Tharandt Forestry University

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Forest Science Building (2011)

The Tharandt Forestry University is a forestry educational institution steeped in tradition , which was affiliated to the Dresden Technical University in 1929 . It was founded as a private forestry school between 1785 and 1795 in Zillbach, Thuringia, by Johann Heinrich Cotta and moved with him to Tharandt in 1811 . After lengthy bureaucratic negotiations, it became the Royal Saxon Forest Academy in 1816 . Today it belongs to the Faculty of Environmental Sciences at the Technical University of Dresden as a field of forest science and is one of the oldest forest faculties in the world. Because of this long tradition, Tharandt is also called the forest town .

history

Heinrich Cotta founded the forestry university teaching in Tharandt in 1811

In the 18th century , due to the rapid development of mining and metallurgy , the demand for wood rose sharply in Saxony . The result was overexploitation and partial devastation of the existing forests. In order to remedy this, regulated forestry , which only existed in the beginning, should be introduced and developed. The Saxon government therefore endeavored to win the well-known Thuringian forester Johann Heinrich Cotta for the director position of the Saxon forest surveying institute, which became vacant in 1809 . After examining all the circumstances, Cotta agreed on the condition that he could continue his forestry school. He chose the seat of Tharandt on the grounds: "Without forest and its use, a forestry school can just as little flourish as a mining academy without a mine." In 1810, he was appointed the new head of their forest surveying institute by the royal Saxon administration under Friedrich August I. moved to Tharandt with his forestry school in the spring of 1811.

On May 24, 1811 Cotta was able to reopen his private forest teaching institute there. In addition to Cotta, who taught the forestry disciplines, Johann Adam Reum , professor of mathematics and teacher of surveying, drawing and botany, came to Tharandt. Reum immediately began laying out what is now the world's oldest forest botanical garden . In 1814 Karl Leberecht Krutzsch (1772-1852), professor and teacher of natural sciences, was hired. The lectures took place in the professors' private rooms or outdoors. In order to make good use of the capacities in joint basic studies, an agricultural department was set up at the academy in 1830, but it was moved to the University of Leipzig in 1869 .

As a result of the Wars of Liberation , the number of students fell sharply, so that financial difficulties endangered the continued existence of the school. Cotta therefore tried to hand over the school to the state. Since the latter was interested in qualified specialists, the Royal Saxon Forest Academy was opened on June 17, 1816 , of which Cotta was the first director until his death in 1844.

Cotta was now able to pay the professors, but money for the construction of a teaching building was not approved. The Schweizerhaus in the forest garden was not built for teaching purposes until 1842 . The academy building , now known as the old building , was built in 1847–49 according to plans by Oberlandbaumeister Karl Moritz Haenel (1809–1880). In 1904 the forest academy was raised to the rank of university and received the right to habilitation.

On April 1, 1929, the Tharandt Forestry University became part of the Technical University (TH) Dresden (renamed Technical University Dresden in 1961), with a certain degree of independence being maintained. Integration was not completed until 1941, when it was promoted to the rank of faculty.

Forest botanical garden

The Forest Botanical Garden is a facility of the Technical University of Dresden and at the same time the Saxon state arboretum . It houses individual trees and has been greatly expanded to include North American forest formations since 1997 . It is easily accessible from Dresden. A special feature is the close connection with the forest science faculty of the Technical University of Dresden. It is led by Andreas Roloff and the curator Ulrich Pietzarka. A support association contributes to the financing.

In 1990 the forest botanical garden shows species and subspecies of woody plants on 34 hectares of foothills ; Only 240 species are native to Central Europe . In the historical eastern part, mainly traditional single trunk collections are shown, in the new western part prototypical forest formations that make the structures and dynamics of naturally grown forests recognizable.

Forest Zoology

Karl Leberecht Krutzsch (1772–1852), who had been teaching here since 1813 , was appointed one of the first professors in 1816. On his initiative, the forest academy was attached to an agricultural school in 1830. From now on it was called the Academy for Forestry and Agriculture in Tharandt . Until 1849 Krutzsch read chemistry, physics, agricultural technology, geology, mineralogy and forestry soil science. In 1830 Emil Adolf Roßäßler (1806–1867) accepted a professorship in Tharandt, but retired in 1849 for political reasons. From 1850–1855 Friedrich von Stein (1818–1885) held a chair in zoology and botany. Together with the botanist Heinrich Moritz Willkomm (1821–1895), who was a professor of natural history at Tharandt, Stein made great contributions to building up an extensive insect collection and collections of feeding pictures, larvae, pupae and cocoons, which mainly comprised forest pests.

