Hans Schreiber`s Grave in Volary

The grave of Hans Schreiber (1859-1936) lies in his hometown of Volary. And the area around Volary was also a place where he did research on peat bogs. Although Schreiber worked for many years in Northwest Bohemia, he always liked to return to his native Šumava and in 1923 he co-founded the Šumava Museum here.

After studying at the real grammar school in Prachatice and the higher real school in České Budějovice, Hans Schreiber studied chemistry, physics and geology at the German Technical University in Prague. He then passed exams to become a teacher of the history of natural sciences and of physics. However, Schreiber was one of the most important experts on peat bogs and he conveyed this scientific passion both in his teaching at schools in Děčín-Libverda, Trutnov and Stod and in his numerous publications. From 1899 he was in charge of the Moorkulturstation (Peat Culture Station) in Hora Svatého Šebestiána, which was part of the Stod School. Here he organized international seminars on peat bogs from 1905. At the international level, Schreiber sought to establish an institutional base for the study of peatlands and in 1900 founded the Deutschösterreichischer Moorverein (German-Osterreichische Moor Research Association) in Salzburg, which he led until 1918, while at the same time publishing the association's journal (Deutsch-Österreichische Moorzeitschrift) until 1915.

Schreiber's significant activities at home were related to the documentation of peat bogs, of which 246 out of 708 were in Šumava. Schreiber also advocated the protection of peatland sites. In 1923, together with Gustav Jungbauer, he founded the Šumava Museum in Horní Planá, which included a natural history exhibition on peat bogs.

Hans Schreiber died in 1936 in Český Krumlov and is buried in his native Volary. Schreiber's grave lies at the lower part of the cemetery on the left side.

Hans Schreiber. In: kol.: Österreichisches Biographisches Lexikon1815–1950, sv. 11, 52/1997, s. 191f.
Schreiber, H.: Moorkunde nach dem gegenwärtigen Stande des Wissens auf Grund 30jähriger Erfahrung. Berlin 1927.

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