Fritz Daniel Frech (26 March 1861 – 28 September 1917) was a German

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alt ...

and

paleontologist Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

. Frech was born in

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. He studied natural sciences at the universities of

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ru ...

and

, receiving his doctorate in 1882 with a thesis on the coral fauna of the

Late Devonian The Devonian ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic era, spanning 60.3 million years from the end of the Silurian, million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Carboniferous, Mya. It is named after Devon, England, whe ...

period in Germany. In 1887 he obtained his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

from the

University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...

, and in 1897 was appointed a full professor of geology and paleontology at the

University of Breslau A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...

. In 1912 he was named vice-president of the newly formed Paläontologischen Gesellschaft. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, he died in Aleppo while serving as a senior geologist under the command of the German army.Friedrich (Fritz) Frech
Catalogus Professorum Halensis He published extensively on fossil invertebrates, being especially interested in extinct fauna from a stratigraphic-geological perspective. From 1913 he was an editor of the "''Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie, Geologie and Paläontologie''".Nature, Volume 100
/ref>

Selected works

* ''Lethae geognostica: Handbuch der Erdgeschichte mit Abbildungen der für die Formationen bezeichnendsten Versteinerungen'', (3 volumes, 1876–. with

Ferdinand von Roemer Carl Ferdinand von Roemer (5 January 1818 – 14 December 1891), German geologist, had originally been educated for the legal profession at Göttingen, but became interested in geology, and abandoning law in 1840, studied science at the Uni ...

) – Lethae geognostica; handbook of geological history with pictures of the most significant of the fossil formations (Frech wrote most of the section dealing with

Palaeozoic The Paleozoic (or Palaeozoic) Era is the earliest of three geologic eras of the Phanerozoic Eon. The name ''Paleozoic'' ( ;) was coined by the British geologist Adam Sedgwick in 1838 by combining the Greek words ''palaiós'' (, "old") and ' ...

formations and all of the volume describing the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 Mya. The Triassic is the first and shortest period ...

). * ''Geologie der Umgegend von Haiger bei Dillenburg (Nassau) Nebst einem palaeontologischen anhang'', 1888 – Geology of the environs of

Haiger Haiger is a country town in the Lahn-Dill-Kreis in Hesse, Germany. The nearest city is Siegen, about 25 km north of Haiger. Geography Location Haiger lies about 5 km west of Dillenburg, and 20 km southeast of Siegen on the eastern ...

near

Dillenburg Dillenburg, officially Oranienstadt Dillenburg, is a town in Hesse's Gießen region in Germany. The town was formerly the seat of the old Dillkreis district, which is now part of the Lahn-Dill-Kreis. The town lies on the German-Dutch holiday road ...

(

Nassau Nassau may refer to: Places Bahamas *Nassau, Bahamas, capital city of the Bahamas, on the island of New Providence Canada *Nassau District, renamed Home District, regional division in Upper Canada from 1788 to 1792 * Nassau Street (Winnipeg) ...

) along with palaeontological notes. * ''Die Karnischen Alpen ein beitrag zur vergleichenden gebirgs-tektonik'', 1892 – The

Carnic Alps The Carnic Alps ( it, Alpi Carniche; german: Karnische Alpen; sl, Karnijske Alpe; fur, Alps Cjargnelis) are a range of the Southern Limestone Alps in Austria and northeastern Italy. They are within Austrian East Tyrol and Carinthia, and Ita ...

, a contribution to comparative mountain-

tectonics Tectonics (; ) are the processes that control the structure and properties of the Earth's crust and its evolution through time. These include the processes of mountain building, the growth and behavior of the strong, old cores of continents ...

. * ''Die Steinkohlenformation'', 1899 – Coal formation. * ''Aus der vorzeit der erde'', 1910 – On the prehistoric earth. * ''Ammoneae devonicae (clymeniidae, aphyllitidae, gephyroceratidae, cheiloceratidae)'', 1913 – Devonian

ammonites Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttle ...

(

Clymeniidae ''Clymeniidae'' is a family in the ammonoid order Clymeniida. It is characterized by a dorsal siphuncle that runs along the inside of the whorls, unusual for ammonoids. Genera *''Aktuboclymenia'' Bogoslovsky 1979 *'' Clymenia'' Münster, 1834 D ...

, Aphyllitidae, Gephyroceratidae, Cheiloceratidae). Part of the series "Fossilium catalogus". * ''Allgemeine geologie'', 1914 – General geology.Most widely held works by Fritz Frech
WorldCat Identities

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Frech, Fritz 1861 births 1917 deaths Scientists from Berlin 19th-century German geologists German paleontologists Humboldt University of Berlin alumni University of Bonn alumni Leipzig University alumni Academic staff of the University of Breslau German Army personnel of World War I