Ferdinand Gerstung

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Memorial plaque to Ferdinand Gerstung in Oßmannstedt

Georg Ferdinand Gerstung (born March 6, 1860 in Vacha ; † March 5, 1925 in Oßmannstedt ) was a German beekeeper and founded the “German Reich Association for Beekeeping” with August Ludwig (1867–1951), one of the forerunners of the “German Beekeeping Association ”.

At his suggestion, the first museum of its kind was founded in Weimar in 1907 with the German Reich Beekeeping Museum of the German Beekeeping Association . On his 60th birthday in 1920, at the request of Ludwig Plate, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Jena for his services to apiculture and beekeeping.

Life

Ferdinand Gerstung comes from a family resident in the Werra Valley and the Rhön Mountains. His father was sentenced to imprisonment in Rastatt for participating in the revolution of 1848/49 . After graduating from the middle school in Vacha, he was sent to a preparatory school for high school. At the age of 14 he started high school in Eisenach . During this time he kept numerous bird species for observation purposes. The acquisition of ant eggs for bird feeding sparked his interest in ant colonies, which soon took up all his time to study. Dissatisfied with the science lessons at the grammar school, he and friends founded a science association, the "Kauzverein".

After graduating from high school at the age of 20, he wanted to become a doctor, but devoted himself to theology for the sake of his mother and his grandfather's last wish. In August 1883 he passed the candidate examination with distinction and became parish vicar in Ifta near Eisenach at the foot of the Heldrastein. His predecessor in the parish had practiced extensive beekeeping in storage boxes according to Johann Ludwig Christ , while straw baskets with the "Hessian bobble hats" were otherwise common as bee dwellings in this area . The last pastor had given the bee colonies to the local miller, and Gerstung received a basket of bees from him in exchange for a canary. That was the beginning of his time as a beekeeper . According to Ludwig Huber, Gerstung Dzierzon was built - storage hives in which the bees developed well but were very difficult to handle. At the same time, he had straw baskets 42 cm high and 30 cm in diameter woven, as the bees in the smaller "bobble hats" were quickly there.

After moving to Oßmannstedt in 1886, he had a 36- compartment Berlepsch stack equipped with a full frame in the incubation room. Compared to the usual half-frames in the brood chamber , the bee colonies developed more quickly. He published a newspaper with the title Die deutsche Bienenzucht and distributed articles for beekeeping equipment in a newly established factory.

For the first time, Gerstung understood the bee colony as an organism of a higher order. According to Gerstung, it is no longer a "colony of bees", but a bee . “The bee is an organism” , whose functions are regulated by the fodder juice flow. This so-called organicistic approach explains the life processes of bees in a fundamentally new way and earned Gerstung an honorary doctorate. He changed the previous notions of the "bee state" in a revolutionary way. The textbook Der Bien und seine Zucht , which he wrote, provides beekeepers with the theory and practice of bee-oriented, species-appropriate beekeeping.

Honors

Tribute to Gerstung in the town's coat of arms

The community of Oßmannstedt in Thuringia decided in 1953 to decorate the town's coat of arms with a bee in his honor. On his 150th birthday, the street An der Kirche in the community of Oßmannstedt was renamed Ferdinand-Gerstung-Platz in his honor.

Works (selection)

  • The basic law of the brood and colony development of the bees. Bremen 1890.
  • The right way to learn and spread efficient beekeeping. Freiburg i. Br., Leipzig 1895.
  • Immenleben - beekeeping passion. Bremen 1890.
  • Basics for the efficient wintering and wintering of the bees. Freiburg i. Br., Leipzig.
  • The bees and their breeding. Pfenningstorff, Berlin. A total of seven editions, the last edition in 1926.
  • The bees and their breeding. Buschhausen, Herten. Reprint of the 7th edition from 1926. ISBN 978-3-946030-51-5 . 1st edition 2019

literature

  • Walter Kaeser:  Gerstung, Georg Ferdinand. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 6, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1964, ISBN 3-428-00187-7 , p. 330 ( digitized version ).
  • Ludwig Huber: The new, most useful beekeeping. 3. Edition. Goiger, Lahr 1863 (PDF file; 6.2 MB)
  • Erwin J. Hentschel: Dr. phil. hc Georg Ferdinand Gerstung, pastor and practical beekeeper. Festschrift Azmenstat 956/2006, Oßmannstedt, 5, 72–79, 2006
  • Erwin J. Hentschel: Prof. August Ludwig and Dr. hc Ferdinand Gerstung. Two Thuringian bee pastors and their gardens, in: Publications of the Natural History Museum Erfurt, Volume 24 (2005), pp. 55–65.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.rhoen.info/lexikon/haben/Gerstung_8736233.html
  2. ^ Ferdinand Gerstung: The bees and their breeding. Pfenningstorff, Berlin 1926.
personal data
SURNAME Gerstung, Ferdinand
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German beekeeper
DATE OF BIRTH March 6, 1860
PLACE OF BIRTH Vacha
DATE OF DEATH March 5, 1925
Place of death Oßmannstedt