Franz Lehmann (agricultural scientist)

Franz Lehmann (born April 28, 1860 in Kleinpaschleben near Koethen (Anhalt) ; † June 17, 1942 in Göttingen ) was a German agricultural and animal nutritionist and university professor.

Live and act

Franz Lehmann was born as the son of a landowner in the Principality of Anhalt , attended secondary school in Köthen, then secondary school in Aschersleben, and graduated in 1879 with the Abitur examination. He then studied natural sciences and chemistry at the universities of Jena , Berlin and Göttingen . In Göttingen he received his doctorate with a chemical thesis for Dr. phil., now worked as a research assistant at Wilhelm Henneberg and qualified as a lecturer in animal nutrition in 1889. In 1891 Lehmann became an associate professor for animal chemistry, in 1916 a full honorary professor at the Agricultural Institute of the Philosophical Faculty and finally in 1923 a full professor for animal nutrition and director of the institute of the same name of the new mathematical and natural science faculty of the University of Göttingen.

The original location of the agricultural research station in Weende had already been given up in 1874. As the head of the successor facility in Göttingen, Lehmann first expanded the animal nutrition and feeding department of the Agricultural Institute and developed it into an independent institute. He carried out many experiments on young cattle as well as pork and poultry fattening. He defined the total nutrients as a measure of the energetic feed conversion in pigs and poultry as well as the feed conversion number for assessing the master's success (ratio of feed use to weight gain). In 1926, under the guidance of Professor of Animal Breeding Jonas Schmidt, the first official testing station for pigs in Germany based on the Danish model began in the Friedland test farm. At that time it was mainly about determining the fattening performance (e.g. feed conversion and daily weight gain).

Lehmann published his research results in over 200 scientific publications and also used 25 three-day courses in the Ruhlsdorf experimental farm to disseminate the feeding principles . He retired in 1928. The faculty left his chair vacant for eight years - Jonas Schmidt also had to head the animal nutrition department. It was not until 1936 that Walter Lenkeit took over the now independent professorship for animal nutrition and animal physiology and intensively continued Lehmann's work.

Fonts (selection)

• About the nutritional value of cellulose. Habilitation thesis Univ. Göttingen, 1889
• Feeding experiments with pigs on the digestibility of different feeds, carried out at the agricultural test stations in Göttingen, Möckern and Münster i. W. with Oskar Kellner and Josef König. Berlin: Parey, 1909
• Rye as feed for pigs. 2 parts, 1930
• The doctrine of the feeding and fattening of pigs, last edition by Heinrich Lüthge and Wilhelm Stahl, 1944, 147 pp.

Honors

• 1917: Privy Councilor
• 1928: Honorary doctorate to Dr. agr. hc by the Agricultural University Berlin
• 1955: Foundation of the Henneberg-Lehmann Prize for outstanding achievements in the field of animal nutrition and feed science

literature

• Gerber, Theophil: Personalities from agriculture and forestry, horticulture and veterinary medicine - Biographisches Lexikon, Berlin: NORA, 4th exp. Ed., 2014, p. 435.
• Günther, Klaus-Dietrich: "Lehmann, Franz." In: Neue Deutsche Biographie 14 (1985), p. 78 f. ( Online version ).
• Liebert, Frank: Former experimental station Göttingen-Weende 150 years old - contributions to animal nutrition. Göttingen: Inst. For Animal Physiology and Animal Nutrition, 2007.

Web links

• Henneberg-Lehmann Prize

Individual evidence

1. ^ Former research station in Weende near Göttingen
2. ^ Foundation of the Henneberg Lehmann Prize