Eberhard Rimann, geologist and academic, studied geology and
mineralogy at Leipzig and qualified with an inaugural dissertation entitled Beitrag zur Kentniss der diabase des
Fichtelgebirges, im besonderen des Leukophyrs Guembel's (1906). He also
passed the necessary examinations to qualify as mine surveyor and mining engineer.
A few years later he obtained his doctoral degree with a thesis on Der geologische Bau des Jergebirges und
seines noerdlichen Vorlandes (1910). He worked for some time as a privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) in mineralogy and geology at the Technische Hochschule (Technical University) in Dresden.
During 1910-1911 Riman was in German South West Africa (now
Namibia), where he studied the geology of the area around Rehoboth and the region
inhabited by the Khauas Hottentots (south of Gobabis) for the Hanseatischen Minen-Gesellschaft. His
observations were reported in Geologische
Karte des Khauas-Hottentottenlandes in Deutsch-Suedwestafrika (westliche
Kalahari), on a scale of 1:400 000, with an explanation (Berlin, 1913, 43 pp);
and Geologische untersuchungen des
Bastardlandes in Deutsch-Suedwestafrika (Berlin, 1915), with a map on a
scale of 1:200 000. He also published papers on the origins of the Kalahari
sand and lime pans (1914), copper ores in the territory (1914), and his
geological route notes and cross-sections (1916).
In 1912 Rimann was appointed mineralogist and petrographer on the Serviço Geológico e Mineralógico do Brazil. He returned to Dresden in 1920 as professor of mineralogy and
geology at the Technische Hochschule, a
position he held until his retirement in 1943. He died of cancer the next year. During this period he published on the geology of
Argentina and Brazil. He was also in charge of the Dresden Museum for
Mineralogy, Geology and Prehistory, and donated his own collection to the
institution. During his career he described two new minerals, kalkowskite (1925) and bodenbenderite (1928).