Hinrich Nitsche (1845–1902) held the first own chair for zoology since 1876 . Together with the forest scientist Johann Friedrich Judeich (1828-1894), who had been director of the academy since 1866, Nitsche devoted himself particularly to forest insects. The joint work culminated in a revision of the first volume by Julius Theodor Christian Ratzeburg's Die Waldverderber und their enemies , the textbook of Central European Forest Insectology and a significant expansion of the entomological collections.

Another important zoologist at the school was Karl Escherich (1871–1951), who worked in Tharandt from 1907 to 1914. During this time he founded the Society for Applied Entomology and the Journal for Applied Entomology . In Tharandt he also began work on his four-volume work Die Forstinsekten Mitteleuropas . The last rector of the institution, which was elevated to the Tharandt Forestry University in 1904, was Heinrich Prell (1888–1962), who dealt not only with entomology but also with fur animal science. It is thanks to him that the institution was granted the right to award doctorates and, when it was incorporated into the Dresden University of Technology in 1929, it was not dissolved due to cost-cutting measures. As dean of the Faculty of Forestry at the Technical University, Prell prevented the Tharandt site from being closed again after 1945.

Institute for Plant and Wood Chemistry

The Institute of Plant and Wood Chemistry Tharandt deals with issues of plant chemistry , wood chemistry , Immissionsforschung and agricultural chemistry . The focus is on flue gas research and natural product chemistry , especially cellulose research , and at times also on wood extracts. The institute has 20 employees, including five doctoral students. The outstanding research results include the early detection of the connection between smoke gases and vegetation damage and the development of a lattice chimney to improve the swirling of smoke gases. A series of investigations by Hans Wislicenus is considered to be the basic literature on vegetation damage. Hans-Günther Däßler's summary description, Influence of air pollution on vegetation - causes, effects and countermeasures , established itself as a textbook and standard work at the end of the 20th century.

Teacher

Cotta's place of work (left) and the old building of the Forest Academy (right) in Tharandt after the renovation for the anniversary in 2011
Cotta building for forest sciences in Tharandt
The old building of the forest academy on a commemorative medal from 1986 to celebrate 175 years of forestry teaching in Tharandt

In alphabetic order

students

Tharandt Forest Student (1855)

literature

  • Busse: The Tharandt Forestry University . Communications of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz , Volume XVII, Issue 7–8 / 1928, Dresden 1928, p. 308.
  • Karl Hasel , Ekkehard Schwartz : Forest history. A floor plan for study and practice . 2nd updated edition. Kessel, Remagen 2002, ISBN 3-935638-26-4 , especially pp. 365-366.
  • Walter Hunger (Red.): 175 years of forestry apprenticeship in Tharandt. 1811-1986. Scientific conference from October 8 to 10, 1986 in Tharandt . Brief presentations. Technical University of Dresden, Forestry Section, Dresden 1986.
  • Bernhard Klausnitzer , M. Roth, K. Klass, M. Nuss (2005): On the history and situation of entomology in Dresden . DGaaE News 19 (1): 4-16.
  • Harald Thomasius: History of the forest town Tharandt in pictures . Tharandt City Council and Cultural Association of the German Democratic Republic, Tharandt local group, Tharandt 1979.
  • Heidi Müller, Frithof Paul: 175 years of forest training in Tharandt. Past and present of the forestry section of the Technical University of Dresden . Forestry Section of the TU Dresden, Tharandt 1986.
  • Andreas Roloff, Ulrich Pietzarka: The Forest Botanical Garden Tharandt . Forest Botanical Garden Tharandt, TU Dresden. Atelier am Forstgarten, Tharandt 1996, ISBN 3-00-000572-2 .
  • Ulrich Grober: The Eternal Forest, in: Die Zeit, July 24, 2008.
  • Heinrich Diedler: Tharandt Forest Academy - history of the SC to Tharandt and its relationship to the neighboring senior citizens' convents (Leipzig, Freiberg and Dresden) . Einst und Jetzt , Vol. 59 (2014), pp. 439–473.
  • Herbert Wilhelmi: Forest monuments in Saxony. Edited by Sächsischer Forstverein e. V. , Verlag Kessel, Remagen-Oberwinter, 1st edition 2014.
  • The child of the forest and its school . In: The Gazebo . Issue 28, 1866, pp. 436–438 ( full text [ Wikisource ] - illustrated by Ferdinand Stolle ).

Web links

Commons : Tharandt Forest University  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sächsisches Hauptstaatsarchiv Dresden, inventory 10052 Amt Grillenburg, No. 0368, 1844–1849