Friedrich Nobbe

Friedrich Nobbe

Tomb of the Nobbe family in the Tharandt cemetery

Friedrich Nobbe (born June 20, 1830 in Bremen , † September 15, 1922 in Tharandt near Dresden ) was a German agricultural chemist , botanist and seed researcher . As a professor of biological natural sciences, he worked at the Academy for Foresters and Farmers in Tharandt from 1868 . In 1869, he set up the world's first seed control station here, establishing the seed test.

Life path

Friedrich Nobbe, the son of a school principal, was already working as a teacher in 1846 at the age of 16 . He expanded his knowledge through self-study and in 1852 took over the management of a school in Berge near Osnabrück . From 1854 he studied natural sciences , especially plant physiology , at the University of Jena . In 1856 he moved to Berlin and in 1857 passed the high school diploma at the “Cölnisches Gymnasium”. In 1858 he received his doctorate from the University of Jena with the dissertation "Disquisition of certain physical properties of the earth's crumb" . This was followed by a two-year teaching activity at the secondary school in Chemnitz .

In 1861 Nobbe was appointed as a teacher of plant and animal physiology at the state higher vocational school in Chemnitz. At the same time he got a job at the agricultural research station in Chemnitz, where he carried out numerous physiological studies on the importance of individual minerals for plant growth.

At the suggestion of the agricultural chemist Julius Adolph Stöckhardt , Nobbe accepted a call in 1868 as professor of biological natural sciences at the Academy for Foresters and Farmers in Tharandt . In the following year he founded a plant physiology test station at the academy. Nobbe was a successful teacher and researcher in Tharandt for three and a half decades. He did not retire until 1904, at the age of 74. He spent the last years of his life with his wife in his Tharandt apartment.

The former Milkau Villa , temporarily sponsored by the TU Dresden, specializing in forest sciences, and today the interim seat of the Academy of the Saxon State Foundation for Nature and Environment in Tharandt is named after him as Nobbe-Bau .

Research services

With financial support from the Agricultural District Association of Dresden, Nobbe founded an independent plant physiological test station in Tharandt in 1869, which was affiliated to the Academy for Forestry and Farmers and which was also intended to be a control station for agricultural, forestry and horticultural seeds. Under the name “Physiological Test and Seed Control Station in Tharandt”, it was the world's first institute for seed testing.

Nobbe was primarily concerned with sustainably improving the seed quality, for which there were no binding standards at the time, through systematic control activities. His “Handbuch der Samenkunde” , published in 1876, also served this goal . It is one of the most important works of scientific agricultural literature. Nobbe describes the morphology and anatomy of the seeds, the germination process and its physical conditions and the methods for determining the value of the seeds by way of example . He urged the introduction of uniform investigation methods. With this book, Nobbe gave pioneering impetus to seed research. His Tharandt test and control station became a model for the establishment of similar semen testing stations at home and abroad.

Another research focus of Nobbe were studies of the nodule bacteria of legumes . Since 1888, together with his long-time assistant Lorenz Hiltner, he has been looking into the possibility of "inoculating" the arable soil or the seeds with nodule bacteria. Although their vaccine "Nitragin", patented in 1896, did not produce satisfactory results in agricultural practice, Hiltner was later able to further develop this "vaccination technique" in Munich until it was ready for practical use.

At the Tharandt Academy, where only forest students were trained after 1870, Nobbe was responsible for botany and, in the first few years, zoology . From 1877 he was also head of the forest botanical garden. In 1882, after a thorough revision, he published the fourth edition of the extensive textbook “Döbner's Botanik für Forstmänner” .

Nobbe's name was closely connected with the journal Die agricultural experimental stations founded in 1858 . In 1861 Nobbe took over the editorial management of this specialist magazine, from 1863 to 1905 he was the sole editor. In 1888 he was elected chairman of the newly founded "Association of Agricultural Experimental Stations in the German Empire". He held this office until 1904.

Honors and awards (selection)

• 1880 Knight's Cross of the Swedish North Star Order
• 1882 Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Saxon Albrecht Order
• 1888 Foreign member of the Royal Swedish Agricultural Society
• 1889 Royal title of Privy Councilor
• 1893 honorary member of the Imperial Russian Forest Institute in St. Petersburg
• 1894 honorary member of the agricultural district association Dresden with award of the silver commemorative coin
• 1896 honorary member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England
• 1903 honorary member of the Association of Agricultural Experimental Stations in the German Reich
• 1910 on the 80th birthday: appropriation of a fir tree in the Tharandt Forest Botanical Garden.
• since 1959 Friedrich Nobbe Prize: donated by the Association of German Agricultural Investigations and Research Institutes (VDLUFA) to promote young scientists who have made special achievements in the field of applied botany. The prize (endowed amount of money and certificate) is only awarded at intervals of several years.

Works

• About the organic performance of potassium in the plant (together with J. Schroeder and R. Erdmann). Verlag Focke Chemnitz 1871 = messages from the physiological test station Tharandt.
• Handbook of Seed Studies. Physiological-statistical investigations into the economic use value of agricultural, forestry and horticultural crops . Published by Wiegandt, Hempel & Parey Berlin 1876.
• E. Ph. Döbner: Botany for forest men. In addition to an appendix: Tables for the determination of woody plants during flowering and in winter . With 430 woodcuts printed in the text. Fourth edition, completely reworked by Friedrich Nobbe. Publisher Paul Parey Berlin 1882.
• Guide through the academic forest garden in Tharandt . Edited by F. Nobbe and G. Büttner. Paul Parey Berlin 1905.

literature

• Heinrich Vater: Friedrich Nobbe and the plant physiological test and seed control station in Tharandt . In: Tharandter Forstliches Jahrbuch Vol. 75, 1924, pp. 141–188 (with picture and list of scriptures). - Zugl. as a separate print at: Verlagbuchhandlung Paul Parey Berlin 1924.
• H. Jahnel and H. Ludwig: Friedrich Nobbe, the founder of semen control . In: Proceedings of the International Seed Testing Association Vol. 26, 1961, pp. 127-139 (with picture and list of publications).
• Johannes Schubert and Werner Zentsch: Founding of the first semen control station - a pioneering act by Friedrich Nobbe . In: Archive for Forestry Vol. 18, 1969, pp. 1245-1255 (with picture).
• A. Finck: Friedrich Nobbe (1830-1922) . In: VDLUFA series of publications vol. 28 / I, congress volume 1988 Bonn. Darmstadt 1989, pp. 161-163.
• AM Steiner: 100 years of technical regulations of the Association of Agricultural Test Stations in the German Empire for seed testing . In: VDLUFA series of publications, Vol. 55, 2000, pp. 100-105.
• Manfred Tesche:  Nobbe, Friedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 300 f. ( Digitized version ).

Web links

• City wiki Dresden