Eva Potztal

Eva Hedwig Ingeborg Potztal (born December 22, 1924 in Berlin ; † July 2, 2000 ) was a German botanist . She was the long-time director of the Botanical Museum in Berlin, which was rebuilt under her leadership after the Second World War .

Your official botanical author's abbreviation is " Potztal ".

childhood and education

Eva Potztal was the daughter of the government inspector Wilhelm Potztal and Hedwig Potztal, nee Singer. She attended the Cecilienschule in Berlin-Wilmersdorf . After graduating from high school in 1943, she first had to do a year of labor service. In 1944 she began to study biology at the Friedrich Wilhelms University in Berlin . In the same year she was obliged to work for the Blaupunkt company , had to interrupt her studies and was only able to continue from 1946. She financed her studies by herself by working as an auxiliary child welfare worker and as an office assistant.

Scientific activity

In 1949 Eva Potztal moved to the newly founded Free University of Berlin , where she worked as a research assistant. In 1949 she became a lecture assistant at the Botanical Institute at the chair of Professor Robert Pilger . On June 17, 1950, she was awarded the doctoral degree for her dissertation on the subject of "Anatomical-systematic investigations on Helictotrichon and Arrhenatherum". In 1954 Potztal became a scientific assistant at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. In 1957 she was appointed custodian; two years later she took over the scientific and organizational management of the reconstruction of the museum, which she transformed from the study collection into a public museum. In 1972 she was appointed professor and director of the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum.

Through her joint work with the palm specialist Max Burret , she became an expert on gramineae and palm trees and was responsible for the care of these plants in the botanical garden. In the Botanical Museum she was later responsible for the topics of fibers, rubber and rubber as well as food and beverages. In collaboration with the sculptor Irma Langhinrichs and the taxidermist Heinz Woern , she developed a technique for the production of plastic models for the Botanical Museum and thus significantly advanced the exhibition methods for plants.

When Eva Potztal died at the age of 75, she bequeathed her great fortune to the museum.

literature

• Paul Hiepko : Eva Potztal (1924-2000). In: Willdenowia. Annals of the Botanic Garden and Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. No. 30, 2000, ISSN  0511-9618 , pp. 387-393 ( PDF ).

Web links

• Literature by and about Eva Potztal in the catalog of the German National Library
• Author entry and list of the plant names described for Eva Potztal at the IPNI

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Million heir to the benefit of the Botanical Museum Berlin-Dahlem. Press release of the Free University of Berlin, No. 59/2001, March 20, 2001, accessed on November 1, 2015.