Jozef Zwierzycki, a prolific Polish geological mapping expert in Indonesia, 1914-1938.

Jozef Zwierzycki was a Polish-German geologist with a very eventful life. This included a long and remarkably productive career with the Dienst van het Mijnwezen (Bureau of Mines/ Geological Survey of the Netherlands Indies) from 1914-1938, first as a field geologist and eventually as Head of the Geological Survey Department. This was followed by an eventful late career back in Poland during and after World War II.Zwierzycki left a legacy of about 50 scientific publications and a series of maps on the geology of the Netherlands Indies. In addition to his publications, he also authored many unpublished reports on surveys on gold, tin, petroleum and coal deposits in various parts of Indonesia.Jozef Zwierzycki was born on 12 March 1888 in Krobi (Kroben), which is now in western Poland, but until 1918 was under Prussian (German) control. He went to elementary school in Krobi and completed high school in Gnesen. From 1908 he studied natural sciences and geology in Leipzig, Munich and Berlin. He obtained a doctorate in geology in October 1913 from the Alexander von Humboldt University in Berlin, with a thesis on ammonites from the 1911-1913 Tendaguru Expedition to Tanganyika, East Africa. This was followed by study at the Bergakademie (Mining Academy) of Berlin, where he graduated as a mining engineer in early 1914.


I. INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY
Jozef Zwierzycki was a Polish-German geologist with a very eventful life.This included a long and remarkably productive career with the Dienst van het Mijnwezen (Bureau of Mines/ Geological Survey of the Netherlands Indies) from 1914-1938, first as a field geologist and eventually as Head of the Geological Survey Department.This was followed by an eventful late career back in Poland during and after World War II.
Zwierzycki left a legacy of about 50 scientific publications and a series of maps on the geology of the Netherlands Indies.In addition to his publications, he also authored many unpublished reports on surveys on gold, tin, petroleum and coal deposits in various parts of Indonesia.
Jozef Zwierzycki was born on 12 March 1888 in Krobi (Kroben), which is now in western Poland, but until 1918 was under Prussian (German) control.He went to elementary school in Krobi and completed high school in Gnesen.From 1908 he studied natural sciences and geology in Leipzig, Munich and Berlin.He obtained a doctorate in geology in October 1913 from the Alexander von Humboldt University in Berlin, with a thesis on ammonites from the 1911-1913 Tendaguru Expedition to Tanganyika, East Africa.This was followed by study at the Bergakademie (Mining Academy) of Berlin, where he graduated as a mining engineer in early 1914.Indies in 1914(from Chrzastek et al. 2014).Right: J. Zwierzycki in the 1930s (from Persoonlijkheden in the Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, 1938).

Aceh, North Sumatra, 1914-1919
During the first years, through 1919, J. Zwierzycki spent most of his time on mapping and prospecting in North Sumatra, while based in Langsa, Aceh.Much of this area was uncharted territory and not yet under government control.The North Sumatra fieldwork was documented in multiple reports in the Jaarboek van het Mijnwezen between 1915 and 1922.

North New Guinea mapping project, 1920-1922
From September 1920-January 1922 Zwierzycki was based in and led the final phase of the geologic mapping project of North New Guinea, an extremely remote area (geology summarized in Manokwari Zwierzycki 1924).This project had been conducted by Mijnbouw from mid-1917early 1922, in which several other geologists/ engineers had also participated for limited periods (Hogenraad Kemmerling, Hartmann, Loth, Taverne, Grandjean, etc.).
Interesting details on the large scale of the field operations and of the logistical difficulties (in particular problems with hiring and holding onto local Papuan laborers) were described in Zwierzycki (1922) and Kemmerling (1928).Many ethnographic objects collected by Zwierzycki from New Guinea were donated to museums in Poland in 1922 (Poznan, Warsaw).
In his final report (Zwierzycki 1924) it was concluded that, despite the presence of oil and gas seeps, no commercial petroleum accumulations should be expected, due to the structural complexity of the area surveyed.The detailed maps of surface anticlinal structures and seeps produced during this survey are probably still the best available, as the area does not appear to have been remapped since then.

East Sulawesi, 1924
In 1924 Zwierzycki briefly was Leader of the MGO Oost Celebes (East Sulawesi Geological-Mining Survey), based in Makassar, but was transferred to Bandung at the end of 1924.He spent most of that year in Buton, evaluating the geology of the asphalt terrains of Buton island with A.C.D. Bothe (Zwierzycki 1925).

