Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich

Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich (1950)

Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich (born August 29, 1874 in Berlin ; † February 3, 1956 in Paulinenaue , Havelland district ) was a German crop scientist and soil scientist . With the mathematically formulated effect law of the growth factors he found , he introduced the dynamic-quantitative approach to crop science and initiated extensive research worldwide on the relationships between fertilizer needs and the yield of agricultural crops.

Life path

Technical

Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich comes from a wealthy family of scholars. His father, Gustav Alfred Mitscherlich (1832–1911), was professor of surgery , his grandfather, Eilhard Mitscherlich (1794–1863), professor of chemistry and mineralogy . His maternal grandfather, Carl Ackermann, owned five large farms in the Kurmark and Lower Silesia. Mitscherlich spent his youth in Berlin and on the estates of his maternal relatives.

In 1895 he began to study physics at the University of Kiel . But after the first semester, he decided to study agriculture . In 1896 he moved to the Agricultural University in Berlin . In 1897 he returned to Kiel and received his doctorate in 1898 under Hermann Rodewald with the thesis Assessment of the physical properties of arable soil with the help of its heat of wetting . He then went to the Technical University of Munich for a semester , where he received suggestions from the agricultural physicist Ewald Wollny . Since 1899 he was back in Kiel and worked as a scientific assistant to Hermann Rodewald at the Agricultural Institute of the University of Kiel.

In 1901 Mitscherlich completed his habilitation at the University of Kiel and received the Venia legendi for the entire field of agriculture. His post-doctoral thesis, Investigations on the Physical Properties of Soil , was awarded the Liebig Prize by the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. As a private lecturer at the Agricultural Institute of the University of Kiel, he dealt increasingly with the error probability calculation and intended to introduce this mathematical-statistical method into agricultural experiments.

From 1906 to 1941 Mitscherlich was a professor for plant engineering and soil science at the Albertus University in Königsberg . 1915/16 and 1930–1932 he was rector of the University of Königsberg. In 1924 he was one of the founders of the Königsberg Scholar Society . After his retirement, he managed the Kutschlau family estate near Schwiebus . Since 1937 he was a member of the NSDAP .

After the end of the Second World War , he was appointed full professor of cultural engineering at the agricultural and horticultural faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin in 1946 . From 1950 until his death in 1956 he was director of the Institute for Increasing Plant Yields of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin in Paulinenaue.

Familiar

Mitscherlich was married to Luise Clauss, daughter of a respected Krefeld merchant, since 1908. The marriage has three sons and one daughter. Mitscherlich's youngest son died soon after he was born. His two other sons are Gerhard Mitscherlich , later professor of forest sciences at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg , and Eilhard Mitscherlich , later professor for veterinary medicine at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen . Mitscherlich's memoirs published in 1945 are a valuable contemporary document .

Research services

The focus of Mitscherlich's research at the University of Königsberg was on investigations into the growth factors that determine plant yield . In addition to chemical soil analyzes to determine the rate at which plant nutrients dissolve, he carried out extensive container tests in order to quantify the influence of physical and biological growth factors on the crop yield. During this test activity he improved numerous measurement methods and developed the Mitscherlich vessel , which was later named after him and which was introduced in almost all agricultural test stations in the world .

Mitscherlichs significant scientific achievement is a formulated by him yield law , the law of action of growth factors . His first publication on it appeared in 1909 under the title The Law of the Minimum and the Law of Decreasing Land Yield in the journal Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher . Unlike that of Carl Sprengel and Justus von Liebig established minimum law , according to which that of all mineral nutrients present in lowest quantity in the soil determines the crop yield authoritative Mitscherlich showed that the level of income depends on all growth factors. According to his research results, each individual growth factor can increase the yield with a specific intensity (effect factor). As the maximum yield is approached, however, the additional yield becomes significantly lower due to a further increase in a certain growth factor compared to the expenditure.

