Lichtgedanken 03

S C HW E R P U N K T 62 Travellers return home enriched by new experiences and often with a few souvenirs in their luggage. Carl Hauss- knecht (1838-1903), too, brought back »souvenirs«—thousands of them— from his journeys through the Ottoman Empire and Persia, which he started in 1865 and 1866. There, the naturalist found and collected plants, which re- present a significant part of the herba- rium that Haussknecht created. Raised as a foundation in 1896 in Weimar, the herbarium has long been in the posses- sion of the University Jena. But besides plants, Haussknecht brought back 15 octavos closely written in Kurrent, an old form of German handwriting, total- ling 1,000 pages describing his travels and the plants (photo top). These travel diaries, which are kept at the Institute of Ecology and Evolution, will now be digitally published and annotated in a large interdisciplinary project invol- ving several universities. The German Research Foundation (Deutsche For- schungsgemeinschaft DFG) is funding the three-year project, which also invol- ves the universities of Halle-Wittenberg and Marburg, with 400,000 euros. Haussknecht’s personal thoughts on people and politics »On the one hand, we want to find out more about our collection,« says botanist Prof. Frank H. Hellwig. This is because the exact size of the collection is not yet known. On the other hand, the diaries help to investigate and deduce the de- signations of certain plants. »What we have seen so far shows that the infor- mation in the diaries, which extends beyond pure botany to take in a broad spectrum of disciplines such as geology, geography, cartography, zoology, local customs, and social and cultural histo- ry, is of importance in interpreting the botanical material,« says project director Hellwig. »The diaries are thus cultural and historical documents.« Important for this cultural dimension is also the fact that Haussknecht never intended for the diaries to be published, with the result that they contain very personal thoughts and impressions of people and of the political situation. Project collaborator Kristin Victor and her colleagues face the challenge of deciphering and »translating« Hauss- knecht’s antiquated cursive writing. Future tasks also include identifying and annotating plant names, geographi- cal designations, local conditions and events, as well as evaluating their scien- tific, cultural and historical relevance. In order to make the annotated wri- tings accessible worldwide, the team is receiving support from the Thuringian University and State Library. Finally, science historian Dr Andreas Christoph is responsible for designing the digital presentation of the research results. The project’s comprehensive Internet pre- sence is planned to go online before the end of the project in 2020. Haussknecht’s oriental souvenirs Botanists in Jena and partners are launching a project to publish the ori- ental travel diaries of Thuringian naturalist Carl Haussknecht. The cultural history project has been awarded some 400,000 euros in funding. BY AXEL BURCHARDT