Franz Friedrich Schindler

Franz Friedrich Schindler (born March 31, 1854 in Bilau , Moravia ; † October 16, 1937 in Neutitschein , Moravia) was an Austrian crop scientist .

Live and act

Franz Schindler, son of an estate director and tenant, attended the Oberrealschule in Vienna and then the agricultural college in Großau (Lower Austria). From 1874 he studied agriculture at the University of Halle (Saale) . In 1876 he passed the diploma examination there. After two years of practice on a domain, he continued his agricultural studies at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna in 1878 . In 1881 he received the Venia legendi there with a text on the swelling process of the seeds of peas. As a private lecturer in agriculture, he held lectures on the cultivation of agricultural crops at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna until 1886. From 1883 to 1886 he was also a scientific assistant at the local Institute for Crop Production.

During his time as a lecturer in Vienna, Schindler published two groundbreaking articles on the function of the root nodules in legumes, which was still unexplained at the time . In 1884 he pointed out in the Botanisches Centralblatt that the root nodules of this plant family could be a kind of " symbiosis ". In a second article, published in 1885 in the Journal für Landwirthschaft, Schindler came to the unequivocal statement based on careful literature studies and his own experiments that the root nodules must be closely related to the nitrogen uptake of legumes. Independent of the agricultural botanist Johannes Lachmann (1832–1860) from Bonn, he correctly recognized the fundamental connection between the nitrogen-assimilating activity of the bacteria living in the root nodules and the flourishing of the host plants . The agricultural chemists Hermann Hellriegel and Hermann Wilfarth were able to clearly demonstrate this connection experimentally in 1886.

In 1886 Schindler took over a teaching position for crop production at an agricultural school in Neutitschein. From 1888 to 1903 he worked as a full professor of plant cultivation and plant physiology at the Baltic Polytechnic in Riga . This stay in what was then Russian territory offered him a variety of stimuli. On numerous trips he studied the geographical and climatological location factors for the cultivation of agricultural crops. His fundamental work, The Wheat in Its Relationship to Climate and the Law of Correlation, was written in Riga . (1893). Schindler recognized the importance of local varieties of agricultural crops for the plant breeding and advocated strongly for the climatic conditions adapted "local culture".

Another important work that Schindler wrote in Riga was a textbook on plant cultivation, which appeared in 1896 under the title The theory of plant cultivation on a physiological basis . His article on goals, tasks and methodology of plant production theory , published in the Journal für Landwirtschaft in 1898, is significant for the scientific history of crop production . Here he recommended to his specialist colleagues not only to look at scientific crop production from the point of view of agricultural chemistry, but also to make agricultural-physiological questions much more the subject of research.

In 1903 Schindler accepted a call to the German Technical University in Brno . As a full professor of agriculture, he taught here until 1924. He maintained close contacts with agricultural practice. In Brno he wrote a handbook of grain growing on a scientific and practical basis (first edition 1909). It is one of the classic works of German-language crop literature.

Even in his retirement, Schindler wrote a number of excellent scientific papers. Of particular note is his book From the primordial home of our grains , published in 1934 . Ecological-botanical studies and outlooks. His autobiography, published in 1937 by the Czechoslovak Academy of Agriculture, is considered extremely valuable for the history of science .

honors and awards

Schindler has received numerous honors and awards for his scientific life's work. He was a Russian State Councilor and held the title of Hofrat from 1913 . He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (1919), from the German Technical University in Prague (1924) and from the German Technical University in Brno (1926). Since 1924 he was a member of the German Society of Sciences and Arts for Czechoslovakia. The Czechoslovak Academy of Agriculture made him an honorary member in 1927. In 1924, on the occasion of his 70th birthday, colleagues, friends and students presented him with an extensive commemorative publication . In addition to noteworthy contributions to plant cultivation, it also includes an appreciation of the scientific life's work of Franz Schindler from the pen of his long-time friend Emanuel von Proskowetz .

Main publications

• Investigations into the swelling process of the seeds of Pisum sativum . Habil. Schr. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna 1881. Zugl. in: Research in the field of agricultural physics, Vol. 4, 1881, pp. 194-236.
• To the knowledge of the papilionaceae root nodules . In: Botanisches Centralblatt Vol. 5, Vol. 18, 1884, pp. 84-88.
• About the biological importance of the root nodules in the Papilionaceae . In: Journal für Landwirthschaft Vol. 33, 1885, pp. 325–336.
• Wheat in its relationship to the climate and the law of correlation. A contribution to the scientific justification of plant cultivation theory . Publisher Paul Parey Berlin 1893.
• The theory of plant cultivation on a physiological basis. For use at agricultural colleges and for self-study. General part . Publishing house Carl Fromme Vienna 1896.
• About the goals, tasks and methodology of plant production theory . In: Journal für Landwirtschaft, Vol. 46, 1898, pp. 237-254.
• Handbook of cereal growing on a scientific and practical basis . Paul Parey Berlin 1909; 2nd edition 1920; 3rd edition 1923.
• The grain production of Austria-Hungary with regard to war and people's food . Publishing house Deuticke Vienna and Leipzig 1916.
• From the original home of our cereals. Ecological-botanical studies and outlooks . Publishing house Rohrer Brno and Vienna 1934.
• Review of my life and my work in the service of agricultural teaching and research . Published by the Czechoslovak Academy of Agriculture in Prague 1937 = Sources and Basics Series B, Vol. 6.

literature

• Franz Frimmel: Franz Schindler † . In: Research and Progress Vol. 13, 1937, pp. 429-430.
• Franz Frimmel: Franz Schindler † . In: Journal for Plant Breeding Vol. 22, 1938, pp. 323-325 (with picture).
• Councilor Professor Dr. hc Franz Schindler . In: Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg: Life and work of an Austrian plant breeder. Paul Parey Publishing House Berlin and Hamburg 1958, pp. 91–94.
• Contributions to agricultural crop production, especially cereal production. Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Professor Dr. hc Franz Schindler. Dedicated by colleagues, friends and students of the jubilee. Published by the German Agricultural Society Brno. Publishing house Paul Parey Berlin 1924 (with picture and contribution by Emanuel Proskowetz).
• Kurt Ehrendorfer:  Schindler Franz Friedrich. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 10, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7001-2186-5 , p. 149 f. (Direct links on p. 149 , p. 150 ).
• Kurt Ehrendorfer:  Schindler, Franz Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 22, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-428-11203-2 , p. 791 ( digitized version ).