Asmus Petersen (agricultural scientist)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Asmus Petersen, 1951 (center front)

Asmus Petersen (born December 6, 1900 in Hof Kemphy ; † January 4, 1962 in Paulinenaue ) was an imaginative German agricultural scientist in the fields of agricultural taxation theory , Thünen research , the history of agricultural sciences and grassland theory .

Life path

Asmus Petersen, son of a farmer, studied at the Agricultural University in Berlin from 1922 and received his doctorate there in 1928 with a dissertation on the valuation of meadowlands. From 1928 to 1931 he was assistant to the agricultural economist Friedrich Aereboe . In 1930 he completed his habilitation at the Agricultural University in Berlin with a paper on the taxation of arable land and acquired the license to teach in the field of agricultural management. He then worked as a private lecturer at this university. His research focus initially remained the taxation theory. In 1934 he took over the chair for agricultural management at the University of Jena .

In 1944, Petersen accepted the call as full professor for agricultural management at the newly emerging agricultural faculty at the University of Rostock . In 1946 he became a member of the SED . From 1947 to 1952, as dean, he played a key role in developing the agricultural faculty into a recognized teaching and research facility. In 1957 he became director of the newly founded Institute for Grassland and Moor Research Paulinenaue of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin. From 1960 he was also a professor at the Humboldt University in Berlin and head of the Grassland Research Association of the GDR Research Council . Since 1949 he was a full member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin .

Research services

Petersen has decisively developed the agricultural taxation theory as a branch of the science of the economics of farms. Already in his dissertation and in his habilitation thesis he broke new ground. He tried to combine scientific knowledge with economic conditions and to make the results obtained in agricultural practice accessible. In the later decades of his life he also dealt with questions of the monetary valuation of agricultural land.

With his academic inaugural speech at the University of Jena at the beginning of the winter semester 1935/36 " The fundamental location theory of Johann Heinrich von Thünens , as it was previously misunderstood as intensity theory and what it really means ", he entered a new field of teaching and research. According to his ideas, farm management should not only be a "use theory" but also a "design theory" in German agriculture. In 1944 he published his work " Thunen's isolated state. Agriculture as a link in the national economy ". With this book, he gained not only high recognition from his agricultural colleagues, but also from economists, sociologists and geographers. As a competent Thünen researcher, he was also appointed head of the Rostock Thünen archive in 1944. After the end of the Second World War, however, due to the changed political circumstances, he was no longer able to realize his large-scale plans in the field of Thünen research.

Petersen made great contributions to the history of agricultural sciences. It was particularly important to him to honor the life's work of important scientists and practitioners in agriculture and to make their achievements visible again for the present. Of his more extensive publications, a treatise on Albrecht Daniel Thaer (1952) and on the farmer Albert Schultz-Lupitz (1954) should be emphasized .

Through his appraisal studies, Petersen had acquired extensive knowledge about the plant species of the grassland at an early stage. He wrote several books on the identification of grasses, clover and other forage plants. With their memorable images and clear references to the species-specific morphological characteristics of the plants, these works, which are often published several times, are among the best identification books in grassland vegetation.

Petersen was a university professor with an unusual charisma. He devoted a considerable part of his working time to the students. He supervised a total of 55 doctorates. Seven of his students completed their habilitation. The University of Rostock awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1960 . In the same year he received the National Prize of the GDR and the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver.

