Eduard Suess (1831-1914). Aperçu biographique

Abstract

International audience ; Eduard Sueß grew up in an upper-class family in Vienna and Prague. His fatherwas a protestant contractor and his mother the daughter of a Jewish banker.According to his father's desire Sueß first studied at the technical colleges ofVienna and Prague. But soon he became more interested in all kinds of geologicalscience and especially in paleontology. Although Sueß never got a doctor'sdegree, in 1857 Leo Graf Thun-Hohenstein, Minister of Education, appointed himas assistant professor of paleontology against the decision of the philosophical professors of the University of Vienna. Since the 1860ies Sueß worked on thegeological aspects of Vienna. He was mainly involved in the establishment of thefirst Viennese " Hochquellenwasserleitung " (1870-73) and the regulation of theBlue Danube (1870-75). After finishing these projects he devoted all his energy tohis geological studies. He published in 1875 Die Entstehung der Alpen in which hepointed out an extremely revolutionary point of view concerning the origin of themountain-chain. In his publication Das Antlitz der Erde (1883-1909), Sueßexpanded his research regarding the European mountain-chain and explained theorigin and formation of our planet. Sueß, president of the Imperial Academy ofScience in Vienna, was since 1863 even political representative in the liberal party. ; Eduard Suess grandit dans un milieu grand-bourgeois à Vienne et à Prague. Sonpère était un entrepreneur protestant et sa mère, fille d'un banquier, était d'origine juive. Suivant le désir de son père, le jeune Eduard étudia d'abord aux Instituts polytechniques de Vienne et de Prague. Mais très tôt, il termina ces études pratiques en s'intéressant de plus en plus aux sciences de la Terre etparticulièrement à la paléontologie. Bien que Suess n'obtint jamais de doctorat, le ministre des Affaires culturelles, le comte Leo von Thun-Hohenstein, le nomma, en1857, professeur de paléontologie à titre personnel en passant outre une décisionnégative des professeurs de la faculté des ...