Fritz Oberdorf

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Friedrich "Fritz" Oberdorf (born May 30, 1898 in Gerchsheim ; † July 15, 1976 in Bernburg (Saale) ) was a German agricultural scientist, pioneer of plant breeding and professor of agricultural science as well as director of the Central Institute for Plant Breeding in Bernburg and founding rector of the university for agriculture in Bernburg .

Life

Fritz Oberdorf was born in 1898 as a farmer's son in the northernmost part of Baden near Tauberbischofsheim . In 1899 his father bought a new farm in Schauerheim (Middle Franconia). Oberdorf attended elementary school here and from 1912 worked on his parents' farm. In the winter of 1912/13 he attended the agricultural school in Neustadt (Aisch) and in 1913/14 the upper class of the agricultural school in Triesdorf near Ansbach. This was followed by two years as a volunteer in Irlbach and with Georg Heil in Gelchsheim near Ochsenfurt (Lower Franconia), after which he was drafted into the army in 1917.

After the end of the First World War, he began working in practical plant breeding as a seed breeding technician:

  • 1919–20 seed breeding technician at plow seed breeding in Baltersbach (Saarland)
  • 1921–1925 in Überglase on the Baltic Sea island of Rügen
  • 1925–31 head of the plant breeding station at Peragis GmbH in Ahrensburg near Hamburg
  • 1931–1936 Technical manager of the plant breeding station of Peragis GmbH in Puchow near Penzlin / Mecklenburg (spring wheat and field peas)
  • 1936–1940 Head of grain breeding in the new headquarters of Peragis GmbH in Klein Wanzleben (Magdeburg Börde)

After the acquisition of Pflug-Baltersbacher Saatzucht (1924), the company Rabbethge & Giesecke from Klein Wanzleben - previous focus on sugar beet seed cultivation - incorporated new crops and founded Peragis GmbH, which operated several breeding stations across Germany and contained the three founding families in the company name.

During the war years of 1940, Oberdorf passed the special maturity examination for graduates of agricultural schools, which was possible from 1938, then studied agriculture at the University of Berlin, graduating in 1942 with the diploma exam and in 1943 with a doctorate. agr. ab, title of the dissertation: "Economic impacts and measures to combat soil erosion in the moraine area of ​​northern Germany". He then became the main seed breeding manager at Peragis GmbH in Klein Wanzleben. After the end of the war in 1945, Oberdorf initially remained the seed breeding manager in Klein Wanzleben. The former private property was subordinated to the German Saatzuchtgesellschaft (DSG) as a state property through the land reform.

In 1949 Oberdorf was appointed director of the Institute for Plant Breeding, formed from the Anhalt Agricultural Research Station, in Bernburg, which from 1952 onwards was assigned to the newly founded German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin (DAL) and moved to Bernburg-Strenzfeld. He headed it until 1963 and developed it into the Central Institute for Plant Breeding. Forage plants were the focus of his research.

From 1951 to 1960 Oberdorf was a professor with a teaching position for agrobiology at the Agricultural-Horticultural Faculty of the University of Leipzig . In 1955 the habilitation (Dr. agr. Habil.) Took place here . His 1953 publication “Economic Plant Communities in Agriculture” was regarded as a habilitation thesis. In 1960, Oberdorf was appointed professor with a chair for grassland and field forage cultivation and head of the newly formed institute of the same name at the Agricultural and Horticultural Faculty of the University of Leipzig. He fulfilled these tasks until September 1862. In total, he supervised ten dissertations and two post-doctoral theses in Leipzig.

In 1961 he was appointed founding rector of the newly formed Bernburg University of Agriculture. This emerged from taking over and bundling the tasks of the previous institutes for agricultural economics in Bornim near Potsdam, for agronomy in Neugattersleben near Bernburg and for zootechnics in Güstrow-Schabernack. Oberdorf was also a professor with a chair for plant breeding from 1961 to 1963 and was retired as rector in 1966.

After German reunification , the Bernburg University of Agriculture was merged with universities in Köthen (Anhalt) and Dessau to form the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences . At the university in Bernburg, the course is offered in two departments: Agriculture, Ecotrophology and Landscape Development, and Economics . Around 3,000 students take advantage of this course on the green campus in Bernburg-Strenzfeld , supervised by over 50 professors.

Accordingly, close relationships developed between the scientific institutions of agriculture and the earlier secondary school in the 1950s via the extended secondary school to today's Carolinum Bernburg grammar school .

Focus as a plant breeder

  • At Peragis, the DSG and DAL: Breeding and propagation of cereals and legumes: spring barley (Peragis, Elsa), winter barley (Peragis 12, Kleinwanzlebener Rekord, Jutta), spring wheat (Garant, Capega), oats (Kleinwanzlebener Intensiv, Universal, Omeko, Bördeweiß); Field pea (Peragis), dry pea (Kleinwanzleben success), dry pea (farmer's joy).
  • After the end of World War II, he campaigned for the preservation of breeding sites and breeding material and the rebuilding of efficient plant breeding in central Germany.
  • Bernburg: grain (leftover varieties); Corn (Strenzfelder, Siloma), fodder rye (Bernburger), hemp (Bernburger Einhäusiger), 3 flax fibers, 1 flax oil, 2 buckwheat, 2 clover, 4 grass, 1 phacelia, 2 medicinal plant varieties.

