Josef Emanuel Hibsch was a world-renowned geologist, the first to make a detailed map of volcanic rocks in the Central Bohemian Uplands. He is also credited with his efforts to protect important and unique geological sites, thanks to which we can still admire them today.

He was born in 1852 in Homole pod Pannou (Hummel), surrounded by basalt peaks and the typical landscape of the Central Bohemian Uplands, to which he dedicated his lifelong research. It may be said that what Joachim Barrande was for our knowledge of fossils and the Barrandien region, Hibsch was for volcanic rocks and the volcanic mountain range of the Central Bohemian Uplands. His work belongs to the modern concept of geology.

Hibsch came from a German-speaking peasant family, but also learned Czech. While his older brother inherited the family farm, Josef Emanuel was sent to follow a teacher’s career. After finishing grammar school in Litoměřice he graduated with a degree in Vienna, after which he was qualified to teach the natural sciences and chemistry at secondary schools in what was then the Austrian Empire. He returned to the region he was born in and worked at Libverda (first a higher agricultural institute, later granted the status of a university) until 1914, as the institute’s first professor of geology, mineralogy and pedology. He was the first person to systematically map the volcanic phenomena of the Central Bohemian Uplands in precise geological maps, from which we still glean information today (the maps have 21 sheets at a scale of 1:25 000 and are accompanied with detailed descriptions).

He focused not only on the formation of this volcanic mountain range, but also on minerals, many of which he named after local places. (The mineral hibschite, a hydrogarnet from the phonolites of Mariánská skála, was named in honour of Hibsch.) He was the very first person to systematically study and give detailed descriptions of volcanic phenomena, which helped to finally resolve the dispute between the so-called neptunists and plutonists; the neptunists believed that that rocks formed by deposits that crystallised on the sea bed, while the plutonists believed that volcanic activity was the main agent.

After retiring he worked in Vienna, where until the end of his life he was actively engaged in geological research. Unfortunately, as a an author who wrote in German, after his death he only left a small trace in the Czech memory, although this has not been wiped out completely: a memorial was erected in his native village of Homole to commemorate the 125th anniversary of the birth of J. E. Hibsch. In 2002 a mineralogical museum bearing his name was opened in the local school (which Hibsch himself attended when he was a child).

J. E. Hibsch is credited not only with furthering our understanding of volcanic rocks and the Central Bohemian Uplands, but also protecting them: places he saved from being destroyed by mining include well-known sites such as the basalt columns of Mansion Rock, Vrkoč and Golden Hill, the volcanic peak of Komorní hůrka and also the partly excavated Radobýl hill, from where K. H. Mácha watched the fire in Litoměřice. He organised excursions to these places and he was involved in the purchase of land to ensure that those valuable places remain unspoilt, and thus also became the practical founder of the protection of natural monuments in this country.

Connected places: J. E. Hibsch Mineralogical Museum
Memorial of J. E. Hibsch
Hibsch educational trail (Hibschweg)Mineralogické muzeum J. E. Hibsche; Památník J. E. Hibsche; Děčínská Libverda; Geologická lokalita Kočka; Hibschova stezka (Hibschweg)

Keywords: geology; mineralogy; České Středohoří; vulcanic phenomenon; Homole pod Pannou

Ulrych, J.: Josef Emanuel Hibsch-Syn sopečného pohoří. Nejvýznamnější geolog Českého Středohoří. Vesmír, 76/1997, č. 11. s. 632-633. URL:https://vesmir.cz/cz/casopis/archiv-casopisu/1997/cislo-11/josef-emanuel-hibsch-ndash-syn-sopecneho-pohori.html [24. 4. 2019]