Response to the presentation of the Service Award of the Meteoritical Society

Thank you, Klaus. And I extend my sincerest thanks to the society for honoring me with this award. I usually try to attend the European meetings, and when I was informed by Trevor Ireland that I have been selected by The Meteoritical Society as the Service Award winner for 2019, I planned to join the Sapporo meeting. Unfortunately, 2019 started with sad events: my mother died; my 55-year-young sister-in-law lost her fight against cancer; and, 2 weeks later, my mother's brother left us. So, I had to change many items of my plan for 2019. Beside my family, meteorites help to distract from these sad events. I have been interested in chemistry and minerals since I was a 13-year-old pupil and started collecting minerals, enjoyed their beauty, but soon got also fascinated in their formation conditions and paragenesis. My initial idea to obtain a nearly complete systematic mineral collection, born by my chemical interest, were quickly cleared out, due to my pocket money budget. That was the beginning of my Lower Saxony mineral deposits collection. Now I spent a lot of my pocket money in travel expenses, but could sample many more minerals. Part of my systematic collection I trade for Lower Saxony minerals, but my Odessa and Canyon Diablo meteorite specimens, obtained as native iron evidence, I kept. During my study of chemistry in Aalen and Lübeck, my passion for minerals flattened in favor of parties; however, during my practical training, I determined many of my self-collected questionable mineral specimens by IR-spectroscopy. I finished my study with the thesis “Methyl-tert.-butylether: Analytical determination in petrol and influence in the octane number of reformate and benzine” in 1980. I expected to get a job with an oil company on a refinery in Hamburg or the Ruhr area, and was very surprised about an interesting job offer concerning surface technology from Volkswagen AG in Wolfsburg—and so I returned to my close hometown Gifhorn. When I got my first salary from Volkswagen, at the same time, I also received a mineral sales list offering some Allende meteorite pieces and I “squandered” my first salary! I learned that this meteorite bears amino acids, the basis of life, and CAIs which contain components that are older than our solar system—that was the initiation of my real meteorite interest. My basic literature was Heide's “Kleine Meteoritenkunde” and Hey's “Catalogue of Meteorites.” The availability of meteorites for private collectors was limited as well as the manageable private community itself. From Hey's catalog, I learned where meteorites are deposited and so I began to write trade requests to the regarding museums and institutes all over the world. I was not really surprised that about 90% of requests were not answered, but I was delighted about the few very helpful responses and trade offers. Ed Olsen's letter, for example, recommended in bad German language that I have to improve my English if I really want to work on meteorites. In 1982—at that time it was necessary to get recommended by two society Members—I became a member of the Meteoritical Society by commendation of Gero Kurat (†) and Walter Zeitschel (†). I attended my first annual Meteoritical Society meeting in 1985. It was marvelous to make the personal acquaintance of many meteorite scientists I knew so far only from correspondence in that great ambiance in Bordeaux with its unforgettable banquet. Paul Pellas (†) welcomed me with about following words: “Mr. Bartoschewitz? I expected a much older gentleman regarding your collection, welcome to the community!” At that time I often still had problems understanding meteorite literature, due to missing geological knowledge, but also due to my slow improvement of the English language! I always received support from Mainz group Herbert Palme, Frank Wlotzka, and Ludolf Schultz—we talked for hours on the phone! But also, Gero Kurat (†), Vagn Buchwald, Peter Signer, and Rainer Wieler always provided their help!—Thank you to all of you for your constant patience! Collecting meteorites quickly broke the boundaries of just one hobby! Not to make my meteoritics development and thanksgiving an endless story, I thank all who have been teaching and supporting me and growing my collection to about 3200 different named meteorites and samples from more than 100 confirmed impact structures. Within these nearly 40 years, the meteorite community has been growing continually, as well as the number of discovered meteorites. When I started in 1980, we knew about 2400 different meteorites, including about 900 from witnessed falls. Now we know about 61,000 meteorites, including about 1210 observed falls, but there are still thousands of unclassified meteorites from Antarctica and the hot deserts. It is important to investigate each single meteorite, even if most of its cosmic characteristics were lost by terrestrial weathering. Finds from Antarctica played a significant role for glaciologists to interpret ice movements, and I am sure in the near future meteorite finds from hot deserts will play an important role regarding findings in climate research due to the processes these meteorites undergo as a result of terrestrial weathering. So, it is very important to inspire climatologists interest in A meteorite science, as well as the most diverse scientific faculties! The sky-rocketing number of everywhere available meteorite finds from hot deserts tempts some enthusiasts to declare such meteorites as homeland finds, either to obtain higher profit or to satisfy their ego. Such “ennoblement” is already known from history, when from the huge number of L'Aigle and Knyahinya specimens were offered as new meteorite falls like “Waldau” and “Dudenrode,” or as rarer meteorites like Eichstätt and Erxleben. Nowadays Campo del Cielo, Sikhote Alin, unclassified NWAs, and Chelyabinsk occur as “ennoblement.” Our current knowledge about desert weathering processes often suffices to substantiate such fraud, but to prove beyond doubt a fraud, it is very necessary to understand the local terrestrial contamination of the mentioned find sites, influenced by local terrestrial surface chemistry and climatic parameters, which are usually still not investigated in such a context. I am pleased to not only be able to experience this change in meteoritics but also to be allowed to participate in it as a private collector in our society, although I am sometimes a bit provocative and uncomfortable to initiate changes. I thank the Meteoritical Society for your trust and the honor to choose me as the Service Award winner for 2019!