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Eduard Suess was born in London 190 years ago. After a childhood in Prague, he came to Vienna and became one of the most influential figures in science and the city in the second half of the 19th century. His “Memoirs” (1916) are still worth reading today; they also contain emotional moments from his life.
Eduard Suess died on April 26, 1914 in his apartment in Vienna-Leopoldstadt (Afrikanergasse 9). Two years later, his son Erhard published the “Memoirs”. His autobiography contains the milestones of the unusual career of one of the most influential scientists of the late 19th century. His successful commitment to the first Viennese high spring pipeline is one of his most important achievements. Suess, who never received his doctorate, was promoted to unpaid associate in 1857. Professor of paleontology and appointed a.o. in 1862. Professor of Geology (1867: Full Professor) appointed. He was rector of the University of Vienna from September 1888 to March 1889 and president of the Academy of Sciences from 1898 to 1911.
Eduard Suess was born on August 20, 1831 in London (Duncan Terrace 4), where his father owned a wool business. Little Eduard had a sister, Louise, who was two years older than him, and a brother, Friedrich, who was two years younger. He writes with unusual candor: "I was a very bad boy." In 1834 the family moved to Prague, the home of his maternal grandparents (née Zdekauer). Here he remembers the baptism of his brother Emil (1834–1872): "... at which I behaved so unruly [sic!] that I was taken out onto the green balcony."
Even in Prague the Suess family had an English governess, “Miss Gretten”. Neither German nor Czech was spoken in the parents' home. "We were completely English children and didn't understand a word of German." She was followed by an English tutor, "Augustus Thurgar of Norwich". Eduard, then five years old, and Thurgar, in his mid-twenties, got along well. When he asked the boy: "Teddy boy, do you want to be a gentleman?" Eduard replied: "Oh yes!", without knowing what that meant. It wasn't until he was seven that he learned German from another tutor. Before entering high school he was supposed to learn French, first from a "Madmoiselle," as he writes, and then from an old Belgian. "He was the rest of the grande armée."
In 1845 the Suess family moved to Vienna. Eduard attended the Academic High School from October before attending the Polytechnic, today's Vienna University of Technology. His studies were interrupted by the revolutionary year of 1848, where he was actively involved as a 16-year-old student and joined the Academic Legion. Summing up, he looks back: "The studies were stimulating," but he had not found his true fulfillment: "If I felt the emptiness of high schools in my childhood, I then felt all the more painfully that technology was just practical study and that even the much-praised mathematics sharpens acumen and memory, but leaves everything else cold. I push myself even harder towards a science."
Suess discovered his true passion during a stay in Prague (1849), where he was completely captivated by the fossils in the local museum: "The sight of the remains of a long-gone marine population, the thought of the enormous changes that the land has undergone, and the awareness that the blow of my hammer may reveal a structure that no mortal has seen before me, captured my imagination so completely that it was difficult to retain my attention for other studies..."
In Vienna he became an autodidact, especially since there was no university education in the field of geosciences here at the time. Suess says: "[Here] I turned to my favorite studies in the Hofmuseum (today: Natural History Museum) and the Geological Reichsanstalt (today: Geological Federal Institute)." Marriage Suess became an unpaid a.o. in 1857. was appointed professor of paleontology and moved to the University of Vienna in 1862, he was at the k. k. Court Mineral Cabinet (today: Natural History Museum). He benefited from his language skills. "A young man who knew how to communicate fluently in English or French was so rare in Vienna at that time that people were happy to give me this or that work." He found the work in the collections profitable: "The ongoing completion of the library catalogs and the collections impressed upon my memory knowledge of literature and names, the mastery of which was later of great benefit to me." In other words: Suess was prepared for bigger things.
In the spring of 1862, Suess drew attention to himself with the book "The soil of the city of Vienna according to its formation, nature and its relationships to civil life: A geological study" (Braumüller). Suess made this geology of Vienna known to the public. He pointed out that contamination of domestic wells from nearby cemeteries was the cause of illnesses. "It was the drainage of the morgues, which after a short run the population [...] was offered as drinking water." When the city fathers of Vienna formed a commission to address the issue of water supply, Suess was invited as a commission member. In 1863, Mayor Andreas Zelinka (1802–1868) appointed him to the Vienna City Council "unopposed", which marked the beginning of Suess's political career, which also took him to the Reichsrat from 1873 to 1897.
