Stuttgart, Tuebingen, Heidelberg, and the Holzmaden shale mine
These are places I remembered from visits to Germany in 1975 and 1984, first as a 15 yr old highschool student (a year in Tuebingen with parents) and then independently in 1984 as a university student in Berlin.
For Christmas in 2012, I took my Japanese family to Stuttgart, stayed with friends in the inner city, and blissed out with the Christmas concerts. As an excursion, we drove to Holzmaden and some of the most beautiful fossils in the world. Some of them I could still recognise from my visit to the same location 38 years earlier.
They can be seen in the Urwelt Museum Hauff, a remarkable private museum conceived and managed by the Hauff family dynasty. This is perhaps a German palaeontological parallel to the Leakey family dynasty in Kenya. It's a beautiful museum that goes to the heart of evolutionary understanding in its diverse and rich displays.
In the last days of December, we went to Heidelberg, and then on to Frankfurt, the airport, and home to Kyoto. To help pass time during our long journey, I bought a copy of the Frankfurter Rundschau (29/30 Dez. 2012).
The paper displayed the photo of a mastodon, and the title "Ur-Einwohner... von Hessen, Sachsen, und Schwaben..." - a perfect story for the end of our journey to southern Germany.
On pages 22-23, in the 'Wissen & Bildung' (Science & Education) section, the story continued under this title:
'Wenn die Zeit stillsteht: ur-Krokodile und Halbaffen aud Deutschland - zum 100. Gerburtstag zeigt die Palaeontologische Gesellschaft Ihre bedeutensten Fossilien".
This story occupied pride of place with a full two-page centre-spread. Writer Von Alice Ahrlers and illustrator Isabella Galanty introduced the fantastic breadth and depth of fossil finds Germany.
The article concluded with a 'Buch-tip':
Thomas Martin u.a. (Hg.): Palaeontologie: 100 Jahre Palaeontologische Gesellschaft, Pfeil-Verlag, 192 pp., 24.90 Euro.
My childhood memory was of a single hole in the ground, the Holzmaden shale mine. Now I realise that a large part of Germany is home to relicts from the early history of life on our planet.
This story has taken more than a century to emerge, and the Palaeontological Society of Germany has had a central role.
Which is a good cue for me to exit here :-)
Tschuss!
Peter (Admin., Kyoto).
ps.
Here are some key excerpts from the Society website (translations by present author):
'Die Palontologische Gesellschaft wurde am 12. August1912 von dem Greifswalder PalontologenOtto Jaekel gegrndet. Aus einer kleinen Gesellschaft mit anfangs nur knapp ber 100 Mitgliedern ist heute eine internationale Gemeinschaft mit mehr als 1000 Mitgliedern geworden.'
[The Palaeontological Society was established on 12th August 1912 by the Greifswald palaeontologist Otto Jaekel. A small Society, with little more than 100 members, has become today an international organisation with more than 1000 members.]
***
'Die Palontologische Zeitschrift ist das wissenschaftliche Publikationsorgan der Palontologischen Gesellschaft. Die Zeitschrift erscheint seit 1914 in regelmigen Abstnden, zunchst mit 2 Heften pro Jahrgang, seit 1998 dann in vier Heften pro Jahrgang.'
[ThePalontologische Zeitschrift is the main scientific publication of the Palaeontological Society. The journal has appeared regularly since 1914, first with two issues per year, then with four issues per year since 1998].
***
'Die Zeitschrift verffentlichtwissenschaftliche Beitrge aus der Palontologie, zunchst in den Sprachen Deutsch, Englisch und Franzsisch. Seit 2008 erscheint die Zeitschrift im Springer-Verlag und ist auch in den ISI-Index of Science aufgenommen worden. Die vorwiegende Sprache ist nun Englisch, womit die internationale Wahrnehmung besser gewhrleistet ist.'
[The Journal publishes scientific reports on palaeontology, primarily in the German, English and French languages. Since 2008 the journal has been published by Springer-Verlag, and has been registered in the ISI-Index of Science. The predominant language is now English, which is better for achieving international reception].