August von Berlepsch

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August von Berlepsch

Baron August Sittich Eugen Heinrich von Berlepsch (born June 28, 1815 in Seebach ; † September 17, 1877 in Munich ) was a German bee researcher , inventor of the movable honeycomb frame and author of numerous monographs on beekeeping and beekeeping.

family

His parents were Baron August von Berlepsch (1792–1841) and his wife Therese, b. from Wolfersdorf. From 1867 until his death, his wife was the author Karoline Welebil , a widowed artist (1829–1899). The doctor and specialist writer Guido Künstle (1853–1879) was her son from her first marriage.

Youth and Studies

Berlepsch studied law , philosophy and theology in Gotha , Halle , Bonn and Leipzig . From 1836 to 1838 he worked as a court trainee in Mühlhausen . Berlepsch also moved to Munich to study , where he kept several bee colonies as a city beekeeper and observed their swarming behavior .

“Living in Theresienstraße, I let bees fly out of the windows of my bedroom. But when, despite all the attention, a basket swarmed me in June 1840, the swarm pulled up in Ludwigsstrasse and moored there at a cab , the police ordered me under threat of punishment to remove my sticks immediately. "

- August von Berlepsch : From the diary of August von Berlepsch , 1815 to 1877.

He then took over his father's estate for 17 years . He also kept around 100 bee colonies in straw baskets . In 1858 Berlepsch moved to Gotha and devoted himself entirely to beekeeping.

Apologists

Berlepsch particularly advocated a profound link between science and practice in beekeeping. He recommended the promotion of training apiaries and postulated profitable beekeeping by migrating with bees . His main work was the invention of movable square honeycomb frames that are still used today in practical beekeeping instead of the Dzierzon frames with round rods. He invented these frames in 1853 independently of Lorenzo Langstroth . Its frames had the advantage that the beekeeper could pull individual honeycombs (frames) out of the hive without having to destroy the bees' entire honeycomb structure (see also distance between bees ). This made it possible for modern beekeeping to work selectively in the hive in terms of control and the targeted throwing off of individual honeycombs. Berlepsch arranged a total of 30 frames in test stand hives with three levels and developed a detailed, tried and tested operating method for this . He constructed the doors of these experimental hives out of glass in order to better observe the bees' way of life.

1853 defended Berlepsch, in the Apistischen letters , scientific discovery of Johann Dzierzon the parthenogenesis (from unfertilized, virgin developing eggs of drones ) in the Eichstädter Bienenzeitung . For the Catholic Church, the theory of the virgin generation of male bees had blasphemous features. The dispute lasted ten years. Finally, Berlepsch, who attested Dzierzon an “eminent acumen” and an “extremely rare gift of observation”, asked the leading naturalists for their scientific help. The two professors Rudolf Leuckart and Carl Theodor von Siebold attested in 1855 with the help of microscopic evidence that male bees were young.

Burial place and honors

  • The grave of August Berlepsch is located in the Old Southern Cemetery in Munich (Grave field 22 - row 4 - place 1) location .
  • In Munich-Sendling , Berlepschstrasse has been named in his honor since 1886.

Impressions: from Berlepsch's inventions (selection) and grave site

  • von Berlepsch inventions and grave site

  • Floor plan of the movable frame developed by Berlepsch (from the monograph: The bee and its breeding with movable honeycombs )

  • Three-tier experimental hive for observing colonies (from the monograph: The bee and its breeding with movable honeycombs )

  • Grave of August Berlepsch on the old southern cemetery in Munich location

Works

  • 1860: The bee u. their breeding with movable combs in areas without late summer dress
  • 1860: The bee and beekeeping in honey-poor areas according to the current standpoint of theory and practice digitized
  • 1875: Beekeeping from its current rational point of view

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Humming problem children : Article in the Bayerische Staatszeitung (BSZ) from July 25, 2014
  2. ↑ Berlepsch: Apistical letters II-V to Mr. Pastor Dzierzon . In: Bee newspaper. Organ of the Association of German Beekeepers . tape 9 , no. 3, 5, 7, 22 . Nördlingen 1953, p. 31-36, 42-47, 52-56, 176-179 .
  3. ↑ Blasphemous virgin generation of male bees , Homepage: Deutschlandfunk (accessed on July 12, 2012)
  4. ↑ Stripf, R .: Honey for the people: History of beekeeping in Germany ; Publisher: Ferdinand Schöningh ; Edition: June 2019 (p. 19) ISBN 978-3-506-78008-9

Web links

Commons : August von Berlepsch  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Berlepsch, August von
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berlepsch, August parakeet Eugen Heinrich von
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German beekeeper, bee researcher, inventor and author
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1815
PLACE OF BIRTH Seebach
DATE OF DEATH September 17, 1877
Place of death Munich