ABSTRACT
Georg Wagner had studied to become a teacher of mathematics and science. His favourite subject soon became geology. He was out in the field whenever possible, and obtained a PhD in geology with a very well received thesis with a stratigraphic focus. In the summer of 1965 his wife died and in 1967 his second son, the geologist Gerold Wagner, was run down and killed by a truck while doing fieldwork at the French impact crater of Rochechouart. Walter Herman(n) Bucher had been born in the United States to parents of Swiss descent, who shortly after Bucher's birth moved to Germany, where young Walter grew up. Bucher's main argument, however, was the allegedly very special geological-geographical location of the Ries Basin: It would be difficult to find a more clearly defined position within the structural framework of southern Germany for a giant meteorite to hit.
