13 – RECOLLECTIONS: TRAVELS WITH HERBERT POELLMANN
Ano 09 (2022) – Special Issue on Herbert Artigos
10.31419/ISSN.2594-942X.v92022iSpeciala13JDV
Johan de Villiers
University of Pretoria, johan.devilliers@up.ac.za
This short essay is to pay homage to a great man, whose legacy as a scientist and an exceptional human being will be long remembered. His many friends will remember him for his generous nature, his exceptional scientific ability and his loyalty to his friends and students. His laboratory facilities were always at my disposal during my visits to Halle and contributed greatly to my scientific work.
Over the years Herbert and his students accompanied me on numerous field trips to Namibia and South Africa, and all evoke pleasant memories. My memories are summarised as follows:
Trips to Mamatwan and Wessels manganese mines
Because of Herbert’s interest in manganese minerals and manganese containing cement phases we made several visits to the large manganese deposits near the town of Kuruman, South Africa. Stefan Stuber accompanied us on this occasion. As usual we had to pack his numerous mineral samples in boxes, with the specimens separated by rolls of toilet paper, sometimes depleting the stocks of the stores in these small towns. I often wondered what the cashiers thought when encountering a person buying up all the stocks of toilet paper in the shops. Apparently, we must have had some really bad cases of diarrhoea. Herbert enthusiastically participated in the mine visits among all these rare manganese minerals. He was especially interested in the low temperature minerals that could be analogues for manganese cement phases.
We visited these two mines several times.
Trip to Tsumeb and Kombat copper mines in Namibia
On this occasion, we travelled through Botswana to Namibia, with Stefan mostly sleeping on the back seat during this 2000-kilometre journey. Again, Herbert enjoyed the mine visit at Kombat with large volumes of water underground forming pisolites of calcium carbonate together with rare minerals to be found. Herbert enjoyed driving these long distances on the left side of the road and before going on the trip he instructed Frau Henne to fax his driving licence to the hotel in Namibia. Unfortunately, his image came out entirely black so that only the outline of his face could be seen. When we were stopped by traffic police in Botswana, he produced this document as proof of his driving licence; it obviously was not good enough. Luckily the officer good-naturedly said that the document was inadequate and allowed me to drive further.
Trip to Rosh Pinah and Skorpion mines in Namibia.
This time Uwe König accompanied us on the trip which took us via Upington and the Aughrabies waterfall. We were also fortunate to visit some outcrops of tillite representative of the so-called “Snowball Earth”. At Rosh Pinah we met up with a very popular female ex-student and classmate of Uwe. Herbert teased Uwe mercilessly linking him romantically with the young lady. Again, the aim was to collect low-temperature phases containing zinc and other elements. On our return to Upington, the 15 to 20 kilograms of samples had to be shipped to Germany by surface mail. Unfortunately, the franking machine was not working at the time, so the whole package was covered with postage stamps! With all the samples that were shipped by post, not one ever got lost!
Trip to Havercroft andalusite mine
Herbert, Reinhard Wegner, and I visited the mine to collect large crystals of andalusite along the aureole of the Bushveld Complex. We also made a side trip to the Kruger National Park, which Reinhard enjoyed very much with a rare sighting of a leopard.
Trip to Vergenoeg fluorspar mine
This mine, close to Pretoria, is well known for fluorspar and rare earth minerals. Nice fluorspar crystals could be found.
Trip to Phalaborwa copper and phosphate mines
Our trip had as aim to collect phosphate minerals, fluorapatite and hydroxyapatite. While looking for phosphate samples on the iron oxide dump, Herbert found the nicest magnetite sample that I have ever seen. He had the uncanny ability to find the best samples.
Trip to the Vredefort meteorite impact site
We visited the quarry where 2 metre blocks were lying at the abandoned site. Spectacular impact features were seen where large, rounded blocks of shattered granite were surrounded by black impact melt. Two years ago, Herbert finally managed to get a sliced slab installed in his department. No mean feat, since the 1 metre by 2 metre blocks are very heavy and must have cost a lot to transport.
In summary, I wish to say that I miss Herbert, his pleasant nature, his deep knowledge, and his dedication to his science. He was a giant of a man despite his handicap. I will also remember and miss his characteristic walk. My condolences to his family and friends.
*The photos were supplied courtesy of Uwe König.