The 1925 Jambi Paleobotanical expedition
In 1925 Zwierzycki The expedition lasted from June-November 1925 and was rather eventful.Most of the contract laborers from Korintji deserted when they found out they could make more money working in nearby rubber plantations, so 30 contract laborers had to be sent from Batavia.A boating accident nearly killed the field party, and an infestation of aggressive, man-eating tigers in the area required additional armed guards (who killed three tigers).Despite all this, a large volume of Permo-Carboniferous plant and animal fossils was collected.

The nappe tectonic model of Sumatra
Already in 1925 and 1930 Zwierzycki realized the significance of the presence of Early Permian lowlatitude 'Cathaysian' floras and fusulinid foraminifera in thin limestone interbeds in an area that was believed to be a region with cool-Gondwanan affinities in Permian time.Zwierzycki (1930Zwierzycki ( , 1935) ) saw this as support for the alpinestyle nappe structure interpretation of Tobler (1917,1922).The low-latitude Permian floras were interpreted to be from an allochthonous nappe, derived from a root zone in the East Malayan

The Sumatra systematic mapping program, 1927-1932
In January 1927 Zwierzycki became leader of the newly established Sumatra Kaarteering (Sumatra mapping project).The program was scheduled to     (1931,1932).

The Java systematic mapping program, 1933-1935
After the Sumatra systematic mapping project was halted in 1932 due to budget cuts, 'Zwier' became Head of the Java Kaarteering (Java Mapping program) in September 1933.He took over from the retiring W.W.F.Oppenoorth, and supervised another team of highly educated and capable geologists that included R.During his years in charge of Mijnwezen, Zwierzycki and his staff (especially Dr. K.A.F.R. Musper) worked with the two main oil companies in the Neetherlands Indies on an assessment of petroleum occurrences and reserves.Unfortunately, their reports were never published, but some copies may still be in the archives of the Geological Survey in Bandung (e.g.Zwierzycki 1935).

Redjang Lebong mine final evaluation, West Sumatra 1936
In 1936 Zwierzycki briefly returned to West Sumatra, at the request of the Mijnbouwmaatschappij Redjang Lebong, to conduct a geological study and evaluation of the well-known Lebong Donok gold-silver mine.After years of profitable gold production in the early 1900s this mine had been in decline.The report  he wrote was published by the company and was long viewed as one of the best descriptions of epithermal gold-silver deposits in Indonesia (Zwierzycki 1936, Westerveld 1961).In the report Zwierzycki concluded that there were no analogs for Redjang Lebong in the literature, but that no additional silver-gold reserves could be expected beyond what had been being mined already.

III. RETIREMENT FROM BANDUNG AND RETURN TO POLAND, 1938
In In July 1944 Zwierzycki managed to escape from a German convoy to Warsaw and spent the remainder of the war period in hiding in Krakow.In the meantime, he had lost all his personal documents and library when his Warsaw residence was destroyed during the war.

IV. RESURRECTING GEOLOGY EDUCATION, UNIVERSTY OF WROCLAW, 1945-1960
Immediately after the liberation by Russian forces of the towns of Krakow (January 1945) and   15).

Commemorations and monuments in Poland
Many years after his death in 1961 Zwierzycki still enjoys hero status in Poland.The elementary school he attended in his native town of Krobia school was re-named after him in 1982.In the city of Wroclaw (before 1945 known as the Silesian/Prussian/German city of Breslau) a boulevard along the North bank of the North Oder River was named after him in 1991 (Bulwar Profesora Jozefa Zwierzyckiego) and a granite monument was erected here in 2015.The best students at the Institute of Geological Sciences in Wroclaw are awarded with the Medale Profesora Józefa Zwierzyckiego (Zwierzycki Medal).In 2000 he was commemorated with a Polish postage stamp (Figure 16).
citizenship and became a Polish citizen.Another home leave was in 1928 (when he married in Poland), and a final one from March-November 1931.
was seconded as leader to the Paleobotanic Djambi expedition to the Merangin River area of West Sumatra.This academic expedition was funded by six academic and industrial organizations and was an initiative of paleobotanist Dr. Jongmans and Prof. L.M.R. Rutten in The Netherlands, with as main purpose the collection of additional plant fossils at localities first described by Tobler.He was accompanied by the young paleobotanist O. Posthumus and two topographic surveyors and a large group of contract laborers.Zwierzycki  (1930Zwierzycki  ( /1935) detailed the geologic setting of the fossil-bearing beds, while the plant fossils of the now-famous Early Permian Jambi flora were described byPosthumus (1927)  andJongmans  and Gothan (1935).

