Erwin Baur

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Erwin Baur (born April 16, 1875 in Ichenheim , † December 2, 1933 in Berlin ) was a German doctor , botanist, geneticist , racial hygienist and breeding researcher. He is considered an important representative of neo-Darwinism and experimental population genetics . His role in the eugenic movement in Germany and his participation in the first German textbook on racial hygiene is controversial .

Live and act

Erwin Baur grew up in the rural Ichenheim near Lahr in Baden as the son of a pharmacist. Since the pharmacy was also connected to an agricultural business, the young farmer was able to get to know the problems of agriculture at an early stage.

Baur studied medicine and science at the Universities of Heidelberg , Freiburg , Strasbourg and Kiel and in 1900 after defending his dissertation complicierende About tubercular peritonitis in cirrhosis of the liver in Kiel for Dr. med. PhD . He then worked in Kiel as an assistant in bacteriology .

In 1901/1902 he did military service as a doctor in the navy, in 1902 he became an assistant doctor in a psychiatric clinic in Kiel , and then in 1903 he worked in the same position in the state insane asylum (today the center for psychiatry) in Emmendingen .

In October 1903 he changed the subject according to his inclinations and became first assistant at the Botanical Institute of the University of Berlin . In 1903 he was at the University of Freiburg in specialized Botany Dr. phil. PhD. The topic of his dissertation was: Investigations into the history of the development of some lichen pharmacies .

In 1904, Baur qualified as a professor in Berlin for botany with a thesis on myxobacteria studies , in which he deals with bacterial physiology . In 1905 he became a member of the newly founded Society for Racial Hygiene . As a private lecturer, Baur held his first genetic lectures at the University of Berlin from 1907.

In 1911 he was appointed to the first German chair for genetics at the Agricultural University in Berlin . In 1914 he became head of the first Institute for Hereditary Science in Berlin - the first institute in Germany in which genetic knowledge was systematically used for agricultural purposes.

Apple variety from the Institute for Plant Production Müncheberg, named ' Erwin Baur '

In 1917 Baur became chairman of the Berlin Society for Racial Hygiene . In the same year, Baur and Ferdinand von Lochow submitted an application to the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for an “Institute for Plant Breeding” , which they also agreed to in 1927 and which was established on September 29, 1928 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Breeding Research based in Müncheberg opened and was headed by Baur.

With the establishment of the institute, Baur wanted to ensure that in addition to private-sector breeding, the state also creates high-yielding plant varieties in order, among other things, to reduce imports. Today's Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research in Cologne is a direct successor to the institute founded by Baur at the time. In 1921, together with Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz, he published the textbook Outline of Human Heredity and Racial Hygiene , which at that time was considered the standard work on racial hygiene . Baur was co-editor of the journals Archive for Race and Social Biology and People and Race .

In 1933 he welcomed the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists and assured that “no one else approves the sterilization laws of the Reich government more than I do, but, as I always have to emphasize, this is only just a beginning”. Also in 1933 represented Baur Meaning of natural selection in animals and plants using the example of a rabbit stock a (fictional) island on the basis of the read-out by raptors arises gradually an optimally adapted rabbit people, the view, attributable in humans due to humanitarian considerations this natural selection and selection, which he deems necessary, so the state must take over the function of the birds of prey. Baur died that same year.

research

In his early work, Baur was able to prove that viruses are the cause of the "infectious chlorosis " of plants and can therefore be considered one of the founders of plant virology . His most important contribution to genetics was the proof that genes do not only occur in chromosomes within the cell nucleus , but that plastids (e.g. chloroplasts ) are also carriers of genetic information and thus help determine the phenotype of plants.

His genetic experiments with snapdragons ( Antirrhinum ) have entered not only genetics textbooks, but also schoolbooks. On this object he studied color inheritance, multiple allelies , interaction of genes and artificial mutations .

His breeding successes on cereals and the first breeding of bitter- free feed lupins still have an impact today .

In a time when phylloxera and Real and downy mildew serious problems in the European viticulture represented, recognized Baur that these genetic with a consistent application of knowledge, could be solved approximately by crossing fungus-resistant American wild vines with European Kulturrebe.

As early as 1922, Baur carried out the first crosses between different types of soft fruit . So he could from the powdery mildew-resistant wild currant ( Ribes succirubrum ) and mildew-prone gooseberry varieties which he called Jochelbeere (x currant gooseberry), today often not entirely accurate as Jostabeere referred generate.

In 1921, together with Carl Correns and Richard Goldschmidt , Baur founded the German Society for Hereditary Science and, together with Carl Correns, Eugen Fischer , Richard Goldschmidt and Ernst Rüdin, supported the establishment of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Anthropology, Human Heredity and Eugenics in 1927 , in which (after Baur's death) the so-called “race research ” was a focus under the National Socialists .

