Kurt Mothes

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Kurt Mothes on the Aragaz (1961)

Albin Kurt Mothes (born November 3, 1900 in Plauen ; † February 12, 1983 in Ahrenshoop ) was a German pharmacist, botanist and university professor. He is considered the nestor of plant biochemistry and pharmacognosy. From 1954 to 1974 he was President of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

Life

Kurt Mothes, son of the chief inspector Albin Mothes, completed his school days in his hometown of Plauen, where he passed the secondary school diploma in 1918 . He received military training, but no longer had to do military service. From 1918 to 1920 he completed an apprenticeship as a pharmacist in the Johannes pharmacy in Plauen . Until 1921 he worked there as a pharmacist's assistant. During his apprenticeship he made the acquaintance of the painter Walther Löbering , who painted an oil portrait of him. With him he shared the hobby of observing astronomy . In 1921 he enrolled at the University of Leipzig for the subjects of pharmacy , chemistry , human physiology and pharmacology . In 1923 he passed the pharmaceutical state examination. Until 1925 he studied chemistry and also physiology and pharmacology. In 1925 he was elected chairman of the canteen academica at Leipzig University. With a doctoral thesis under Wilhelm Ruhland , he was awarded a Dr. phil. PhD.

Friedrichs University

He then got a job as a scientific assistant at the Botanical Institute of the Friedrichs University Halle with George Karsten . In 1927 he was licensed as a pharmacist. He completed his habilitation in botany and pharmacognosy in 1928 and became a private lecturer . At the turn of 1932/33, Mothes and the economist Gerhard Mackenroth created a “voluntary labor service” at the University of Halle. Effective May 1, 1933, Mothes became a member of the NSDAP (No. 1.981.138). At the instigation of Hermann Stieve , the rector of the university, Mothes was entrusted with the management of the student union in Halle on October 4th. Funded by the chairman of the lectureship, Dr. Wagner, Mothes joined the SA on November 4th of the same year . Also in 1933 he got a teaching position for plant physiology . In the course of 1933 Mothes turned down offers to the University of Bern and the University of Ankara . He could not make up his mind to switch to IG Farben either. In the following year he was promoted to associate professor . He stayed in Halle until 1934.

Albertus University

Kurt Mothes followed a call to succeed Carl Christian Mez at the Albertus University in Königsberg . From November 1934 he headed the Botanical Institute as full professor for botany and pharmacognosy, to which the city's botanical garden was also attached. He held this office until 1945. During this time he was constantly monitored by the Gestapo . He was suspected of being a supporter of Gregor Strasser . At that time, Mothes went on excursions to Scandinavia and the Arctic Ocean , the Romanian Carpathians , south-eastern Poland and western Ukraine . He also dealt with forest botanical, vegetation-historical and plant-physiological studies and turned to nature conservation . In 1939/40 Mothes took part in the Second World War as a staff pharmacist . While on vacation at home, he founded a research group in Königsberg. This association had set itself the task of promoting research into East Prussia . Gauleiter Erich Koch was the patron of the association and the rector of the Albertus University, Hans-Bernhard von Grünberg , acted as chairman . Mothes worked as a scientific secretary. Due to the British air raids on Königsberg in August 1944, Mothes lost his institute and his apartment. His wife left Königsberg with their four children in autumn 1944 and fled to relatives in Plau in Mecklenburg. In October 1944 Mothes was committed to the Volkssturm . From January 1945, with the beginning of the battle for Königsberg , he took part in the city's voluntary medical service. As the last pharmacist remaining in Königsberg, he was in charge of the military district sanitation park. In April 1945 he was taken prisoner by the Soviets . He was deported to Siberia , where he had to work as a woodcutter and in mines. In September 1949 he was released into the Soviet occupation zone .

Gatersleben

At the intercession of his friend Hans Stubbe , Mothes got a job as head of the chemical physiology department at the Institute for Crop Plant Research in Gatersleben ; it belonged to the research community of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR . When he was awarded the GDR National Prize endowed with 50,000 marks in 1953 , he donated two bronze bells for the church in Gatersleben. He stayed in Gatersleben until 1957.

