Eduard Mückenhausen

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Eduard Mückenhausen (born February 17, 1907 in Enzen , Euskirchen district , Rhineland, † February 6, 2005 in Bonn ) was a German soil scientist . As a full professor and director of the Institute for Soil Science at the University of Bonn , he has developed his central research area, soil genetics and soil systematics , into a pioneering think tank in German and international soil science.

Life path

Eduard Mückenhausen, son of a leather manufacturer, attended grammar school in Euskirchen and then completed a two-year agricultural practice. From 1928 he studied natural sciences at the University of Bonn . Under the aegis of the geologist Hans Cloos , he wrote a dissertation on the soils in the area around Landsberg (Warthe) and was awarded a doctorate in 1933. phil. PhD. He then began a second degree with a focus on agriculture at the Technical University of Gdansk . With a thesis on the changes of soil types in the North German Plain, he was in 1935 when the soil scientist Hermann Stremme Dr. rer. techn. PhD.

From 1935 to 1938 Mückenhausen worked as a geologist and soil scientist at the Prussian State Geological Institute in Berlin . He then worked for several months as a soil science specialist in an industrial company. In 1939 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . He did not return to the Rhineland until 1946 from a Soviet prisoner-of-war prison .

In the same year Mückenhausen was as higher regional geologist with the leadership of the Department of Soil Science in the in Krefeld newly formed Geological Survey , now the Geological Survey of North Rhine-Westphalia , in charge. From here he established close ties to the agricultural faculty of the University of Bonn . As a lecturer , he also gave lectures on soil science and was in charge of the geological and mineralogical collection of this faculty. This collaboration paved the way for a cumulative habilitation . As a habilitation thesis, he chose his work, published in 1936, The German soil types according to the current state of soil type theory . In 1948 he received the Venia legendi for soil science .

1955 took over Mückenhausen as professor the Department of Soil Science at the newly created Institute of Soil Science at the University of Bonn. He was a member of the Faculty of Agriculture, of which he was Dean of the 1964/65 term of office , and also a member of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. Mückenhausen headed the Institute for Soil Science until his retirement in 1975. Even in retirement he worked as a teacher and researcher for almost two decades. He died in 2005, a few days before he would turn 98.

Research and Teaching

For Mückenhausen, soil science was not a specialty, but a globally oriented science that should always maintain close contact with other geosciences in research and teaching . From the outset, he designed the Institute for Soil Science , which was founded at the University of Bonn after 1955, so that interdisciplinary research topics from all sub-areas of soil science could also be processed there. He had appropriate laboratories for soil chemistry , soil physics , soil mineralogy and soil microbiology set up and the institute equipped with the necessary equipment for field studies. For him, the research work in the field was “the actual laboratory work”. He studied all soil regions in Central Europe intensively on site, but also expanded his pedological knowledge on study trips to all five continents. For him, soil was not just a plant location, but a research object with a wide range of functions.

The main research focus of Mückenhausen was soil genetics , soil systematics and soil geography . He had already worked out fundamentals in these areas in the years before the Second World War. For him, the focus of a comprehensive understanding of the soil was on the soil type . With the two monographs The most important soils of the Federal Republic of Germany ... (first edition 1957) and the emergence, properties and systematics of soils in the Federal Republic of Germany (first edition 1962), he decisively shaped the development of a systematics for soils in Germany.

Mückenhausen gave essential impetus to soil mapping in West Germany. In several research projects, he worked out the importance of soil maps for agricultural use. His summarizing text Soil Maps and Their Use (1980) is noteworthy . In addition to topics from his main research areas, he has also researched regional soil and current agricultural problems or had his doctoral students work on them. He led a total of 35 doctoral students to doctorate. His publication list includes well over 100 publications.

Even after his retirement , Mückenhausen was still scientifically active. His textbook Soil Science and its geological, geomorphological, mineralogical and petrological foundations should be emphasized from this creative period . The first edition appeared in 1975, further editions followed in 1982, 1985 and 1993. This textbook, which has more than 600 pages and is a document for an interdisciplinary understanding of the natural body of soil, is still one of the best introductions for students in the field of soil science. In the 1990s Mückenhausen published several articles on the history of soil science . In 1992 the publication The Development of Soil Science in the Former German Reich and in the Federal Republic of Germany appeared .

Activities outside the university

In 1949, Mückenhausen played a key role in the re-establishment of the German Soil Science Society , which elected him vice-president for the period from 1962 to 1970 and its president for the period from 1970 to 1973 . From 1952 to 1989 he was a leading member of the soil systematics working group and from 1974 to 1980 head of the paleopedology working group of this scientific society.