Honors

  • Erwin Baur Medal ( GDR ) for outstanding achievements in plant breeding research
  • Erwin-Baur-Realschule Neuried-Ichenheim
  • Grave site and a listed memorial stone for the botanist Erwin Baur, on the grounds of the Brigittenhof in Müncheberg
  • In different places streets were named after Baur, for example in Quedlinburg , Ditfurt , Müncheberg and in his place of birth Ichenheim.
  • Member of the Leopoldina since 1926

Fonts

  • Introduction to experimental genetics . Borntraeger, Berlin 1911 Archives
  • with Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz: Outline of human heredity and racial hygiene . Lehmanns , Munich 1921, Volume I. In later editions up to 1936: Menschliche Herblehre und Rassenhygiene (First German textbook for racial hygiene and standard work of the time as the so-called Baur-Fischer-Lenz )
    • Volume I: Human Heredity. (By Erwin Baur). 4th edition 1936
    • Volume II: Human selection and racial hygiene (eugenics). 3rd edition 1931
  • Investigations into the nature, origin and inheritance of racial differences in Antirrhinum maius. Berlin 1924
  • with Max Hartmann (as publisher): Handbuch der Vererbungswissenschaft . Borntraeger, Berlin 1929 ff. (Volume 1-32)
  • The importance of natural selection in animals and plants. Berlin 1936 (first edition 1933)
  • Downfall of civilized peoples in the light of biology . Lehmanns, Munich 1934 (new edition)
  • The scientific basis of plant breeding . Borntraeger, Berlin 1921 Archives
  • Inheritance and hybridization attempts with Antirrhinum . In: Journal for Inductive Descent and Inheritance Theory 3, pp. 34–98, 1910 ( digitized version )

From 1908 Erwin Baur was editor of the world's first genetics journal Zeitschrift für Induktiv Absammungs- und Vererbungslehre (since 1967 under the title Molecular and general genetics , since 2001 under the title Molecular and general genomics , ISSN  1617-4623 ), from 1912 the journal for plant breeding and from 1929 the magazine Der Züchter (since 1968 under the title Theoretical and Applied Genetics , ISSN  0040-5752 ).

literature

  • Elisabeth Schiemann : Erwin Baur . In: Reports of the German Botanical Society. Vol. 52, 1934, 2nd general assembly booklet, ISSN  0011-9970 , pp. 51-114 (with picture and list of publications).
  • Otto E. Heuser:  Baur, Erwin. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 1, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1953, ISBN 3-428-00182-6 , p. 669 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hans Stubbe : Memorial speech given to Erwin Baur on the 25th anniversary of his death (December 2, 1958) . In: The Breeder. Vol. 29, 1959, ISSN  0514-0641 , pp. 1-6 (with picture).
  • Wilhelm Rudorf (Ed.): Thirty years of breeding research. In memory of Erwin Baur. Fischer-Verlag, Stuttgart 1959.
  • Emil Ell: Breeding researcher Erwin Baur died 50 years ago. The grandfather. - 41: 90-91. 1983.
  • Hans-Peter Kröner, Richard Toellner , Karin Weisemann: Erwin Baur. Science and politics. Max Planck Society, Munich 1994 (expert opinion on the question of a possible intellectual authorship of Baur of the crimes of National Socialism).
  • Hans-Peter Kröner: Erwin Baur. In: Werner E. Gerabek , Bernhard D. Haage, Gundolf Keil , Wolfgang Wegner (eds.): Enzyklopädie Medizingeschichte . De Gruyter, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-11-015714-4 , p. 156.
  • Peter Fäßler: Baur, Erwin, plant breeder, geneticist: * April 16, 1875 Ichenheim / Baden, rk., † December 2, 1933 Berlin. Baden biographies . - NF 4: 16-19. 1996.
  • Heiner Fangerau: The standard work on human heredity and racial hygiene by Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz in the mirror of contemporary review literature 1921–1941. Diss. Univ. Bochum 2000 ( PDF ).
  • Rudolf Hagemann: Erwin Baur 1875–1933. Pioneer in genetics and breeding research. Kovar, Eichenau 2000, ISBN 3-925845-86-0 (it also goes into detail on Baur's controversial position on the subject of eugenics during the 1920s).
  • Rolf Knippers: Erwin Baur. A scientific biography. In: Biospectrum. Vol. 7, No. 1, 2001, ISSN  0947-0867 , pp. 43-45 (review of the book by Hagemann, PDF ).
  • Heiner Fangerau and Irmgard Müller: The standard work on racial hygiene by Erwin Baur, Eugen Fischer and Fritz Lenz in the judgment of psychiatry and neurology 1921–1940 . In: The neurologist. - 73: 1039-1046. 2002.
  • Heiner Fangerau: The "Baur-Fischer-Lenz" in the book review 1921-1940: A quantifying study of the contemporary reception of racial hygiene theories = Reviews of the "Baur-Fischer-Lenz". Medical historical journal. - 38: 57-81. 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Hans-Peter Kröner (2005).
  2. a b c d Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Who was what before and after 1945 . Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Second updated edition, Frankfurt am Main 2005, pp. 32–33.
  3. ^ Complete quote from Ernst Klee: Das Personenlexikon zum Third Reich , Fischer Taschenbuch 2005, p. 33.
  4. Götz Aly: Why the Germans? Why the Jews? Equality, Envy, and Racial Hatred 1800-1933. Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt / M. 2012, p. 271