The representation of the yield increase curve as a logarithmic distribution derived from these findings by Mitscherlich met with global interest in agricultural science. It gave dynamic quantitative yield research new insights and led to an almost unmanageable number of experimental investigations, but also to controversial scientific discussions. Mitscherlich has published more extensive articles with research results on his income law, especially in the journal Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher . Of several review articles, the text Earnings Laws , published shortly after his death in 1956, deserves special mention. Although more recent research results show that Mitscherlich's law of yield only applies without restriction to special test conditions, his mathematically oriented research concept has considerably expanded our knowledge of the relationships between growth factors and yield formation.

For Mitscherlich it was always an important concern to check the results obtained in container tests under field conditions and to make them useful in agricultural practice. That is why he was particularly interested in field testing . He has summarized numerous suggestions for improving the implementation and evaluation of field tests in the document, first published in 1919, Regulations for the establishment of field tests in agricultural practice . With the support of the university, the Chamber of Agriculture of the Province of East Prussia and the Mitscherlich Society founded in 1923 , he was able to provide farm- specific fertilization advice to farmers for almost two decades in accordance with his ideas . From 1927 the 13 hectare test field in Juditten was also available to him for plant cultivation experiments. These ideal working conditions were one of the reasons why he turned down appointments to other universities. In Königsberg he led around 110 students to do their doctorates.

Mitscherlich's most important publication is the textbook Soil Science for Farmers and Foresters , published seven times . The first edition (1905) appeared while he was a lecturer in Kiel. In contrast to the prevailing doctrine at the time that soil science should primarily be viewed from a geological-mineralogical point of view, Mitscherlich focused on the physical-chemical properties of the soil as the decisive factors for the growth of cultivated plants. Taking into account his own research results, the book developed more and more into a "plant physiological soil science". The editions after 1945 therefore appeared under the title Soil Science for Farmers, Foresters and Gardeners in a plant physiological orientation and evaluation . For decades, the work was a popular and stimulating textbook for study, science and practice.

Honors

As an internationally recognized agricultural scientist, Mitscherlich maintained close contacts with well-known foreign specialist colleagues. From 1922 to 1930 he was President of the IV Commission of the International Soil Science Society. Since 1920 he was one of the co-editors of the American magazine Soil Science . He was also a member of the editorial board of other leading national and international journals.

Mitscherlich was an honorary member of the German Soil Science Society , the International Soil Science Society , the Agricultural Science Society of Finland and the Königsberg Scholar Society. In 1925 he was elected to the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . The Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (1948), the Liebig-Hochschule Gießen (1949) and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1954) awarded him an honorary doctorate . In addition to other prestigious awards, he received the first class national prize in 1949 and the GDR Patriotic Order of Merit in gold in 1954 . The Agricultural Faculty of the University of Giessen founded the Eilhard Mitscherlich Prize in 1964 . The first prize winner was Mitscherlich's most important student Eduard von Boguslawski . - In the colonnade of the agricultural and horticultural faculty of the Humboldt University in Berlin-Mitte there is a bronze bust of the scientist, which was made in 1952 by the sculptor Hein Sinken .

Writings (major works)

• Assessment of the physical properties of the arable soil with the help of its heat of wetting . Diss. Phil. Univ. Kiel 1898.
• Investigations into the physical properties of the soil . Habil. Schr. Univ. Kiel 1901. Zugl. in: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 30, 1901, pp. 361–445.
• Soil science for farmers and foresters . Paul Parey Berlin 1905; 2nd edition 1913; 3rd edition 1920; 4th edition 1923. - The following editions under the title: Soil science for farmers, foresters and gardeners in plant physiology and evaluation : 5th edition 1949; 6th edition 1950; 7th edition 1954.
• The law of the minimum and the law of decreasing land yield . In: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 38, 1909, pp. 537–552.
• Rules for conducting field trials in agricultural practice . Paul Parey Berlin 1919; 2nd edition 1925.
• Determining the soil's need for fertilizer . Publishing house Paul Parey Berlin 1924; 2nd edition 1925; 3rd edition 1930.
• A guide to the application of artificial fertilizers . Paul Parey Berlin 1925; 2nd edition 1931.
• The soil as a vegetation factor (plant-physiological soil science) . In: Handbuch der Bodenlehre. Edited by Edwin Blanck, Springer Verlag Berlin 1931, Vol. 9, pp. 497-541.
• Life memories . Halle (Saale) 1945. Published in the name of the Leopoldina by Emil Abderhalden = autobiographies of natural scientists no. 3.
• The fertilizer advice . Niemeyer Verlag Halle 1948.
• Findings in plant fertilization . Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1952 = Lectures and writings of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, issue 44.
• Increase in yield through correct fertilization. Fertilization experiments to determine quantitative increases in yield . Aufbau-Verlag Berlin 1952 = science and technology presented in an understandable way, volume 34.
• Income Laws . With a foreword by N. Atanasiu. Akademie-Verlag Berlin 1956.

