Friedrich A. Bäßler

Friedrich August Bäßler , also Bässler , (born December 13, 1884 in Leipzig , † August 28, 1956 in Radebeul ) was a German teacher, botanist and ornithologist .

Life

The son of an authorized signatory completed a degree in mathematics and natural sciences with a focus on zoology and botany at the University of Leipzig ; his doctorate in 1909 took place on an experimental subject from botany. During his studies he joined the Wandervogel movement and came into contact with the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx . In 1905 he passed the gymnastics teacher exam.

After his state examination in 1910, Bäßler became a teacher at the Dreikönigschule in Dresden . Two years later he married; his wife Else also came from Leipzig. Drafted for military service on the Western Front in 1914, it was buried on the Somme . During the long hospital treatment that followed, Bäßler turned into a pacifist . He joined the SPD because the Marxists were too extreme for him.

Because of this membership in the SPD he was dismissed from school service in 1933. The loss of his job was accompanied by the ban on his two children from studying. From 1935 he worked as a research assistant and editor in the pharmaceutical company Dr. Madaus & Co. in Radebeul , his focus there was the cultivation and research of medicinal plants. The Bäßler family lost their apartment in the air raids on Dresden on February 13, 1945 .

After 1945 Bäßler became the director of the municipal high school in Radebeul. Until 1950 he was also the director of the Radebeul adult education center . As a member of the SPD, Bäßler became a member of the SED through the forced unification of the SPD and KPD . However, after his experiences with fanatical party members in the time of National Socialism, he remained aloof from those with a socialist party membership. He contrasted the increasing Stalinization with the idea of ​​a technically well-trained youth with democratic virtues. His refusal to remove a memorial plaque in the school building for students who died in World War I brought him into opposition to the party leadership. A detention for the daughter of a party official earned him the dismissal as school director. He then mentally separated from the SED because of the popular uprising on June 17, 1953 . Bäßler, who had remained a teacher after his retirement in 1949 because many subject teachers fled to the Federal Republic of Germany and there was a shortage of teachers, had to move out of the school's director's apartment in 1953. In the following years he lived in the now listed rental villa at Einsteinstraße 12 .

As a part-time job, the doctorate teacher dealt with ornithology and medicinal plants. He kept in close contact both with the director of the Berlin zoo and with various German bird observatories. After 1945, Bäßler set up the ornithology department of the Kulturbund in Radebeul , which was accommodated in his school and also had members from Dresden. In addition to the local preview, he also published articles on ornithological topics and medicinal plants in Urania . He summarized his experiences with medicinal plants in 1953 in the work Medicinal Plants, Recognized and Applied , the fifth edition of which was published in 1966 in the GDR by Neumann Verlag and in the Federal Republic of Germany by Verlag J. Neumann-Neudamm .

On August 28, 1956, Bäßler was run over from behind by a truck of the Soviet occupation forces on his bicycle on Stalinstrasse (today Meißner Strasse). He was taken to the Radebeul hospital , but succumbed to serious injuries on the same day. In his obituary, the event could only be mentioned as a “tragic fate”. Bäßler found his final resting place in the Dresden Heidefriedhof , and his grave was designed to be close to nature in his own way.

Fonts

• To the bustard area. In: Communications of the Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz eV Landesverein Sächsischer Heimatschutz, Vol. 13, Dresden 1924, pp. 416–419. ISSN  0941-1151 .
• On school reform: biology u. Chemistry in d. Memorandum d. Saxon. Ministry of Education. In: teaching sheets for mathematics and science. Salle, Vol. 33, Frankfurt am Main 1927, pp. 113-117.
• The migration of the black-headed gull and the results of Saxon ringing. In: Meeting reports and treatises of the Natural Science Society Isis Dresden eV ISIS, Dresden 1930, pp. 46–66. ISSN  0941-4673 .
• Medicinal plants in the Loessnitz. In: The preview. Radebeul 1956, No. 5, pp. 6-7.
• Medicinal plants, recognized and used. 5th edition, Neumann, Radebeul 1966.
• Medicinal plants, recognized and used. 5th edition, Neumann-Neudamm, Melsungen 1966.

literature

• Günther Rößger: In memory of Dr. Friedrich A. Bäßler (1884–1956). In: Preview & Review. Radebeuler Monatshefte eV, Vol. 20, Radebeul 2009, Issue 12, pp. 9-12 (with a photo by Bäßler).

Web links

• Bässler, Friedrich A. in the SLUB's personal wiki
• Literature in the Saxon Bibliography