HELLMANN

GERMANY (see also List of Individuals)

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3.7.1854 Löwen/PL - 21.2.1939 Berlin/D

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To which hydrologist is unknown the Hellmann rain meter? Maybe it is less known that Hellmann also developed the rain writer. Despite rainfall was quantitatively measured as early as by the Chinese and the ancient Greeks, Gustav Hellmann proposed and developed systematic rain recording. Hellmann was born in Silesia, a part of today's Poland, and graduated from the University of Berlin. He joined the Royal Prussian Meteorological Institute of the capital as a meteorologist in 1879 and there stayed until retirement in 1922. During 22 years he there headed a department and took over the institute directorship in 1907. Hellmann was in parallel a professor of meteorology at the Berlin University from 1886; he was a Geheimrat from 1907 and a Member of the Prussian Academy of Science from 1912. Due to his organizational talents, Hellmann was a leading scientist in meteorology of his era.

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Hellmann's contributions to meteorology may be divided into two fields. The first includes his works in the observation of meteorologic-climatologic phenomena, thereby aiming to uniformize the data all over Germany. He therefore was a leading scientist preparing hydrologic maps for his country that were extensively used by hydraulic engineers for predicting the design bases of hydraulic structures, among others. The second field includes the history of meteorology, where Hellmann put the development of this branch of water sciences into context. From the more than 300 publications, his Repertorium of the German meteorology, the Precipitation in Northern Germany and the Climatic atlas are of particularly note. The precipitation data collected at the experimental station in Berlin were at the origin of the later developed German weather service. Hellmann noted a significant effect of wind on the precipitation data and proposed a suitable arrangement in selecting the optimum recording site.

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_{Anonymous (1912). Geh.Reg.-Rat Dr. Gustav Hellmann. Umschau 16: 127. P Eggelsmann, X. (1963). Wer war Gustav Hellmann? Wasser und Boden 15(5): 190. P Hellmann, G. (1883). Repertorium der deutschen Meteorologie. Engelmann: Leipzig. Hellmann, G. (1890). Die Anfänge der meteorologischen Beobachtungen. Gronau: Berlin.}

_{Hellmann, G. (1909). Untersuchungen über die Schwankungen der Niederschläge. Behrend: Berlin.}

_{Hellmann, G. (1919). Regenkarte von Deutschland. Reimer: Berlin. Hellmann, G. (1921). Klima-Atlas von Deutschland. Reimer: Berlin.}

_{Hellmann, G. (1922). Beiträge zur Geschichte der Meteorologie. Behrend: Berlin.}