Appreciation as a scientist and university professor

  • Research and publications on plant communities in arable farming (pea-oats; soybeans in plant communities; canned peas and carrots)
  • Acclimatization of new crops (corn, soy, sunflower, etc.)
  • Commitment to the expansion of maize cultivation in Central Germany
  • Resolute opponent of the unscientific teachings of TD Lyssenko (1898–1976). 12 years professor at the University of Leipzig
  • Foundation and management of the Bernburg-Strenzfeld School of Agriculture

Memberships and honors (selection)

Publications (selection)

  • Economic effects and measures to combat soil erosion in the moraine area of ​​northern Germany. Dissertation, University of Berlin 1942.
  • Profitable soy cultivation through plant communities. According to cultivation methods with the light shaft method. KP Hofmann, Zella / Rhön; Hünfeld / Hessen 1950.
  • Economic plant community in arable farming. Deutscher Bauernverlag, Berlin 1953. Zugl. Habilitation thesis Landw. Fac. Univ. Leipzig 1955.
  • with Maximilian Klinkowski and Gustav Könnecke: The cultivation of winter barley. Deutscher Bauernverlag, Berlin 1953.
  • Plant communities and increased yield through indirect performance breeding. Hirzel Verlag under administration, Leipzig 1955.
  • with Asmus Petersen and Erich Mühle: Questions about fodder production. German Agricultural Publishing House, Berlin 1960.
  • Around the corn. Publishing house encyclopedia, Leipzig 1961.
  • Problems of the field economy in socialist agriculture. German Agricultural Publishing House, Berlin 1961.
  • as editor-in-chief: problems of corn breeding. Lectures on the occasion of the symposium from August 15 to 18, 1961 in Bernburg for the tenth anniversary of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin. Organized by the Institute for Plant Breeding, Bernburg, the Academy in conjunction with the working group "Maize Breeding in the Countries of the Council for Mutual Economic Aid". German Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Berlin 1962.

literature

  • Fritz Oberdorf. In: Professor catalog of the University of Leipzig / Catalogus Professorum Lipsiensium. Published by the Chair of Modern and Contemporary History, Historical Seminar of the University of Leipzig. uni-leipzig.de Date: June 6, 2016.
  • Gerd Gerdes : Fritz Oberdorf on his 65th birthday. In: The Breeder. Volume 33, H. 4, 1963.
  • NN In: German agriculture. 15, 1964, p. 617.
  • Arno Winkel: Prof. Dr. Fritz Oberdorf in memoriam. In: Archive for Breeding Research. Volume 7, 1977, pp. 223-224.
  • Theophil Gerber: Personalities from agriculture and forestry. In: Horticulture and Veterinary Medicine - Biographical Lexicon. 4th, exp. Edition. NORA Berlin, 2014, ISBN 978-3-936735-67-3 , p. 551.
  • Eberhard Schulze: The agricultural-gardening or agricultural faculty from 1951 to 1968. In: The agricultural sciences at the University of Leipzig 1945/46 - 1996. 2nd edition. Leipzig 2008, ISBN 978-3-00-023989-2 , pp. 204-208.
  • W. Porsche: Oberdorf, Friedrich. In: Gerhard Röbbelen: Biograph. Lexicon on the history of plant breeding. Volume 2, Quedlinburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-11324-6 , pp. 220-222.
  • Rudolf Vierhaus : German Biographical Encyclopedia. 2nd edition, Volume 7, Munich 2007, p. 522 (based on Böhm, Wolfgang 1997).
  • Fritz Oberdorf. In: Catalog of the Leibniz University Magdeburg. (uni-magdeburg.de)
  • W. Haufe, Hans Geidel : The KWS plant breeders. Internal documentation of KWS, core report and Investments. Volume 1, 1992/94, KWS Einbeck archive, pp. 21-22.
  • Betina Meißner: Success can be sown: 150 years of KWS. Göttingen 2006, p. 62.
  • Volker Ebersbach : History of the city of Bernburg. 2 volumes. Anhaltische Verlagsgesellschaft, Dessau 1999/2000, ISBN 3-910192-65-3 / 3-910192-79-3.
  • Hellmuth Karasek : Bernburg on the Saale. In: On the run. Memories. Ullstein, Berlin 2004. (Paperback edition ibid. 2006, ISBN 3-548-36817-4 .)
  • Rudolf Großkopf: Our 50s - How we became what we are. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2005.
  • Volker Ebersbach: The small residence. A reader for Bernburg. Kulturstiftung, Bernburg 2005, ISBN 3-9810170-0-5 .
  • Rudolf Großkopf : Our 60s - How we became what we are. Eichborn, Frankfurt am Main 2007.
  • Gerd Villwock, Jaik Thomas Prada: The lower Saale valley: a regional study between Halle and Bernburg. Weimar 2016, p. 121.
  • Ernst-Walter Paasch, Dieter Staevie: Klein Wanzleben. In: From land reform to trust. Lexicon of Nationally Owned Goods and their Directors. Oschersleben 2005, ISBN 3-938380-07-1 , p. 99.
  • Oberdorf, Fritz. In: Who was who in the GDR? Federal foundation to come to terms with the SED dictatorship.
  • Development of the Strenzfeld location of the Anhalt University of Applied Sciences. (chronological overview).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Fritz Oberdorf in the Leipzig professor catalog
  2. ↑ Handbook "Who was who in the GDR?"
  3. ^ Bernburg: Nature and Economy . Retrieved June 12, 2016.
  4. ↑ “Neue Zeit” from March 4, 1952, p. 4: “The German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin appointed six new members. These are National Prize Winner Prof. Fritz Oberdorf, National Prize Winner Dipl.-Farmer Franz Vettel , Forest Master Ernst Ehwald , Prof. Hermann Meusel , Prof. Dr. Friedrich Müssemeier and Prof. Dr. Johannes Reinhold . "
personal data
SURNAME Oberdorf, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oberdorf, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agronomist, plant breeder, professor and rector
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Gerchsheim
DATE OF DEATH July 15, 1976
Place of death Bernburg (Saale)