Frankfurt Agricultural Association
The Frankfurt Agricultural Association is one of the agricultural associations . It serves to promote agriculture in the Rhine-Main conurbation and is based in Frankfurt am Main .
history
On January 28, 1860, the first general assembly took place in the presence of 49 members. In the first decades of its existence, the Agricultural Association dealt not only with issues that were of importance for the agriculture of Frankfurt and its surroundings, but also with issues that concerned and interested city dwellers. These included the consolidation of the fields, bird protection, wool markets, the establishment of a sugar factory, fruit-growing issues, slaughter cattle exhibitions, flour, slaughter and spirits tax, field police, sewerage and the recycling of manure and excrement. In particular, the association was involved in the organization of trade fairs and exhibitions. Cattle exhibitions, dairy exhibitions, wool markets, machinery exhibitions for agriculture, horticulture and housekeeping, price hoofing, seed markets and equestrian festivals were held in a specially built agricultural hall. In 1887 the first exhibition of the German Agricultural Society (DLG) took place on the initiative of Max Eyth on the club premises and with financial and personal support from the Frankfurt Agricultural Association.
One of the most famous institutions that the association revived after its founding were the Frankfurt horse markets, the history of which Alexander Dietz described. It says: “It is the great merit of the Frankfurt Agricultural Association, which since the times of Emperor Ludwig of Bavaria, around 1300, was the most famous German horse market after a long slumber in the days from 7th to 9th April 1862 in its old location at the Frankfurt Roßmarkt . ”The first market counted 1200 horses, and in 1863 1763 horses were brought up. From 1864 a big lottery was connected to the market, the draws of which were always a big festival for Frankfurt and its citizens in later years. The horse markets, which were later moved to the club's premises at Ostendplatz, had been inactive since 1939, but were held again in 1949. After initial great successes - in 1950, for example, over 1,250 horses were raised and around 3,500 visitors counted - the number of visitors and buoyancy steadily declined, not least due to the increasing replacement of draft and work horses by engine power. The Agricultural Association felt compelled to close the horse markets at the beginning of 1956.
At the beginning of the 20th century, lectures lasting several days were held annually in January in the Frankfurt Römer , to which experts from the Reich were obliged to attend. The association also turned to practical experimentation in the interests of its members and at the end of the 1920s created a test field on the Praunheimer Hof in the north-west of Frankfurt.
On March 2, 1934, the association was incorporated into the Reichsnährstand . After the end of the Second World War , the association was re-established by Frankfurt farmers. On July 29, 1947, it was entered in the register of associations at the Frankfurt am Main District Court. The property rights to the property on Ostendstrasse were restored in 1949.
Due to the drastic changes in agriculture , not only the technical aspects, but also German agricultural policy and marketing, tax and social issues determined the association's events at the association's events. In 1986 the site on Ostendstrasse was sold. An extension to the Zum Lahmen Esel restaurant has served as the club's headquarters since 1994 .
Task
The association represents a link between agricultural and urban interests.
The purpose of the association is to serve the interests of its members through lectures, teaching and sightseeing trips, experiments and specialist publications.
Experimentation
In 1991 the Agricultural Association bought around 9 hectares of arable land to set up its own variety tests in Karben-Petterweil. Here, variety tests in winter wheat were initially carried out in "large-scale plot tests" by changing farmers . A test field of 10 hectares has been operated in Bad Homburg-Ober-Erlenbach since 2003. As a result, the club's own experimental activities were greatly expanded. In addition to the large- scale plot trials, exact trials were carried out and evaluated in winter wheat with around 25 different varieties and winter barley with around 15 varieties. Experiments were also carried out in the crops of winter rape , spring barley and sugar beet . The increasing energetic utilization of agricultural raw materials moved the use of silage maize as energy maize into the focus of consideration, so that since 2007 experiments have also been made on this. In addition, tests on seed strengths , growth regulators , forms of fertilizer and fungicide strategies in the individual crops were included in the test setup and evaluated.
Professional training
Lecture events take place in the winter months. A general topic is defined for each of them, which is dealt with in the individual lectures by speakers from science, administration, practice or politics.
In the summer half of the year, the club's own experiments and those of the official advice are inspected and then discussed. In addition, teaching and sightseeing trips are carried out. Trips to major events such as the DLG ( DLG-Feldtage , Agritechnica ) take place as well as one-day training trips to progressive companies in the region.
Arable farming working group
For the exchange of technical content, a working group "Agriculture" was formed in 1993, which has set itself the goal of "ensuring and improving the economic success of the member farms while observing proper, site-specific and environmentally friendly production". The core of the working group is an exchange of experiences between the members.
public relation
Farm festivals, green paths, a three-day harvest festival in the center of Frankfurt and the learning farm Rhein-Main are public relations projects in which the Agricultural Association is involved through financial support, voluntary work or sponsorship.
Association bodies
The association has around 340 members. Two guarantors from the board of directors are required for admission to the association. This consists of the executive board (4 people) and 8 assessors. In addition, 3 honorary board members have an advisory vote on the committee.
literature
- Eugen Ernst: History of agriculture, preferably in the Hessian area. In: Hessian agriculture through the ages, issue 9 of the series of publications by the Hessenpark open-air museum, Neu-Anspach 1996
- Rudolf Maxeiner: Rural Life in Old Frankfurt. Waldemar Kramer, Frankfurt am Main 1979
- The Frankfurter Landwirtschaftliche Verein eV in Frankfurt am Main 1860-1910. Festschrift for the 50th anniversary. Frankfurt am Main 1910
- Heinz Lenhardt: Agriculture in the imperial city of Frankfurt am Main. Printed by FW Kalbfleisch, Gelnhausen 1933
- Alexander Dietz: History of the Frankfurt horse market. In: Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the Agricultural Association