Albert Orth

Albert Orth (born June 15, 1835 in Lengefeld near Korbach , Waldeck , † August 23, 1915 in Berlin ) was a German soil scientist and agriculture scientist.

Live and act

Orth, the son of a manor tenant, studied geology and chemistry in Göttingen and Berlin from 1854 to 1857, then worked in agricultural practice and from 1860 to 1865 worked as a teacher at the Beberbeck Agricultural College near Kassel. In 1867 he continued his studies. He was now particularly interested in soil science and geology. In 1868 he received his doctorate at the University of Göttingen with a dissertation on contributions to soil research and in 1870 he completed his habilitation at the University of Halle with a paper on the geological conditions of the north German alluvial land . In 1871 he was appointed associate professor for agricultural studies at the Agricultural Teaching Institute in Berlin.

In the following years Orth participated intensively in the geological survey in Prussia. He played a major role in the fact that the geological maps also included an assessment of the soils for agricultural use. Orth is one of the founders of agricultural cartography. Until 1880 he was head of the agronomic-chemical laboratory of the Prussian State Geological Institute in Berlin.

When the Berlin Agricultural Teaching Institute was combined with the Agricultural Museum in 1881 and the Royal Agricultural University of Berlin was founded as a new institution , Orth took over the full professorship for arable and crop production. Here he worked until 1910. Due to his strongly pedological-arable research direction, he called his university institute the "Agronomic-Pedological Institute".

Orth mainly dealt with questions of lime fertilization , green manure , root growth , weed control and irrigation . From 1887 until his death he chaired the arable farming department of the German Agricultural Society . In this function, he succeeded in ensuring that the effects of lime on the various soils in Germany were thoroughly tested through long-term field tests. With his book Kalk- und Margeldüngung published on behalf of the fertilizer department of the German Agricultural Society in 1896 , Orth comprehensively presented the scientific principles and practical application of liming in agriculture for the first time. Through lectures, he was able to convince numerous farmers of the necessity of liming acidic soils.

As a great friend of associations, Orth was also active in numerous other agricultural organizations in leading positions, including the then famous Berlin “Club of Farmers”, whose scientific lectures he organized and whose news paper he published. Orth wrote numerous obituaries for deceased friends and colleagues. In 1905, on his 70th birthday, his students and colleagues presented him with a commemorative publication published in the Paul Parey publishing house in Berlin .

Albert Orth died on August 23, 1915 in Berlin. He is buried with his sister Marie (1830–1910) and his brother August (1828–1901), an architect, in a communal grave on the Dreifaltigkeitskirchhof II in Bergmannstrasse in Berlin- Kreuzberg .

Fonts (selection)

• Contributions to soil investigation . Diss. Phil. Goettingen 1868.
• The geological conditions of the north German alluvial land . Habil.-Schr. Halle-Wittenberg 1870.
• The geognostic-agronomic mapping with special consideration of the geological conditions of Northern Germany and the Mark Brandenburg . Berlin 1875.
• The scientific basics of soil science . In: The agricultural experimental stations, Vol. 20, 1877, pp. 63–69.
• The lime and marl fertilization . Berlin 1896; 2nd edition ibid. 1918; 3rd edition, ibid. 1928.
• Agriculture at the time of Thaer and in the scientific century. Speech to celebrate the birthday of the emperor and the 25th anniversary of the Royal Agricultural University in Berlin . Paul Parey publishing house in Berlin 1906.

literature

• The Royal Agricultural University in Berlin . Festschrift to celebrate the company's 25th anniversary. Edited by L. Wittmack. Berlin 1906, pp. 97–112 (with list of publications).
• L. Wittmack: Albert Orth † . In: Yearbook of the German Agricultural Society, Vol. 30, 1915, pp. 169–179 (with picture).
• B. Tollens: Albert Orth † . In: Journal für Landwirtschaft Vol. 63, 1915, pp. 197–198 (with picture).
• HP Blume: Albert Orth as a soil scientist, Quaternary geologist and farmer . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft Vol. 30, 1981, pp. 472-475 (with selected bibliography).

Web links

• Literature by and about Albert Orth in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Albert Orth in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis