Ewald Wollny

Ewald Wollny

Martin Ewald Wollny (born March 20, 1846 in Berlin , † January 8, 1901 in Munich ) was a German agricultural scientist.

In the last third of the 19th century, he added an agricultural-physical teaching and research concept to agriculture , which was then strongly oriented towards agricultural chemistry. He is considered the founder of agricultural physics .

Apprenticeship and studies

Ewald Wollny was the son of a secret finance councilor. He first attended a grammar school and then the Berlin trade school. From his earliest youth he was interested in agriculture . After a three-year practical apprenticeship on the Deutsch-Neudorf estates in Silesia and Hohenschönhausen near Berlin , he studied from 1866 to 1868 at the Agricultural Academy Proskau in Upper Silesia . He passed the final exam with distinction. Then he worked for a year as an administrator on a domain in Wanzleben near Magdeburg .

In the summer semester of 1869 he continued his agricultural studies at the University of Halle and then switched to the newly founded Agricultural Institute of the University of Leipzig . In 1870 he was awarded a doctorate there with a thesis on fat and meat formation in the animal organism. phil. PhD.

Professor of Plant Production Science

After a short time as assistant to the agricultural scientist Adolph Blomeyer in Leipzig, Wollny was appointed to Proskau in spring 1871 as a "teacher for agriculture". Here he initially dealt with questions of animal breeding , but soon plant cultivation became his actual teaching and research area. The critical evaluation of all field tests carried out at this agricultural academy since 1851 was a particular concern of his.

In September 1872, Wollny accepted a call to the newly founded agricultural department of the Technical University of Munich . As an associate professor, he should primarily represent the field of plant production theory. In the 28 years of his teaching activity, since 1880 as full professor, he gave lectures on agriculture, meadow construction, reclamation of soils and agricultural engineering. A test field was available to him for his research, but he had to completely rebuild it twice due to the structural expansion of Munich.

A new research direction in crop production

Between 1840 and 1870, under the dominating influence of Justus von Liebig, the goals and tasks of agricultural research were clearly oriented towards agricultural chemistry. It was believed that the means and methods of chemistry alone could increase the yields of cultivated plants. Plant cultivation experiments at that time were therefore mainly fertilization experiments.

Numerous scientists had already drawn attention to the great importance of the physical soil properties and weather conditions for the growth of cultivated plants, but targeted research into how soil structure, soil water, soil heat and soil air or rain, snow, evaporation and light affect the growth of the The effects of cultivated plants were only tentative.

Wollny's primary goal of his research work in Munich was to match agricultural chemistry with scientifically sound agricultural physics. In his first field tests, he was able to convincingly demonstrate that the application of straw or other organic substances to the arable land significantly improves the physical soil properties and above all increases the humus content and thus also the soil fertility . The findings from these experiments made Wollny's test field famous far beyond the borders of Bavaria. From then on, many scientists and farmers visited his “classic plant for crop science” and received lasting suggestions.

Editor of a trade journal

Since Wollny apparently had difficulties to publish the results of his extensive research in agricultural journals, he founded his own publication organ in 1878, the " Research in the Field of Agricultural Physics ". By 1898 he had published and edited 20 volumes. During this time his journal was the central publication medium for all research in the field of agricultural physics.

According to Wollny's scientific understanding, there are three sub-areas of agricultural physics: "Soil physics", "Plant physics" and "Agricultural meteorology". In this thematic order, Wollny has published all the articles in the individual issues of the 20 volumes. He himself is represented with over 100 of his own contributions. The value of this magazine lies not only in the original work, but also in the extensive report section. Thus, these 20 volumes are also a valuable bibliography on agricultural physics at that time.

Research priorities

Wollny regarded the agricultural physics he had conceived as a basic or auxiliary science for plant production theory. The focus of his soil physical experimentation was investigations into soil temperature, soil color, soil structure, soil air and soil compaction. He studied questions of the soil water balance in particular. He investigated the capillary conduction of the water in the soil, the water capacity of the different types of soil, the seepage water movement in the soil, the soil evaporation depending on the soil cover and the water consumption of agricultural crops under different weather conditions.

Another focus of his research activities were experiments on the influence of the standing space, the sowing depth and the cultivation on the crop yields. His yield physiological studies are also noteworthy, e. B. his experiments on the influence of wilting potatoes on the tuber yield. He repeatedly examined the influence of weeds on the growth of crops. He was able to prove that the growth of the cultivated plants is mainly damaged by the fact that the weeds act as competitors for light and remove considerable amounts of water from the soil.

