Friedrich Berkner

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Friedrich Berkner 1954

Friedrich (Fritz) Berkner (born February 12, 1874 on Berkner's homestead in Görlsdorf near Königsberg in Neumark ; † November 30, 1954 in Alferde near Hanover ) was a German crop scientist and plant breeder.

Life path

Berkner, son of a teacher, studied agriculture and economics at the University of Halle until 1901 , where he obtained his doctorate in 1906 under the economist Johannes Conrad with a dissertation on "The distribution of real estate and the course of the mortgage movement in the Königsberg district". From 1902 he worked as an agriculture teacher for the province of Brandenburg, from April 1, 1903 in the agricultural and horticultural school in Königsberg / Neumark. There he set up a department for meadow construction. In July 1907 he became director of the school. With lasting success he promoted the cultivation of hemp and tobacco in Brandenburg. As a result of his initiative, the first higher agricultural school was established in Königsberg, whose training course closed the gap between the university and the agricultural school. "State-certified farmers" (SgL) emerged from it. Berkner is the creator of these higher agricultural schools, which soon found imitation throughout the empire. He was a member of the Salingia Halle fraternity .

As the successor to Kurt von Rümker , Berkner took over on April 1, 1913 as director and professor at the Institute for Plant Production Studies at the University of Breslau . At the same time he became director of the Institute for Agricultural Production Studies and head of the plant cultivation and plant research institute of the Rosenthal experimental farm (near Carlowitz) at the University of Breslau. He renamed the Institute for Plant Production Theory "Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding" and worked here until his retirement in 1943.

In 1922, with financial help from the Silesian Cattle Trade Association and Silesian farmers, he was able to acquire a 316 hectare test field in Breslau-Schwoitsch (Güntherbrücke) for the university and his institute. Here he was able to set up a vegetation system in order to process his plant varieties. This is still in operation today in the same function.

At the request of the Turkish government, he and the geneticist Erwin Baur gave lectures at the Agricultural University in Halkali near Constantinople in 1920, examined agriculture in Anatolia and gave the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture an expertise on the reorganization of agricultural training in Turkey, which led to the establishment of the Agricultural University in Ankara led. The first professor there was his student Prof. Friedrich Christiansen-Less .

Research priorities

Berkner's central research topic was the study of the relationships between climate, soil and crops. For him, crop production research was primarily ecological research. Berkner coined the term "ecological spread" and introduced it to international specialist literature. On the approximately 250 hectare Schwoitsch experimental estate (later called Güntherbrücke), acquired in 1923, he carried out numerous endurance tests. His experimental investigations into the water consumption of grain and potatoes are noteworthy . He devoted himself intensively to questions of soil fertility and regulated manure management, for which he carried out numerous experiments and demonstrated his own methods. On extended study trips, he also dealt with questions of regional crop production. For the five-volume "Handbuch der Landwirtschaft" published by Friedrich Aereboe , Johannes Hansen and Theodor Roemer in 1929/30 , he wrote the central chapter on grain production. - He declined honorable appointments to the University of Göttingen , the Saxon Ministry of Economics, the Prussian Ministry of Agriculture, the Courland Knighthood in Riga and the Agricultural University in Berlin .

Like many crop scientists of his time, Berkner was also active in practical plant breeding . He bred a very precocious winter wheat that was resistant to stalk fly infestation for dry locations. As "Berkner's continental wheat", this variety had a large cultivation area in Silesia at times. In addition, Berkner has cultivated sweet peas , corn , oil pumpkin and soybeans , as well as millet from the material of the German Hindu Kush Expedition . At the 1st Reich Conference on Plant Cultivation in 1940 in Breslau, he reported in detail on his experiences in the field of plant breeding (see list of publications).

Throughout his life, in addition to the scientific rigor of his striving for knowledge, Berkner endeavored beyond the necessary specialization to see and understand the whole living abundance of agricultural happenings and processes in nature in one. He was not only a researcher and scholar, but also a practitioner and nature lover. He laid down his experience as a hunter, hunter and friend of the game in his area in a publication of fundamental importance entitled "Critical Contributions to the Question of the Decline of Small Game" in all leading hunting magazines.

Fonts (selection)

  • New ways of German agriculture. A study on the agricultural question of the present . Paul Parey publishing house in Berlin 1920.
  • The development of our cultivated plants in their ecological condition with special consideration of the variety issue . In: Landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch für Bayern Jg. 18, 1928, pp. 128-143 (contribution with examples on the concept of "ecological spread").
  • Author of the chapter on grain cultivation . In: Handbook of Agriculture. Edited by Friedrich Aereboe, Johannes Hansen and Theodor Roemer. Publishing house Paul Parey Berlin 1930, Vol. 3, pp. 1–108.
  • Twenty years of experience in plant breeding . In: 1st Reichstagung in Breslau, June 19-22, 1940. J. Neumann Verlag, Neudamm and Berlin 1941, pp. 130–150 = Der Forschungsdienst, special issue 14.

literature

  • Konrad Meyer: Prof. Dr. Ms. Berkner on her 80th birthday . In: Journal for Arable and Plant Cultivation. Vol. 97, 1954, pp. 261-266 (with picture).
  • Eduard von Boguslawski: Prof. Dr. F. Berkner died . In: Communications from the German Agricultural Society. Vol. 69, 1954, p. 1236.
  • Wilhelm Zorn: The history of agricultural science in Silesia . Supplement No. 2 to the yearbook of the Silesian Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Breslau. Holzner-Verlag Würzburg 1964, pp. 55-58.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Elsheimer (ed.): Directory of the old fraternity members. Edition 1925/26. Frankfurt am Main 1925/26, p. 28.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Berkner, Friedrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Berkner, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German crop scientist and plant breeder
DATE OF BIRTH February 12, 1874
PLACE OF BIRTH Görlsdorf near Königsberg in the Neumark
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1954
Place of death Alferde near Hanover