Martin Luther University

Since 1951 also director of the Institute for Pharmacognosy of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg , he became director of the Institute for General Botany at the University of Halle in 1958. In the same year he founded the Plant Biochemistry Unit in Halle , which later became the Leibniz Institute for Plant Biochemistry . In 1963 he was given the first chair in plant biochemistry in Germany . He examined biochemically induced mutations in cultivated plants (including colchicine ) and clarified the effects of various plant hormones. He retired as full professor in Halle in 1966. As director of the Institute for Plant Biochemistry, he resigned on December 31, 1967. His successor at the Halle Academy Institute in 1968 was the chemist Klaus Schreiber , who headed the institute until 1989.

Leopoldina

At the age of 40, Mothes was accepted into the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . During the time in Gatersleben he was appointed to XXII in 1954 as the successor to Otto Schlueter. President of the Academy elected. In April 1958, Mothes became known throughout most of Europe. In a heated public debate, he represented to the General Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) , Walter Ulbricht , the offensive freedom of research . As a result, the Komet operational process was started against him and against the Leopoldina . With these investigations, the members of the Leopoldina were to be proven, among other things, high treason . The company failed. As President of the Leopoldina, Mothes strongly advocated German-German and international scientific relations. He kept the Leopoldina largely free from the influence of the SED and maintained it as an all-German institution with a West German vice-president. In 1964 he was re-elected for ten years. After 20 years he passed the chain of office on to Heinz Bethge in 1974 .

Private

His future wife Hilda Eilts (1899–1992) met Mothes at the Wandervogel . Both were group leaders there and in the Bündische Jugend . 1928–1931 Mothes was a boy leader in the Gau Saxony . There he made the acquaintance of the writer Hans Grimm . In 1929 he married Hilda Eilts, who had a doctorate in German . The couple had a daughter and three sons, including Winrich Mothes, a child surgeon . Mothes was a passionate hunter, mountaineer and world traveler. He was canon of Naumburg Cathedral . He died at the age of 82 while walking near Ahrenshoop. His burial place is in the local cemetery.

Memberships

Elections in academies and learned societies (selection)

Honors (selection)

literature

  • Presidium of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina: Kurt Mothes on November 3, 1980 , with appreciations from Heinz Bethge , Adolf Butenandt and Benno Parthier .
  • Sybille Gerstengarbe, Horst Hennig : Opposition, resistance and persecution at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg 1945-1961: A documentation . Leipziger Universitätsverlag 2009. ISBN 978-3-86583-262-7 .
  • Michael Kaasch:  Mothes, Kurt . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
  • Erna Lämmel:  Mothes, Kurt. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 18, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1997, ISBN 3-428-00199-0 , p. 223 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Benno Parthier: Kurt Mothes (1900-1983). Scholar, President, Personality. Commemorative speech on the eve of his 100th birthday as well as noteworthy details about his life and work. German Akad. Der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Halle 2001. (= Acta historica Leopoldina; 37) ISBN 3-8304-5104-0
  • Benno Parthier: Wilhelm Pfeffer (1845-1920) and Kurt Mothes (1900-1983) in their importance for German plant physiology. Akad.-Verl., Berlin 1996. (= session reports of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig, mathematical and natural science class; 125.7) ISBN 3-05-003045-3
  • Erwin Reichenbach (Ed.): On the current state of science and medicine, given in overviews by members of the Leopoldina on the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the XXII. President Kurt Mothes . Barth, Leipzig 1965. (= Nova acta Leopoldina; 173)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dissertation: About the metabolism of acid amides in higher plants .
  2. ↑ Habilitation thesis: Nicotine conversion in the tobacco plant .


personal data
SURNAME Mothes, Kurt
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mothes, Albin Kurt (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH November 3, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Plauen
DATE OF DEATH February 12, 1983
Place of death Ahrenshoop