Günther Bachthaler

Günther Bachthaler

Günther Bachthaler (born March 5, 1927 in Zwiesel , Bavarian Forest , † June 17, 2007 in Langenbach near Freising ) was a German crop scientist and herbologist .

Life path

Günther Bachthaler, son of a civil servant family, was drafted into military service as an air force helper after attending the humanistic high school in Landshut (Upper Bavaria) in 1943 . A serious wound led to a hospital stay of several months. From autumn 1945 he completed a two-year agricultural internship. In 1947 he began to study agriculture at the Technical University of Munich in Freising - Weihenstephan , which he completed in 1950 with the examination to become a qualified farmer . Since 1948 he was a member of the Corps Agronomia there .

After a two-year legal traineeship, Bachthaler began over 40 years of work as a consultant, researcher and lecturer in the service of the Free State of Bavaria on January 1, 1953 at what was then the Bavarian State Institute for Plant Production and Plant Protection in Munich : initially until 1959 as head of the district clerk's office for plant protection for the administrative region of Niederbayern in Deggendorf , then as a specialist lecturer for plant cultivation at the newly founded Higher Agricultural School in Rotthalmünster (Passau district) and from 1966 as head of the plant cultivation department at the State Institute for Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Plant Cultivation and Plant Protection in Munich. When this institution merged in 1972 with the Bavarian State Plant Breeding Institute Weihenstephan to form the Bavarian State Institute for Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Freising-Munich (LBP), he took over the management of the Research and Information Department (later: Research and Research). From April 1, 1989 until his retirement on January 1, 1992, Bachthaler was Vice President of this state institution.

Research, teaching and advice

Bachthaler acquired his scientific qualification in 1957 with a doctorate under Gustav Aufhammer at the Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding at the Technical University of Munich-Weihenstephan. The topic of his dissertation on the germination physiology of the airport and the control options already shows the focus of his future research activities: weed biology, weed ecology and weed control . Due to his habilitation in 1967 at this university with a paper on the development of the weed flora depending on changed cultivation, care and harvesting methods, he acquired the venia legendi for the subject of crop production . Since then he has held lectures on the entire field of weed science ( herbology ) as a private lecturer and since 1974 as an adjunct professor at the Technical University of Munich-Weihenstephan .

Through his lectures, his work as an agricultural consultant and above all through numerous publications, Bachthaler was one of the leading weed researchers for several decades. He has published fundamental research results on the development of the weed flora on arable land in the “Bavarian Agricultural Yearbook”, in the “Journal for Acker and Plant Cultivation” and in phytomedical journals. His book " Chemical weed control on arable and grassland " , published in 1963, is noteworthy . Bachthaler also made significant contributions in the field of crop rotation research . He published the results of his extensive long-term tests at different locations in Bavaria in the book “ Crop rotation and production technology ” (1979). He was also co-author and temporarily editor of the textbook “ Plant Production ”, which was published in twelve editions until 2006 .

Bachthaler was involved in several agricultural specialist societies. From 1973 to 1978 he was a board member of the Society for Crop Science . Numerous trips abroad to study agriculture have taken him to other European countries, to East and Central Africa, North, Central and South America, Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

Main publications

• Investigations on the germination physiology of the airport (Avena fatua L.) in particular with regard to its increasing occurrence in Bavaria and its current economic control options . Agricultural Diss. Techn. Hochsch. Munich 1957. Maschinenschr. multiply - Excerpt from: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 103, 1957, pp. 128–156.
• Chemical weed control on arable land and grassland . Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag Munich 1963; 2nd edition, ibid. 1968.
• The development of the weed flora as a function of changed cultivation, care and harvesting methods with emphasis on the types of grass weeds as well as studies on their effective control . Habil.-Schr. Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture, Techn. Hochsch. Munich 1967. Maschinenschr. multiply - Zugl. in: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 127, 1968, pp. 149–170 u. 327-358.
• Vegetable production (series: Die Landwirtschaft. Textbook for agricultural schools). BLV Verlagsgesellschaft München 1968; 12. Completely revised and expanded edition 2006. - Bachthaler was co-author in almost all editions and also editor for the 9th ed. (1987) and 10th ed. (1992).
• Crop rotation and production technology . BLV Verlagsgesellschaft München 1979. Book series: Knowledge for practice.

literature

• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 2007 . Bio-bibliographical directory of contemporary German-speaking scientists. 21st edition, KG Saur Verlag Munich 2007, Vol. I, p. 104.
• Manfred Munzert: Prof. Dr. Günther Bachthaler . In: LfL-intern (in-house journal of the Bavarian State Institute for Agriculture) volume 3, 2007, p. 15 (with picture).

Web links

• Literature by and about Günther Bachthaler in the catalog of the German National Library