literature

• E. von Boguslawski: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich. To the Sixtieth Birthday of the German Investigator . In: Soil Science Vol. 38, 1934, pp. 83-85.
• W. Nicolaisen: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich on his 70th birthday . In: Der Forschungsdienst Vol. 17, 1944, pp. 396–397 (with picture (oil painting) on ​​separate page).
• E. von Boguslawski: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich on his 75th birthday . In: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 91, 1949, pp. I – VII (with picture).
• Reinhold Hoffmann: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich on his 75th birthday . In: Journal for Plant Nutrition, Fertilization, Bodenkunde Vol. 49 (94), 1949, pp. 1-6 (with picture).
• Max Trénel: A Life for Agricultural Science . For the 80th birthday of Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich . In: Research and Progress Vol. 28, 1954, pp. 286–287.
• N. Atanasiu and J. Reinhold: Prof. Dr. Dr.hc Dr.hc Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich on his 80th birthday . In: Archiv für Gartenbau Vol. 2, 1954, pp. 269–272 (with picture).
• W. Sauerlandt: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich †. A researcher's life for agriculture . In: Landwirtschaftliche Forschung Vol. 9, 1956, pp. 75-89 (with picture and list of publications).
• E. von Boguslawski: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich † . In: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 100, 1956, pp. V – VIII (with picture).
• L. Gisiger: On the passing of Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich . In: Swiss Agricultural Monthly Issues Vol. 34, 1956, pp. 554–555.
• Hans Stubbe : Obituary for Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich . In: Yearbook of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin 1956 (1957), pp. 497-511 (with list of publications).
• Günther Schilling with the collaboration of Dietrich Eich and Herbert Kaltofen: The work of EA Mitscherlich and the importance of the interaction of several growth factors in the further intensification of plant production in the GDR . In: Conference reports of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR, Vol. 139, 1975, pp. 11-13.
• Volker Klemm: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich (August 29, 1874– February 3, 1956) . In: From Thaer to Mitscherlich, short biographies of important Berlin agricultural scientists. Contributions to the history of the Humboldt University in Berlin No. 16, 1987, pp. 68–75 u. 79.
• Wolfgang Böhm:  Mitscherlich, Eilhard Alfred. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 17, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-428-00198-2 , p. 571 f. ( Digitized version ).
• Eilhard Mitscherlich and Gerhard Mitscherlich: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich (1874–1956) . In: Yearbook of the Albertus University of Königsberg / Pr. Vol. 29, 1994 (1995), pp. 691-699 (with picture).
• Olga Bredel and Herbert Kaltofen: Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich 1874–1956. Life and work. A biography . Berlin and Paulinenaue 1998 (with picture and list of publications). Can be obtained from: Paulinenauer Arbeitskreis Grünland und Futterwirtschaft e. V., Paulinenaue.
• Gerhard Weise, Herbert Kaltofen and Manfred Fechner: Life and work of Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich . In: Modeling plant systems from a historical and current perspective. Symposium in honor of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich. Published by the Ministry for Rural Development, Environment and Consumer Protection of the State of Brandenburg, Potsdam 2006, pp. 1–8 (with picture in front of p. 1).
• Siegfried Kuntsche:  Mitscherlich, Eilhard Alfred . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .
• Harry Waibel : Servant of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 .

Web links

Commons : Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich in the catalog of the German National Library
• Biography of Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich
• Symposium in honor of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich PDF (1.06 MB)
• Family tree "Familie Eilhard Mitscherlich" at Efeu eV

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Rector's speeches (HKM)