In the role of Vice President Mückenhausen worked in several commissions of the International Soil Science Society . From 1952 to 1972 he also participated as a German delegate in the working group for soil classification and soil mapping of the World Food Organization ( FAO ) in the development of a world soil map.

honors and awards

Due to its high professional reputation at home and abroad, Mückenhausen has received numerous honors and awards. He was an honorary member of several scientific societies, since 1977 in the German Soil Science Society , since 1977 in the Soviet Soil Science Society , since 1982 in the International Soil Science Society and since 1998 in the German Geological Society . In addition, there are memberships in scientific academies in Sweden, Finland, Luxembourg and Belgium, in the Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences and in the German Archaeological Institute .

From the University of Kiel Mückenhausen received the 1955 call to a professorship of Soil Science, as 1966 by the Agricultural University of Hohenheim . However, he declined both calls. The University of Mainz awarded him an honorary doctorate in natural sciences in 1977 .

Publications (selection)

  • The soils in the wider area around Landsberg / Warthe and special investigations on groundwater soils . Diss. Univ. Bonn 1933. Zugl. in: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 79, 1934, pp. 283–322.
  • The soil type changes in the north German plains and special observations of soil type changes in northern Lower Saxony . Diss. Techn. Hochsch. Danzig 1935. Zugl. in: Yearbook of the Prussian Geological State Institute, Vol. 56, 1936, pp. 460–516.
  • The German soil types according to the current state of soil type theory . In: Geologische Rundschau Vol. 27, 1936, pp. 129–156.
  • The most important soils in the Federal Republic of Germany, shown in 60 colored soil profiles with explanations (= Scientific Series of the Agricultural and Housekeeping Evaluation and Information Service, H. 14). Bad Godesberg 1957; 2. rework. Edition Publisher Commentator, Frankfurt am Main 1959.
  • Origin, properties and systematics of soils in the Federal Republic of Germany . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1962; 2nd supplemented edition ibid. 1977.
  • The production capacity of the earth's soils . Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1973 (also in: Lectures Rheinisch-Westfälische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Natural, engineering and economic sciences, N 234, pp. 7-61).
  • Soil science and its geological, mineralogical, geomorphological, mineralogical and petrological basis . DLG-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1975; 2nd edition 1982; 3rd edition 1985; 4th edition 1993.
  • Soil maps and their application . Verlag Schweizerbart, Stuttgart 1980 (also in: Geological Yearbook, Series F., Bodenkunde, H. 8).
  • Why is there still no uniform classification of the earth's soils? In: Geologisches Jahrbuch Hessen, Vol. 113, 1985, pp. 153-162.
  • with E. Schönhals: On the history of the German Soil Science Society and soil research. A look back on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of their re-establishment . Printing and distribution: Deutsche Soilenkundliche Gesellschaft, Bremen 1989.
  • The development of soil science in the former German Reich and in the Federal Republic of Germany . Printing and distribution: Deutsche Bodenkundliche Gesellschaft, Oldenburg 1992.
  • Developments in soil science in Germany in the 19th century . In: Advances in Geoecology Vol. 29, 1997, pp. 261-275.

literature

  • Contributions to soil science. Festschrift for the 65th birthday of Eduard Mückenhausen . Advances in the Geology of Rhineland and Westphalia Vol. 21, 1972 (with picture).
  • Wulf Amelung, Stefan Pätzold, Armin Skowronek: Eduard Mückenhausen 1907–2005 . In: Geoscientific Communications GMit No. 20, June 2005, pp. 103-104 (with picture).
  • Erich Weiß : Em. O. Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. hc Eduard Mückenhausen passed away . In: Zeitschrift für Vermessungswesen (journal for geodesy, geoinformation and land management), vol. 130, 2005, no. 3, p. 200.
  • Franz Makeschin, Monika Frielinghaus: In memoriam Eduard Mückenhausen 1907-2005 . In: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science Vol. 168, 2005, p. 404 (with picture).
  • On the 100th birthday of Eduard Mückenhausen 1907–2005 . Bonner Bodenkundliche Abhandlungen Vol. 46, 2007. Lectures on the occasion of the colloquium on February 23, 2007 on the 100th birthday of E. Mückenhausen (with picture). In it u. a .: A. Skowronek: Eduard Mückenhausen as researcher and academic teacher , pp. 1–18; H.-P. Blume: Eduard Mückenhausen and the development of the German soil systematics , pp. 19–37; P. Felix-Henningsen: Eduard Mückenhausen and the paleopedology , pp. 39–58.

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personal data
SURNAME Mückenhausen, Eduard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German soil scientist
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Enzen , Euskirchen District , Rhineland
DATE OF DEATH February 6, 2005
Place of death Bonn