Christian Winner

Christian Winner

Christian Winner (born February 3, 1927 in Staßfurt ; † June 3, 2012 in Göttingen ) was a German phytomedicist and crop scientist . From 1966 to 1991 he was Professor and Director of the Institute for Sugar Beet Research in Göttingen.

Live and act

Christian Winner, son of a pastor, grew up in Finkenwalde near Stettin and from 1937 attended the Marienstiftsgymnasium in Stettin. In 1943 he was deployed as an air force helper in the air defense, and in 1944 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . After being seriously wounded on the front, he was taken to a Russian field hospital. From 1945 he lived in Bad Harzburg . In April 1946 he received the certificate of maturity as a supplement to the school leaving certificate. He then completed an agricultural apprenticeship in an animal breeding company in Westphalia. In 1948 he began a study of agriculture at the University of Göttingen . In addition, he attended courses in the field of biology . In 1951 he studied for two semesters at Purdue University ( Indiana , USA ). In autumn 1952 he passed the examination to become a qualified farmer in Göttingen .

From 1953 Winner worked as a doctoral student and at the same time as a consultant for crop protection at the Institute for Sugar Beet Research in Göttingen, headed by Hans Lüdecke . During this time he worked on the chemical properties of the root exudates of rape and their importance for the activation of cysts of beet nematodes . This research became the subject of his dissertation . In 1956 he received his doctorate from the University of Göttingen. sc. agr. PhD.

After completing his doctorate, Winner continued to work at the Institute for Sugar Beet Research in Göttingen. As head of the then independent department “ Plant Protection and Pathology ”, he conducted research into parasitogenic damage to the lateral roots of sugar beet and examined the possibilities of preventing it. With a thesis on this current problem in sugar beet cultivation , he qualified as a professor in 1965 at the Agricultural Faculty of the University of Göttingen in the field of phytopathology . He then deepened the findings from this research during a study visit to the State University in Michigan (USA). After his return from the USA in 1966 he was appointed head of the Göttingen Institute for Sugar Beet Research. As the successor to Hans Lüdecke, he worked here as director and professor until his age-related dismissal in 1991.

Winner's scientific work as head of the Göttingen Institute for Sugar Beet Research focused on field tests on crop density , fertilization , weed control and agricultural engineering in sugar beet cultivation, as well as issues relating to the population dynamics of soil-borne pathogens and harmful insects. He published most of the results of the research work carried out at his institute in the magazine Zucker (new title from 1978 Sugar Industry ) and in the magazine "Plant Diseases and Plant Protection". Of his extensive publications , the book Zuckerrübenbau , published in 1981, should be emphasized - for many years the authoritative work on the basic knowledge of sugar beet cultivation at the time with a large number of practical recommendations for farmers. In several contributions, Winner paid tribute to the merits of historical personalities in the field of sugar beet research ( Franz Carl Achard , Hermann Hellriegel ). He described his interest in old books in the 1998 privately published book Talking Volumes: Memories of a Göttingen Book Friend .

At the University of Göttingen, Winner took part in the central lecture "Special Crop Production " in the winter semester and regularly offered a course in the summer semester under the title "Selected chapters from the field of sugar beet research (with demonstrations)". He was also involved in the Göttingen Graduate Colloquium of the Institute for Plant Pathology and Plant Protection. As part of the advanced sugar technology course at the Technical University of Braunschweig , he occasionally gave lectures on sugar beet cultivation.

Winner was a member of the International Institute for Beet Research (IIRB) and at times head of the scientific advisory committee of this institution. He was a member of the specialist committees “Economic Sugar Association” and chaired the “ Schnitzel and Molasses ” committee. For over two decades he was a member of the Society for Crop Science . In 1992 he was awarded the Max Eyth silver medal by the board of directors of the German Agricultural Society for his wide range of activities related to sugar beet .

Main publications

• A contribution to the question of cyst activation by natural irritants in Hederodera schachtii Schm. Dissertation, Landw. Fak. Univ. Goettingen 1956.
• Hans Lüdecke, Christian Winner: Color table atlas of diseases and damage to sugar beet. DLG-Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1959; 2nd ext. u. revised Edition ibid. 1966.
• Investigations into parasitogenic damage to the roots of sugar beet, in particular by Aphanomyces, and into ways of preventing it. Habilitation thesis, Landw. Fac. Univ. Göttingen 1965. - Zugl. in: Phytopathologische Zeitschrift Volume 57, 1966, pp. 105-120, 232-252 and 310-328.
• Hans Lüdecke, Christian Winner: The institute for sugar beet research in Göttingen - history and tasks. In: New archive for Lower Saxony. Volume 14, 1965, pp. 87-94.
• Standards for assessing the quality of the sugar beet. In: Agricultural Research. Volume 23, 1970, pp. 1-12.
• Research as a pioneer in beet growing. A flashback to the history of sugar beet research in Germany. In: sugar. Volume 25, 1972, pp. 75-80.
• Sugar beet growing. DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1981.
• Franz Carl Achard as a pioneer of experimental crop science and sugar production from beets. In: History of the sugar beet. Published by the Institute for Sugar Beet Research Göttingen. Publishing house Dr. Albert Bartens Berlin-Nikolassee 1984, pp. 22-47.
• Sugar beet cultivation under the aspect of environmental protection. In: Reports on Agriculture. Volume 69, 1991, pp. 121-149.
• Planting sugar beets - balance sheet and prospects. In: Festschrift for Kord Baeumer on his 65th birthday. Edited by Wolfgang Böhm. Triade-Verlag Göttingen 1991, pp. 135-144.
• Speaking volumes. Memories of a book friend from Göttingen. Printed by Wallstein Göttingen in 1998. Private printing. 100 num. Copies.

literature

• Walter R. Schäufele: Prof. Dr. Christian Winner on his 65th birthday. In: Sugar Industry. Volume 116, 1991, p. 150 (with picture).
• Professor Dr. Christian Winner is retiring. In: Göttinger Tageblatt. dated February 28, 1991 (with picture).
• Professor Christian Winner has retired. In: sugar beet. Volume 40, 1991, p. 184 (with picture).
• Bernward Märländer: Obituary - Prof. Dr. sc. agr. Christian Winner. In: Journal for Cultivated Plants. Volume 64, 2012, pp. 267-268 (with picture).

Web links

• Literature by and about Christian Winner in the catalog of the German National Library