Almar von Wistinghausen

Almar Johann Christian Jakob von Westinghausen (* March 22, 1904 in Reval ; † April 17, 1989 in Bad Liebenzell ) was a qualified farmer and as such the founder of several biodynamic initiatives . He was an activist of the Demeter movement and promoter of biodynamic work.

Life

Almar von Wistinghausen attended the knight and cathedral school in Reval until 1918 , after which the family moved to Berlin - Beelitz . He completed his school education in Potsdam . He began studying agriculture in Berlin, continued it in Breslau and graduated with a diploma in agriculture and seed cultivation . His brother Kurt arranged for him to take part in an agricultural course with the anthroposophist Rudolf Steiner . He then worked as a research assistant at the University of Wroclaw . From 1926 he worked with Erhard Bartsch in Gosen on a biodynamic estate. Together they published the monthly magazine "Mitteilungen des Landwirtschaftlichen Versuchsring des Anthroposophischen Gesellschaft". Bartsch and Wistinghausen took over Gut Marienhöhe near Bad Saarow in 1927 and turned it into the “center of biodynamic movement”.

In 1931 von Wistinghausen took over the administration of the Bonin estates Bottschow and Wildenhagen , which were about 30 kilometers east of Frankfurt on the Oder . In 1939/40 he was called up for military service and immediately afterwards released. In 1942 he leased the Markersdorf manor near Zittau and was expelled in 1945. The family now lived in Berlin and in 1946 von Wistinghausen became department head for seed propagation at the main cooperative Kurmark, Berlin and Brandenburg. With the renewed support of his brother Kurt, the family moved to Württemberg in 1951 , where he built up the greatest density of biodynamic farms. Under his leadership, 22 working groups were set up in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate , offering advice on biodynamic agriculture. In 1952 he built up the demeter work with Erwin Jaus and founded the Demeter Association in 1954 , whose chairmanship he was given in 1965. Thus, he expanded the work of the Demeter Association in the Netherlands and gave lectures in Italy , France and Austria . In 1962 he bought a former farmhouse in Schafhausen near the city of Weil . In 1970 he founded the working group for nutritional research with Udo Renzenbrink , whose task was to promote the processing and use of biodynamic products through research, newsletters and information.

In 1988 von Wistinghausen was awarded the " Merit Medal of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany " for his services .

Origin and family

Almar v. W. came from the Baltic-German noble family von Wistinghausen , who had lived in Raval since the middle of the 17th century . His father was the chief surgeon and general practitioner at the municipal hospital of Reval Reinhold von Wistinghausen (1863-1939), who was married to Elisabeth von Ramm (* 1863). Almar was the fourth child of the couple. His brother was Kurt von Wistinghausen (1901–1986). Almar married Inge Marie von Bonin (* 1908 in Grabow, † 1988). Her two sons Eckard and Christian von Wistinghausen were also successful in biodynamic agriculture:

• Christian von Wistinghausen (1933–2008) had studied agriculture at the University of Hohenheim , he was one of the pioneers of biodynamic agriculture and had published numerous publications.
• Eckard von Wistinghausen (born June 27, 1937) studied agriculture. His main focus was on grain breeding, research on the ground and, among other things, the connection between nitrate pollution in groundwater and agriculture.

Works

In addition to numerous essays and newspaper articles, he wrote several books:

• The Demeter Bund eV - Its tasks and its goals
• Memories of the beginning of the biodynamic economy, Darmstadt, 1982
• Food and Agriculture, Bad Liebenzell, 1985
• Legumes. A family of plants helps biodynamic agriculture
• We dared. Life report of a pioneer in the biodynamic economy, Frankfurt / M., 1993

literature

• Jörgen Beckmann: Plant Breeding in the Biodynamic Economy: Developments in the 20th Century . Part 2 of exploratory project: Analysis and commented processing of plant breeding methods in organic farming, Jörgen Beckmann, Verlag BoD - Books on Demand, 2013, ISBN 3-89799-254-X , [6] , p. 15 f.
• Wolfgang Böhm : Biographical manual on the history of crop production , new edition, Verlag Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 1997, ISBN 3-11-096710-3 [7] , p. 384
• Helmut von Kügelgen  : Book review on nutrition and agriculture in ERZIEHUNGSKUNST issue 12 1985. Page 805

Web links

• Biography Almar von Wistinghausen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Announcements from the Agricultural Experimental Association of the Anthroposophical Society. [1]
2. ↑ Demeter-Bund eV [2]
3. ↑ Christian von Wistinghausen died. In: Topics of the time [3]
4. ↑ Demeter congratulates Eckhard von Wistinghausen on his 80th birthday [4]
5. ↑ List of his works - ( Memento of the original from July 31, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
6. ^ Institute for Social Threefolding [5]