It is well known that Suess is considered the spiritual father of the Vienna high spring pipeline, which was opened on October 24th in Vienna's Schwarzenbergplatz in the presence of the Emperor, but what is less well known are the anxious moments that brought beads of sweat to Suess's face at the time. Mayor Cajetan Felder (1814–1894) wanted him to give the signal to open the tap and thus the high-jet fountain by lifting a white cloth. "From the round basin, which still exists today, […] the jets of the living Alpine springs should rise under their full pressure." Suess lifted the cloth. "The eyes of the crowd are focused on the center of the pool: there is nothing. An awkward pause." He must have started sweating. "After a few minutes I repeat the signal: Nothing again. An even more embarrassing pause. One, two, three minutes. I start to feel the pulses in my temples." Suess may well have wished to sink deep into the ground and was just about to lift the white cloth a third time - what else could he have done? –, “a bubbling appeared at the mouth of the riser pipe”. Slowly it became a high fountain that shot up "40 to 50 meters above all the houses." Suess, and probably not just him, must have had a lot of weight lifted from his heart. Felder led Suess to the emperor, who spoke "extremely kind words of appreciation" and finally said: "I thank you."
All's well that ends well, after the first high spring water pipeline, the second high spring water pipeline was opened on December 2nd, 1910. Suess' idea of deriving pure karst water to supply Vienna set a precedent and was also implemented in other cities.
In his rich life, Suess not only had great encounters. He also had to contend with small minds. Here's an episode from Egypt: Suess was one of the participants in the Austrian delegation that was invited to the opening of the Suez Canal in the fall of 1869 under the leadership of the emperor. On November 21st we made a detour to the Great Pyramid. Climbing the pyramids is absolutely forbidden today, but back then it was still possible for everyone. It was common practice and almost “obligatory” for geologists to take small stone samples from the pyramid. Such historical evidence can still be found in the collections of the Natural History Museum today.
Locals, on the other hand, saw this as an opportunity for a baksheesh (tip). "Arabs pushed forward to help us over the steps of ashlar; three men were assigned to each of us." But the then 38-year-old Suess was sporty. He didn't need their help and got to the top quicker than he expected. The unique view from the 139 meter high pyramid completely captivated him. "I looked. I wanted to fill myself with larger thoughts about the history of humanity for the rest of my life." Suddenly he was tapped on the shoulder by a person he referred to as “Herr Hofrat”. "You," he said, "what did you give people as a tip?" Suess named a small amount, to which the said "Hofrat" replied: "But that wasn't collegial of you; you are ruining the people..." Apparently the already small contribution from Suess was too high for the "Hofrat". That was the end of philosophical thoughts; Suess was sobered. "It was over, my dream torn apart; I could have cried over the floods of miserable everyday life that washed up to this sacred place." The fact that Suess even mentioned this episode in his memoirs shows how much this Viennese small-minded person affected him in Africa.
When Suess retired from public life, he was filled with humility. His farewell lecture took place on July 13, 1901: "When I became a teacher, I did not cease to be a learner, and now that I cease to be a teacher, I do not want to cease to be a learner either, as long as my eyes can see, my ears can hear, and my hands can grasp." On January 29, 1904, he wrote to Josef Freiherr von Doblhoff-Dier (1844–1929), who had invited him: "I almost never go out in the evening and have become such a stranger in many circles that not long ago, when I was busy in the scientific club, I met about fifteen gentlemen there, apparently members, not a single one of whom I knew and not a single one of whom knew me I therefore repeat my warmest and most binding thanks. I left public life in order to be able to devote the last years of my life to work, and I ask you to let me do this work and not to resent the rejection."
When it comes to the "work" mentioned here, Suess means the publication of his life's work, "The Antlitz der Erde" (3 volumes, 1883 to 1909), which was also translated into English (The Face of the Earth) and French (La Face de la Terre). It can be assumed that Suess knew how to assess the quality of the translation, not least because of his language skills. (Thomas Hofmann, Mathias Harzhauser, August 21, 2021)