Albert of Caron

Portrait of Albert von Caron
Wilhelm Kricheldorff , 1910
oil
Privately owned

Albert Caron , from 1906 by Caron (born January 9, 1853 in Haus Rauenthal , Langerfeld , today part of Wuppertal ; † September 18, 1933 in Bonn ), was a German farmer and soil bacteriologist and a member of two state parliaments.

family

Caron came from a French émigré family , the line of which begins with Guillaume Caron de Beaumarchais (* 1735 in Paris ), and was the son of Albert Caron (1819-1894), factory owner in Rauenthal, and Adelheid Schniewind (1828-1907). He remained unmarried.

He and his brother Walther Caron (* 1855), Fideikommissherr at Gut Eldingen in the district of Celle , were raised to the Prussian nobility on July 16, 1906 in Digermulen ( Ostlofoten , Norway ) on board the steamer " Hamburg " .

Live and act

Caron studied natural sciences and economics at the University of Bonn and from 1873 mining at the Royal Prussian Mining Academy in Berlin . After a traineeship at the Oberbergamt in Bonn, he passed the exam as a Royal Prussian Bergassessor in 1880 . For health reasons, however, he was unable to pursue the desired job. In 1885 he bought the Ellenbach manor (today part of the municipality of Niestetal ) in the Kassel district , which he donated in 1887 as entails , and he worked as a farmer.

As a connoisseur of scientific agricultural literature, Caron was particularly interested in the question of whether, in addition to legumes , gramineae ( sweet grasses ) can fix atmospheric nitrogen with the help of nodule bacteria . In 1892 he began with soil bacteriological examinations in the fields and meadows of his manor. The soil bacterium " Bacillus Ellenbachensis Alpha " isolated by him was marketed in 1897 as a patented bacterial fertilizer under the name " Alinit " by the paint factories formerly " Friedrich Bayer & Co. " (today Bayer AG ) in Elberfeld . The favorable results achieved with this “vaccine” on Caron's own trial plots could, however, in most cases not be repeated on other sites.

Caron has reported on the results of his experiments in practical and scientific journals. His last contribution about the résumé of his nearly 50 years of soil bacteriological work was published posthumously .

Caron was active in several agricultural associations in leading positions and from 1905 to 1916, i.e. during two electoral terms, also as a member of the Prussian municipal state parliament for the district of Cassel (also known as the municipal state parliament of Kurhessen ) as well as in the district of Cassel (sic) Provincial Landtag Hessen-Nassau . Because of his initiatives in the field of soil bacteriology, the Agricultural Bacteriological Institute was founded in 1901 and a chair for agricultural bacteriology was established at the University of Göttingen .

Although Fideikommissherr himself at Gut Ellenbach (district of Kassel), he found his final resting place in the Caron's family cemetery on Fideikommiss Eldingen (district of Celle).

Honors

The Philosophical Faculty of the University of Göttingen awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1919 for his services to scientific and practical soil bacteriology .

Fonts (selection)

• Agricultural-bacteriological problems . In: The agricultural test stations, Vol. 45, 1895, pp. 401-418.
• The nitrogen food of the Gramineae . In: The agricultural test stations, Vol. 101, 1923, pp. 261–285.
• The nitrogen nutrition of the meadows . In: The agricultural test stations, Vol. 111, 1931, pp. 163–168.
• Atmospheric nitrogen, plant growth and fallow land . In: The agricultural test stations, Vol. 118, 1934, pp. 233-262 (published posthumously).

literature

• Gothaisches Genealogical Pocket Book of Noble Houses , Part B, Verlag Justus Perthes, Gotha 1933, p. 88.
• Wilhelm Kolbe: Bacteria and fallow in nature's household. Life and work of the farmer and soil bacteriologist Dr. hc Albert von Caron (1853-1933) in the mirror of natural research and family history. A contribution to the scientific history of bacteriology and to economic, agricultural and social history. (with numerous illustrations and extensive bibliography), Burscheid 1993, ISBN 3-929760-00-2 .
• Jochen Lengemann : MdL Hessen. 1808-1996. Biographical index (= political and parliamentary history of the state of Hesse. Vol. 14 = publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 7). Elwert, Marburg 1996, ISBN 3-7708-1071-6 , p. 97.
• Dieter Pelda: The members of the Prussian Communal Parliament in Kassel 1867-1933 (= Prehistory and history of parliamentarism in Hesse. Vol. 22 = Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse. Vol. 48, 8). Elwert, Marburg 1999, ISBN 3-7708-1129-1 , pp. 31-32.

Web links

• Caron, Albert Heinrich von. Hessian biography. (As of July 28, 2019). In: Landesgeschichtliches Informationssystem Hessen (LAGIS).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ cf. Kolbe 1993, p. 405.