Wolfgang Franz von Kobell

Monument for Franz von Kobell in Munich

Wolfgang Xavier Franz Baron von Kobell (July 19, 1803 – November 11, 1882) was a German mineralogist and writer of short stories and poems in Bavarian dialect.

Biography

He was born in Munich, Bavaria and died there. Having studied mineralogy in Landshut, he became professor of mineralogy in 1826 at the University of Munich, and in 1856 was appointed first curator of the Bavarian state collection of minerals. His greatest contributions were new methods in crystallography. In 1855 he invented the stauroscope for the study of the optical properties of crystals. The mineral Kobellite is named for him.

Besides his work as mineralogist, Kobell is also famous for writing a lot of short stories and poems in the Bavarian dialect of Upper Bavaria. His best known work is the base for the popular Bavarian theater play Der Brandner Kasper, which tells the story of a blacksmith from Tegernsee, who is visited by the grim reaper and tricks him into drinking and gambling for some further years on earth. This play is televised each year before All Saint's day by the Bavarian Broadcasting Agency (Bayerischer Rundfunk). Kobell's work shows the true vis comica, and the possession of rich fancy with verisimilitude.

Works

Scientific

• Charakteristik der Mineralien (2 vols. 1830-1831)
• Tafeln zur Bestimmung der Mineralien (1833, and later editions; 12th ed. by K. Oebbeke, 1884; 13th ed. 1893)
• Skizzen aus dem Steinreich (1850)
• Mineralogie: Populäre Vorträge (1862)
• Grundzüge der Mineralogie (1838)
• Galvanographie (1842; 2d ed. 1846), describing a method of his own invention
• Geschichte der Mineralogie von 1650-1860 (1864)

He was the author of numerous scientific papers, and described many new minerals.

Dialect

• Schnadahüpfln und Sprüchln (2d ed. 1852)
• Gedichte in pfälzischer Mundart (1839–41)
• Jagd- und Weinlieder (1899)

Further reading

• Luise von Kobell, Franz von Kobell (Munich, 1884).
• O. Krätz (October 1978). "Das Portrait: Franz Ritter von Kobell (1803–1882)". Chemie in unserer Zeit (Wiley) 12 (5): 153–160. doi:10.1002/ciuz.19780120504.  Subscription required.

See also

• List of mineralogists

Notes

• Note regarding personal names: Baron is a title, not a first or middle name.

References

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: "Kobell, Franz von". New International Encyclopedia. 1905. 
•  Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). "Kobell, Wolfgang Xaver Franz, Baron von". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.