Figure 6 :
Figure 6: Covers of Explanatory notes of the 1:1 million scale geologic overview map of the Netherlands East Indies,sheets North Sumatra (1922)  andNorth and South New Guinea (1928).

Figure 7 :
Figure 7: The southern part of the Telukbetung map sheet and a SW-NE cross section of the southernmost tip of Sumatra, showing folded Pretertiary metamorphics and granites, overlain by Pleistocene-Recent volcanics (incl.Sukadana flood basalts plateau in NE).

Figure. 9 :
Figure.9:Dr. J. Zwierzycki in the field (second from right), most likely at the Ngandong excavation in East Java in July 1934.On left Ir.Carel Ter Haar, second from left Ir.Johan Duyfjes, on right Dr. Ralph von Koenigswald (photo courtesy Geological Museum, Bandung).

Figure 8 :
Figure 8: Covers of Explanatory notes and geologic maps of the first two South Sumatra map sheets(1931, 1932).
W. van Bemmelen, K.A.F.R. Musper, J. Duyfjes, C. Ter Haar and W.C.B. Koolhoven (who would succeed Zwierzycki as Head of the Geological Survey Department in 1938).From 1930-1933 Zwierzycki taught geology part-time for engineers at the Polytechnic University (later ITB) in Bandung.Head of the Geological Survey department, Bandung, 1935-1938 In June 1935, after moving through the seniority ranks of the Dienst van den Mijnbouw for almost 20 years, Zwierzycki was promoted to Head of the Afdeling Geologie (Geological Survey department) of Mijnbouw.Unfortunately, as a result of the ongoing global economic crisis, he was forced to implement continued budget cuts, which had already started in 1932.By the late 1930s Mijnbouw personnel had been reduced in half, compared to what it was in the late 1920s (Rutten 1938).In 1936 professional staff at Mijnbouw was down to 8 geologists, 2 volcanologists and 2 paleontologists.During Zwierzycki's tenure scientific publications in the previously prolific Jaarboek van Het Mijnwezen in Nederlandsch Indie series were reduced to almost zero.

Figure 10 :
Figure 10: Part of a page from Zwierzycki's personal copy of the 'International Geologists and Mineralogists Listing 1937'.Names crossed out by him are Geological Survey geologists from Bandung that died during World War II, between 1943 and 1945 (Wroclaw University collection).

Figure 11 :
Figure 11: Newspaper clipping: J. Zwierzycki promoted from Head of Geological mapping to Head of the Geologic Department of the Bureau of Mines (Indische Mercuur 21 August 1935).

Figure 13 :Figure 12 :
Figure 13: News clip of Zwierzycki's return to Poland in 1937, here called 'a loss for the Indies' (De Indische Courant 9 Dec. 1937)

Figure 14 :
Figure 14: Left: J. Zwierzycki biography in Polish, entitled 'Jozef Zwierzycki-the pride of four countries' (2014).Right: In May 1941 as prisoner of war in the German concentration camp Auschwitz in South Poland.
Figure 16: Left: The logo of the elementary school in Krobia, which was renamed after Jozef Zwierzycki.

Figure 18 :
Figure 18: The 'Boulevard of Jozef Zwierzycki' and Geological Institute of the University of Wroclaw, Poland, in 2019.
August 1914 Zwierzycki arrived in Java by steamship from Hamburg, to join the Dienst van het Mijnwezen in Nederlandsch Oost-Indie (Bureau of Mines) as 'Temporary Geologist'.With this move he narrowly avoided military service in Breslau (May 1945) Zwierzycki worked on securing geological collections and rebuilding the geological education systems at the Jagiellonski University of Krakow and at the University of Breslau (renamed Wroclaw).In late 1945 geology courses resumed at the University of Wroclaw, taught by Zwierzycki and others, and in 1948 Zwierzycki became full professor of stratigraphy and geology.During his tenure in Wroclaw he was instrumental in the discovery of the strata-bound lead-zinc and copper deposits of the Lubin mine in the Late Permian Kupferschiefer of the Sudetes, SW Poland, in 1953.Prof. Dr. J. Zwierzycki retired from University in August 1960, aged 72.He died after a lengthy disease in May 1961 in Wrocław, where he was buried in the St. Wawrzynca cemetery (Figure