Wolf, Franz T heodor b. February 13, 1841; Bartholomae, Wurttemberg d.June 22, 1924; Dresden, Saxony
German Jesuit and naturalist, state geologist of Ecuador. Theodor Wolf joined the Jesuits late in 1857, where he was able to pursue his hobby of botanizing and began to lay out an herbarium, as well as receiving an education in theology and classical languages.
Because of his talent for natural sciences, the order sent him to study at the University of Bonn in 1862, also with the expectation that he make a critical study of Darwin’s new theories. He then taught for four years at the order’s Collegium Maximum in Maria Laach. As well as teaching, Wolf explored the surroundings of the monastery and published his first scientificcontributions on the Laach lake volcanism of the eastern Eifel.
To his great surprise he was invited to take up the professorship of geology at the University of Quito in Ecuador in 1869 and 1870. He accepted this offer, made in the context of modernization policies pursued in the Andean republic under President Garcia Moreno. It was his ambition to improve the education of the people. To this end he reopened the capital’s university and invited numerous European scientists to the country, especially German scholars including several Jesuits. Ecuador’s geology was of great interest to Wolf. It was continually at risk from volcanic and tectonic activity; as recently as 1868 the province of Imbabura had suffered a severe earthquake. To provide a basis for his scientific work, Wolf made a chronology of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes (Cronica de los feno- menos volcanicos y terremetos en el Ecuador, con algunas noticias sobre otres paises de la America central y meridional, desde 1533 hasta 1797 [Chronicle of the volcanic hazards and earthquakes in Ecuador, with some remarks on other countries in Central and South America between 1533 and 1797], 1873). He studied the language and customs of the Indians on numerous journeys, investigated the flora and fauna of the country, and collected rocks and minerals.
In Quito he met the two volcanologists Wilhelm Reiss and Alphons Stubel, whom he supported in their research and with whom he remained lifelong friends. Wolf’s travels and scientific research led to many conflicts with his Spanish fellow Jesuits, who accused him of neglecting his duties as a priest. After he left the order in 1874, he was able to devote himself to his scientific interests. He visited the Galapagos Islands twice, in 1875 (forty years after Darwin) and in 1878, studied their climate, vegetation, fauna, geology, and ocean currents and contributed significantly to the growth of knowledge about the islands. In November 1875 Wolf was appointed state geologist of Ecuador and paid a considerable salary; the University of Bonn awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1877. Only ten weeks after a violent eruption on Cotopaxi, Wolf climbed the volcano and wrote a memorandum about it (Memoria sobre el Cotopaxi y su ultima erupcion [Memorandum about Mt. Cotopaxi and its last eruption], 1878). He also wrote reports on the geology of various provinces (on Loja, Azuay, and Esmeraldas in 1879), and included geological maps. When he lost his government salary he sought private commissions, surveyed estates, produced a town plan of Guayaquil, and supervised the construction of a gasworks and the plans for the construction of water pipes in the city. In 1887 he made the acquaintance of the German governess Bertha Werber in Guayaquil, converted to the Protestant faith, married Werber, and built a house of his own. He had already contracted with the government in 1884 to produce a geological wall map and a comprehensive account of the geology and geography of Ecuador. The manuscript was completed in 1891. As it was to be printed in Germany, he left his new homeland and moved to Dresden, where Stubel wished for his assistance. In 1892 Wolf’s Geografia y Geologia del Ecuador (Geography and Geology of Ecuador) appeared, probably the best description of a South American country in the nineteenth century.Wolf did not return to Ecuador, but remained as a private scholar in Dresden. He assisted Stubel with the analysis of his expedition materials and with the creation of the Museum of Regional Geography in Leipzig. After Stubel’s death, Wolf published his manuscript Die Vulkanberge von Colombia (The Volcanic Mountains of Colombia, 1908). He also turned to vegetation studies (Potentillen-Studien, 2 vols. 1901—1903). Wolf’s achievements were not forgotten in Ecuador. When he was in great financial need in 1921, the National Congress granted him a monthly honorarium to the considerable sum of 500 sucres. Several mountain peaks, glaciers, and islands in Ecuador bear the name of the founder of scientific geology and cartography in this equatorial country.
Heinz Peter Brogiato
See also Reiss, Johann Wilhelm; Stubel,
Moritz Alphons
References and Further Reading
Henze, Dietmar. Enzyklopadie der Entdecker und Erforscher der Erde. Vol. V. Graz: Akademische Druck- und Verlagsanstalt, 2004, pp. 534-535.