Alfred Bluefoot

Alfred Blaufuß (born July 15, 1912 in Seeba in southern Thuringia ; † October 5, 1995 in Frei-Laubersheim in Rheinhessen ) was a German teacher and headmaster as well as a leisure botanist and conservationist.

Life

Blaufuss attended elementary school in his hometown from 1919 to 1926, where he received his first natural history suggestions. He then attended the Aufbaugymnasium in Meiningen from 1926 to 1932 , doing autodidactic studies of botany. After graduating from high school, which he passed in 1932, he studied from 1932 to 1935 at the University of Jena . His main subjects were education , philosophy and psychology , with biology as a minor. From Jena he went on numerous botanical excursions under the direction of the lecturer Albert Köchert. In 1935 he completed his studies with an exam. In the years 1935-1939 he taught at various schools in West Thuringia. This was followed by 1939-1945 war participation (last as an officer) on the western and eastern fronts. He married during a home leave in 1941. The marriage resulted in a son and a daughter in 1942 and 1943. From 1946 Blaufuß taught in Thuringia until he fled the GDR in 1950. From 1953 he and his family lived in Frei-Laubersheim near Bad Kreuznach and worked there as a secondary school teacher. He immediately began to deal with the rich flora of Rheinhessen and the neighboring Nahe region and to publish the results of his explorations in numerous popular scientific articles. In 1962 he became a member of the botanical working group of the Heimvolkshochschule Schloss Dhaun near Kirn and from 1970 tried together with some members to raise the floristic work to a scientific level. To this end, they tackled the publication of a regional floral work. He maintained lively contacts with the Rhineland-Palatinate botanists Dieter Korneck , Walter Lang , Hermann Lauer and Peter Wolff . From 1980 he and Hans Reichert, 25 years his junior, wrote the manuscript for the "Flora of the Nahe region and Rheinhessen", which appeared in 1992 as a thousand-page work. Until a few months before his death he was physically and mentally fit and took part in sometimes strenuous excursions. He died in 1995 as a result of a heart attack in his sleep. Alfred Blaufuss was buried in his birthplace Seeba.

Honors

• 1982 Order of Merit of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate
• 1986 Award of the silver plant by the Foundation for the Protection of Endangered Plants ( Loki Schmidt Foundation )

Fonts (selection)

• Characteristic plant communities and plants of the middle and lower Nahe area from an ecological and geographical point of view (= Heimatkundl. Schr.-Reihe Landkreis Bad Kreuznach. Volume 13). 1982, DNB 830362681 .
• Status and tasks of nature conservation in the Bad Kreuznach district (= Heimatkundl. Schr. Series Bad Kreuznach district. Volume 16). 1983, DNB 840952376 .
• Plants of the mountains in the southern Hunsrück and the northern Palatinate (= Heimatkundl. Schr. Series Landkreis Bad Kreuznach. Volume 23). 1987, ISBN 3-924824-45-2 .
• Alfred Blaufuss, Manfred Niehuis, Werner Schneider: On the importance of the planned nature reserve "Lower Nahetal". In: Naturschutz Ornithologie Rheinl.-Pf. Volume 2, 1981, pp. 10-60.
• Alfred Blaufuss, Otto Atzbach, Werner Schneider: Middle and lower Naheland (= Rhenish landscapes. Volume 34). 1989, ISBN 3-88094-634-5 .
• Alfred Blaufuss, Hans Reichert: Flora of the Nahe area and Rheinhessen (= Pollichia book. No. 26). Pollichia, Bad Dürkheim 1993, ISBN 3-925754-25-3 .

In addition, more than 100 mostly smaller popular scientific essays, especially in the Naheland calendar and in the Bad Kreuznacher Heimatbl Blätter .

Biographical sources

• Hans Reichert: The flora of the homeland as a theme. Compilation of the publications by Alfred Blaufuß for his 80th birthday. In: Bad Kreuznacher Heimatblätter. No. 10, 1992, pp. 3-4.
• Hans Reichert: In memory of Alfred Blaufuss. In: Hess. Florist. Br. Volume 44, 1995, p. 48.
• Horst Silbermann, Werner Vogt: Flora of the Nahe area and Rheinhessen - his life's work. In: Bad Kreuznacher Heimatblätter. No. 11, 1995, p. 44.
• Werner Vogt: retired main teacher Alfred Blaufuß †. In: Landeskundl. Quarterly Volume 41, 1995, pp. 197-198.
• Manfred Niehuis, Frank Eislöffel: Life and Work of Alfred Blaufuß (July 15, 1912– October 5, 1995). In: Fauna Flora Rhineland-Palatinate. 8th year, 1997, pp. 895–910 ( PDF on ZOBODAT ).
• personal communications by Hans Reichert on April 10, 2018.