Wollny paid particular attention to the water balance in the cultural landscape. He made specific proposals to reduce flood damage by preserving the forests, creating grassy areas on mountain slopes, building collection ponds and building canals. Only an appropriate soil culture, i.e. a covering of the soil with plants adapted to the local conditions, can compensate for the extremes in the water balance of the cultivated landscape and thus reduce large-scale soil and nutrient discharges.

Investigations on the "earthworm question"

Before 1870, most scientists believed that the earthworms were pests of plants. The Kiel physiologist Victor Hensen and the English naturalist Charles Darwin (" The formation of the soil through the activity of worms "), who had studied the way of life of earthworms intensively, could not follow this widespread doctrine. They were convinced of the usefulness of these animals for maintaining and increasing soil fertility and published several articles on them in 1881/1882.

Wollny, who reviewed these publications in his journal “Research in the Field of Agricultural Physics”, initially disagreed with the conclusions of both scientists. From 1883 he therefore tried to refute this thesis of the usefulness of earthworms with his own experiments. In small containers on different types of soil, he allowed a large number of cultivated plant species to grow to maturity, with and without earthworms.

But after several years of trials, Wollny finally had to admit that all of his experiments had produced “a surprising result in favor of the worms' effects”. In none of his experiments could he find any damage to the crops caused by earthworms. The plant yields in the test pots filled with worms were always significantly higher than in the worm-free pots. At the same time, the crumb stability and the permeability for water and air of the soil were improved by the presence of earthworms.

In 1890 Wollny published his findings in his journal "Research in the field of agricultural physics". This contribution had a signal effect. From then on, many scientists and farmers increasingly investigated the agricultural significance of earthworms. The correctness of Wollny's findings (and thus also those of Victor Hensen and Charles Darwin) was confirmed again and again under practical conditions: earthworms are not pests , but valuable beneficial insects in agriculture.

A life for science and practice

Wollny had been married since 1872. He was the father of two children. His son Walter (1872–1911) studied agriculture and received his doctorate from the University of Halle / Sa. and later worked as a practical farmer. Ewald Wollny died at the age of 55. A kidney disease and a disease of the vascular system led to his premature death. He found his final resting place in the north cemetery in Munich.

In terms of disciplinary history, Wollny was primarily a crop scientist, for whom it was a matter of course to pass on the practical conclusions derived from the results of his experimental research directly to the farmers. Almost all of the scientific articles that Wollny published in his “Research in the Fields of Agricultural Physics” were redesigned to meet practical needs and often published at the same time in the leading weekly agricultural newspapers.

Through this productive writing activity, Wollny was considered an exemplary scientist for agricultural practice far beyond the borders of Bavaria. His advice, which is derived from research results, should also give farmers a little thought and, above all, encourage them to take more local conditions into account in their plant cultivation measures.

With his experimental work in the field of agricultural physics, Ewald Wollny has provided the fundamental scientific evidence that, in addition to chemical factors, the physical site conditions also have a lasting effect on the growth of cultivated plants. The Board of Trustees of the Liebig Foundation awarded him the Golden Liebig Medal in 1892 , the highest award in the field of agriculture at the time.

Main publications

• About the use of electricity in plant culture. Shown for the needs of agriculture and horticulture . Publishing house Theodor Ackermann, Munich 1883.
• Sowing and care of agricultural crops. Practical manual . Published by Paul Parey, Berlin 1885.
• The culture of cereals with regard to experience and science . Carl Winter's University Bookstore, Heidelberg 1887. 2nd unchanged edition, ibid. 1891.
• The decomposition of organic matter and the formation of humus with regard to the soil culture . Carl Winter's university bookstore, Heidelberg 1897. ( digitized version )
• Research in the field of agriculture physics . Edited by Dr. E. Wollny, professor in Munich. Carl Winter's University Bookstore Heidelberg. Vol. 1-20, 1878-1898.

literature

• Wolfgang Böhm : Ewald Wollny. Pioneer for a new view of crop production . Auretim Verlag Göttingen 1996. ISBN 3-930354-05-5 (with photo, Ewald Wollny bibliography and index of all publications about Wollny).

Web links

Wikisource: Ewald Wollny  - Sources and full texts