Ernst Weichel

Ernst Weichel (born June 24, 1922 in Heiningen , † December 19, 1993 in Göppingen ) was a co-founder of the Association for Organic-Biological Agriculture and a sponsor and advisory board member of the Ecology and Agriculture Foundation . The seat of Bioland was for many years in offices of Ernst Weichel in Heiningen. He is also the inventor of the loading wagon .

Life

Ernst Weichel grew up on his parents' disused farm and was an orphan from the age of six. After high school and 5 years of military service, he took over his parents' farm (16 hectares).

He relied on new ideas right from the start. An excellent example of this is the solution to the "charging problem", which was economically very important for small and medium-sized farms in agriculture. In 1960 the world's first forage wagon was developed .

In 1970 Ernst Weichel, influenced by reading the book "Soil Fertility a Study of Biological Thought" by Hans Peter Rusch , stopped using artificial fertilizers. With the acquisition of the Iltishof near Göppingen, his farm had grown to around 100 hectares.

After that, Weichel emerged as the author of many open letters, memoranda and reprints. A special annex of the Independent Correspondence of the Association for Agricultural Economics bears the title: " The importance of agricultural policy alternatives for future economic policy ". As early as 1976 he demanded: “ Every farmer, worker, entrepreneur or consumer is therefore jointly responsible for maintaining that part of the livelihoods of our society entrusted to him. We therefore have no choice but to point out as clearly as possible and for as long as necessary that and to what extent these foundations are already in danger. "And then quotes Justus von Liebig :" The soil is the source of all goods and values ".

In another memorandum it becomes even more specific and gives it the title: “ Is the crisis in agriculture also a crisis in soil management? ". There he formulates the following principles for soil cultivation (quote):

1. In a world that lives from the overexploitation of finite stocks of fossil energy and raw materials, the task of agriculture can only consist in converting as high a percentage of the sun's energy as possible into usable biomass (food, raw materials and energy) in each field.
2. The actual agricultural production is not done by people or machines, but by the production system "soil + soil life + plants" operated by solar energy.
3. That is why the revitalization of the soil is the most important goal of soil cultivation, i.e. at least as important as the nutrient content, the soil type, the pore volume, the crumb size, the depth of the root space, etc.
4. Every field should therefore be covered as continuously as possible either by plants, or by a layer of mulch, or by a flat layer of crumbs. So it must never be left lying in large lumps and uncovered!
5. That is why the use of all possibilities for growing catch crops and green manure is an indispensable part of tillage.

It is known that Ernst Weichel did not stop at the establishment of principles here, but worked for years on the development of a soil cultivation system and other technical problem solutions with the aim of making these principles a reality.

The main approach was the development of devices for non-turning soil cultivation. In addition, a number of further developments were very important to him: row cultivator, wide spreading unit for manure spreader, flaming device, vibrating cultivator and porter (bed cultivation).

The basic implements of his tillage concept are what he calls the layer cultivator and its combination with the rotary harrow . The highlight of this development was undoubtedly the rotor cultivator, with which it was possible for the first time to break up the soil, to lift it and to break up the clods of earth in the raised state with the help of the tines of the rotor without the tines even touching the cultivation horizon, let alone compacting it. Here, the science immediately agreed. Prof. Dr. W. Sons, Technical University of Munich , z. B. formulated this from his point of view as follows: “ Weichel has recognized that the rotor resistance is greatly reduced when the soil is broken up and lifted by the cultivator, so to speak, is still in flight. ".

Another highlight was the saddle-up of a seed drill onto the rotor cultivator, including the use of newly developed seed coulters (milling seed cultivators) and thus the realization of a patent application made in 1980.

In August 1985, the continuation of this development work was suddenly stopped by Ernst Weichel in a car accident. The injuries suffered prevented him from continuing his development work until his death in 1993.

Awards

• 1968 State Medal in Gold
• Max Eyth commemorative coin
• 1985 Bruno H. Schubert Prize
• In 2003 the Heininger elementary and secondary school was named the Ernst Weichel School

Web links

• Brief portrait of Ernst Weichel on the website of the Ernst Weichel School, Heiningen

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ernst Weichel: The Significance of Agricultural Policy Alternatives for Future Economic Policy , Association for Agricultural Economics , Betzendorf, Glüsingen, [approx. 1975]
2. ↑ Ernst Weichel: Is the crisis in agriculture also a crisis in soil management? In: Questions of Freedom. - Bad Boll: Seminar ,. - Vol. 171.1984 / 1985, pp. 18-29