Major works

  • Investigations into the valuation of meadowlands based on the plant population . Diss. Agricultural University Berlin 1928. In bookstores under the title. The Taxation of meadow lands ... . Publisher Reinhold Kühn Berlin 1927.
  • Investigations into the valuation of arable land on the basis of the natural vegetation of arable land and field margins . Hab.-Schr. Landw. Hochschule Berlin 1930. In the book trade: Verlag Reinhold Kühn Berlin 1930.
  • Basics for a realm assessment of the agricultural cultivated soils in Germany . Reinhold Kühn Berlin 1934.
  • Clover and clover-like as fodder plants in fields, meadows and pastures . Verlag Reinhold Kühn Berlin 1935. - 2nd edition published by Waltraut Petersen under the title Klee and Kleeartige as cultivated plants, wild plants and weeds on fields, meadows and pastures . Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1967.
  • The grasses as cultivated plants and weeds in meadows, pastures and fields . Verlag Reinhold Kühn Berlin 1936; 2nd edition. Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1949; 3rd edition ibid. 1953; 4th edition, ibid. 1954; 5th edition revised by Waltraut Petersen and Günther Wacker ibid. 1981; 6th edition, ibid. 1988; 7th edition, ibid. 1992.
  • The fundamental theory of location by Johann Heinrich von Thünens, as it was previously misunderstood as the theory of intensity and what it really means . Publishing house G. Fischer Jena 1936.
  • Thunen's isolated state. Agriculture as a link in the national economy . Publisher Paul Parey Berlin 1944.
  • The control of arable weeds through the cultivation measures of the respective cultivation and operating system. A further development of the Aereboeschen zones for weed control together with an appendix on the field weeds as indicator plants . Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1951.
  • The new Rostock grassland estimate . Treatises of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Class for social sciences born in 1952, No. 1.
  • Albrecht Daniel Thaer. A critical tribute to his 200th birthday . Meeting reports of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin, Vol. 1, No. 4, 1952.
  • Schultz-Lupitz and his legacy . Treatises of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin. Social sciences class, born 1953, No. 1.
  • The small grasses book for practical farmer and his advisors ... . Akademie-Verlag 1961; 2nd edition published by Waltraut Petersen in 1965.
  • The sour grasses. Keys to their destination in the flowerless state . Published by Waltraut Petersen. Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1973; 2nd edition edited by Waltraut Petersen and Günther Wacker ibid. 1989.

literature

  • K. Dyrenfurth and E. Rübensam: Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Asmus Petersen on his 60th birthday . In: German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin. Scientific papers No. 51 (Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc A. Petersen), 1961, pp. 11–24 (with a list of his writings and the dissertations he prepared).
  • Eberhard Gerhardt: Asmus Petersen † . In: Journal for Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology Vol. 10, 1962, pp. 234–236.
  • The editorial board: Asmus Petersen in memory . In: Zeitschrift für Landeskultur Vol. 3, 1962, pp. 3–7 (with picture).
  • H. Stubbe and E. Wojahn: Asmus Petersen in memoriam . Meeting reports of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin, Vol. 11, H. 2, 1962, 19 p. (With picture).
  • Asmus Petersen Memorial Symposium . Lectures at the symposium on July 9, 1980 in Rostock and December 6, 1980 in Paulinenaues on the occasion of the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Asmus Petersen. Conference report of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR No. 193, 1981 (with picture and list of publications).
  • H. Thöns: Asmus Petersen - a universal spirit of agricultural science of his time and successor to Mitscherlich in Paulinenaue . In: 50 years of the Paulinenaue science location - results of grassland and forage research. Scientific lecture conference on June 1st and 2nd, 1999. Published by the Paulinenauer working group for grassland and feed management. Paulinenaue 1999, pp. 39-46.
  • " from the flowing of the water to the flowing of the milk ......" (A. Petersen) . Scientific conference on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Professor Dr. Dr. hc Asmus Petersen on December 6, 2000 in Paulinenaue. Series of publications by the State Office for Agriculture of the State of Brandenburg, Agriculture Series, Vol. 2. Teltow 2001 (with picture).
  • Honorary memory colloquium on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Prof. Dr. agr. habil. Dr. hc Asmus Petersen on February 22, 2001 in Rostock . Published by Hartmut Ecksstädt, University of Rostock 2001 (with picture and list of publications).
  • Eberhard Wojahn:  Petersen, Asmus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 20, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-428-00201-6 , p. 253 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Siegfried Kuntsche:  Petersen, Asmus . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Commons : Asmus Petersen  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich. Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 , p. 455.
  2. Neues Deutschland , December 20, 1960, p. 4