berlin), Roßmäßler, Professor of Zoology at the Forestry College of Tharandt near Dresden and later delegate to the first German Parliament at the Paulskirche in Frankfurt/Main in 1848, propagated a new form of association, open to a wide audience that would combine scientific interests with social activities in a general humanitarian character. These Humboldt associations were intended to bridge the gap between the strictly science-related and sometimes highly specialised societies and the curiosity of a general audience that was eager to learn about the outside world through public talks, easy-to-read journal articles, and well illustrated books. It is interesting that by 1859, the year of the foundation of this movement, a festival was started at Gröditzburg (Zamek Grodziec), and associations were soon founded in Bunzlau/Boles"awiec, Löwenberg/Lwówek, Waldenburg/Wa"brzych, Wüstegiersdorf/Gluszyka (1860), Löbau (1865), Breslau/Wroz"aw (1869) and Brieg/Brzeg (1869) (Daum 1998). Thus early on Silesia’s public showed a favourable attitude towards high-quality ‘edutainment’. 9. SCIENTIFIC SIGNIFICANCE In addition to their historical value, the fossil leaves of the Kieslingswalde/Idzików area are also of scientific interest, though their preservation is not ideal. However, the specimens come from a relatively homogenous source rock and thus seem to be of approximately the same age, and (unlike the Bunzlau/Boles"awiec material) may be considered as a study unit with its more than 200 specimens. Apart from the one in Prague, the Berlin collection seems to be the largest from this area and possibly the one with the best-preserved leaves. Collections that were gathered later seem to have yielded less satisfactory results, because of weathering of the sandstones that largely destroyed the plant fossils (Dr Adam T. Halamski, oral communication). Because of their at least partial completeness, which provides the opportunity to study their shape and their primary (and partly also their secondary) venation, more secure determinations than those of the nineteenth century should be possible. Overall, the age of these floras is, as said, estimated as being Coniacian. Floras of this age are rare in Central Europe. Most of the plant fossils of Upper Cretaceous age are either older (Cenomanian or Turonian) or younger (Santonian to Campanian); or the age seems to be not well defined and is given as ‘Senonian’ (a term now superseded), which included the Coniacian. Floras of this age are known from a borehole close to the Polish/Czech border (Slezské Pavlovice) and from central and southern Bohemia (N%mej and Kva&ek 1975, Knobloch and Mai 1991). Therefore the Kieslingswalde/Idzików flora may give valuable insights into the angiosperm evolution and community development during the Middle to Late Cretaceous.

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10. CONCLUSIONS/SUMMARY The palaeobotanical collections (Late Cretaceous) of Lower Silesia!originally owned by the Prussian Geological Survey and now located at the Museum of Natural History, Berlin!were assembled by many contributors. The oldest specimens date back to the first half of the nineteenth century and are thus among the oldest items in the Museum’s Mesophytic collection. Of the specimens described by Langenhan and Grundey (1891), about half are found in the today’s collection. The palaeofloras, of (Turonian) Coniacian and of Santonian age respectively, reflect angiosperm/sycamore dominated and presumably deciduous forests that are also known from other Central European areas such as Bohemia, and the Quedlinburg and Aachen areas of central and western Germany. The material of the Berlin Natural History Museum is limited in its quality and quantity, but it is nevertheless of scientific interest. Other collections from various institutions of the three modern states that were historically associated with the original localities need to be consulted in order to study these floras in greater detail. This information will certainly be published in the future via the Internet; and thereby a truly European forest may re-grow, albeit only ‘virtually’. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author thanks Dr Adam T. Halamski (Warsaw) and Dr Ji$i Kva&ek (National Museum, Prague) for fruitful discussions and their thorough critical reviews of the manuscript. Dr Angela Ehling, curator of the collections of the Bundesanstalt für Geologie und Rohstoffe (BGR, Hannover), kindly provided information on the Silesian material at the Berlin– Spandau repository that holds the collections of the former Prussian and German Geological Survey, and provided information on the age and literature of the strata discussed in this paper. Dr Lutz Kunzmann provided detailed data on the Lower Silesia collection held in Dresden (Senckenberg Naturhistorische Sammlungen, Dresden) and Dr Olaf Tietz (Görlitz) gave information on the collections of the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Görlitz. Dr David Lazarus (MfN, Berlin) checked the English version of the manuscript. Cornelia Hiller and Alexandra Epp supported the curatorial work on the material, while Annegret Henkel searched for and located rare publications, while Elke Siebert kindly improved the drawing of the geographical map of Central Europe (Figure 1) (all MfN, Berlin). REFERENCES Allen, D. E. 1976. The Naturalist in Britain: A Social History. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Anschütz, G. 1993. Aus meinen Leben. Erinnerungen von Gerhard Anschütz, edited by Walter Pauly. Frankfurt/Main: Verlag Vittorio Klostermann. Badura, J., Przybylski, B., Zuchiewicz W., Farbisz, J., Sroka W., Jamroz O. 2005. Tektonika rowu górnej Nysy K"odzkiej—sporne problemy—dyskusja. Przegl!d Geologiczny 53: 2006–2011. Cohn, F. 1876. Kryptogamen-Flora von Schlesien. Breslau: J. U. Kern’s Verlag. Dathe, E. and Petrascheck, W. J. 1913. Geologische Übersichtskarte des niederschlesisch–böhmischen Beckens 1 : 100,000. First edition, Supplement (Appendix 3) to Berg, G., Der geologische Bau des niederschlesisch–böhmischen Beckens und seiner Umgebung, Festschrift zum XII. Allgemeinen Deutschen Bergmannstage in Breslau 1913. Der Bergbau im Osten des Königreichs Preussen. Berlin: Königliche Preussische Geologische Landesanstalt. Daum, A. W. 1998. Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914. München: R. Oldenbourg Verlag. Dresler, E. F. 1883. Flora von Löwenberg in Schlesien. Nach dem natürlichen System bearbeitet. Jahresberichte des Realprogymnasiums zu Löwenberg in Schlesien 13. Löwenberg: Paul Holtsch Verlag.

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