Günther Schilling

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Günther Schilling (2008)

Günther Schilling (born August 16, 1930 in Leipzig ; † August 8, 2018 ) was a German agricultural chemist specializing in the physiology and nutrition of crops . He has made a significant contribution to putting plant nutrition theory on a biochemical-physiological basis.

Life

Günther Schilling, son of a lawyer, attended a humanistic grammar school in Dresden , began an agricultural apprenticeship in 1945 and passed the agricultural assistant examination in 1947. He then attended the agricultural college in Eisenach , where he graduated from university in 1951 . In the same year he began to study agricultural sciences at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena , which he completed in 1954 with the examination to become a qualified farmer . This was followed by a two-year supplementary course in chemistry at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena.

In parallel, Schilling worked since 1955 under the aegis of Gerhard Michael in Agricultural Chemistry Institute of the University of Jena on a thesis with which he 1957 to the Dr. agr. received his doctorate. He got a job as a scientific assistant at this institute, completed an additional three-month course in radiochemistry in Moscow in 1958 and researched the behavior of radioactive strontium in plants against the background of nuclear weapons tests . With the results of this work, he completed his habilitation in 1960 at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena and received the Venia legendi for the field of agricultural chemistry . In the same year he took over the provisional management of the Agricultural-Chemical Institute at this university. In 1961 he was appointed professor of plant nutrition and soil science and at the same time was appointed director of this institute. At just under 31 years of age, he was the youngest university professor in the GDR.

After the agricultural faculty at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena was closed as part of the third university reform of the GDR (1969), Schilling was appointed full professor for physiology and nutrition of cultivated plants at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in 1970 . As the successor to Karl Schmalfuß, he worked here until his retirement in 1995. For several semesters, he then worked as a volunteer at his institution in both research and teaching.

Research and Teaching

Schilling's research work in Jena was initially based on the tried and tested classic ways of looking at plant nutrition. The focus was on experimental investigations into the binding state and the dynamics of nutrient elements (e.g. copper , molybdenum and iron ) in soils and plants. Based on the knowledge he gained, Schilling developed new extraction methods for determining the nutrients available to plants that could be used for fertilization recommendations. With the application of the tracer technique (use of radioactive and stable isotopes ) in experimental plant nutrition, he was able to elucidate sub-processes of yield formation. By studying the biochemical and physiological processes taking place in this process and clarifying the principles of how they are linked, his focus of work in Halle shifted more to the area of ​​the metabolic-physiological basis of plant growth .

An important research contribution during his time in Halle was the discovery that the stalk-lengthening effect of fertilizer nitrogen in wheat and barley is based on an increased formation of certain plant hormones ( gibberellins GA 1 and GA 3 ). Therefore, the inhibition of their formation through the use of new, easily biodegradable active ingredients (e.g. 2,3-dichloroisobutyrate) leads to shorter and thus more stable stalks with increased storage of assimilates in the cereal grains. This principle of inhibiting the development of less profitable plant parts in order to direct more assimilates into profit-generating organs has also been successfully applied to oilseed rape, sugar beet (regulation of the leaf-root ratio) and other agricultural crops. The result of this research was the development of patented plant species-specific growth regulators .

Another field of research concerns the efficiency of nitrogen fixation in legumes . The analyzes carried out by Schilling and his colleagues on the conversion of carbon and nitrogen in legumes showed that the assimilation of atmospheric nitrogen is largely determined by the (energy) replenishment in the form of carbon compounds from the shoot to the rhizobia . This research work was also Schilling's entry into rhizosphere research and the microecology of plant nutrition. Questions of root deposits and their importance for the plant availability of nutrients (especially phosphate) in the soil were in the foreground - always with the aim of saving fertilizer nutrients in the practice of agriculture.

Schilling mastered the field of plant nutrition in all its diversity. As a university lecturer, it was particularly important to him to make the interlinking of his subject with the neighboring disciplines visible. This interdisciplinary view is particularly evident in the university textbook Plant Nutrition and Fertilization , published under his leadership , which was published in two volumes in 1982 and 1987 and of which a one-volume, heavily revised fourth edition with a length of 464 pages appeared in 2000.

The list of publications by Schilling includes more than 231 scientific publications and some writings published after 1991 on higher education policy. Schilling was a member of the editorial boards of several specialist journals , including the journal for plant nutrition and soil science and the archive for arable and crop production and soil science . 42 doctoral students and ten post-doctoral students document his commitment to the training of young scientists.

Honors

Publications

  • Status and development tendencies of plant yield physiology . In: Session reports of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin, Vol. 16, 1967, No. 6, pp. 5-31.
  • New results and problems of plant nutrition in the German Democratic Republic . In: Meeting reports of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin, vol. 18, 1969, no. 1, pp. 3–25.
  • Investigations into the yield formation in annual seed plants . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina, Series 3, Vol. 17, 1971, pp. 99–115.
  • Chemization as a main means of intensifying and rationalizing plant production . In: Scientific journal of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Mathematical-Natural Science Series, Vol. 23, 1974, No. 2, pp. 15–35.
  • The work of EA Mitscherlich and the importance of the interaction of several growth factors in the further intensification of plant production in the GDR . In: Conference report of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR (Berlin) No. 139, 1975, pp. 11–32.
  • Growth regulators and their use in plant production (together with G. Hoffmann). In: Conference report of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR (Berlin) No. 173, 1979, Part 3, pp. 45–58.
  • Plant nutrition and fertilization . Authors: G. Schilling et al .; Responsible editor: G. Schilling. VEB German Agricultural Publishing House Berlin. Part 1: Plant Nutrition (1982) and Part 2: Fertilization (1987); 2. unchangeable Ed. Ibid. Part 1 (1987) and Part 2 (1989); 3. edit Ed. Ibid. Part 1 (1990). - 4th completely revised edition in one volume with the participation of M. Kerschberger and others: Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 2000.
  • Dependence of root growth on a number of exogenous and endogenous factors as well as consequences for the phosphate nutrition of plants (together with W. Römer and J. Augustin). In: Conference report of the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR (Berlin) No. 231, 1985, pp. 179–193.
  • Hellriegel and Wilfarth and their discovery of nitrogen fixation at Bernburg . In: Nitrogen Fixation. Hundred Years After. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference of Nitrogen Fixation in Cologne. Gustav Fischer Verlag, Hamburg and New York 1988, pp. 13-19.
  • Tradition and progress of soil dynamics research in Central Germany . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Soilenkundliche Gesellschaft Vol. 78, 1995, pp. 145–152.
  • Material and energy balances in agriculture - introduction and overview . In: VDLUFA series of publications, Vol. 46, 1997, pp. 19–31.
  • A former rector remembers . In: Saxony-Anhalt. Middle country - country under construction. The emergence of a new federal state in experience reports. Edited by Michael Kilian. Verlag KH Bock Bad Honnef 2002, pp. 467-479.
  • Essential and toxic effects of macro, trace and ultratrace elements for higher plants, interactions and requirement . In: Elements and their Compounds in the Environment. Edited by E. Merian, M. Anke, M. Ihnat and M. Stoeppler. Wiley-VCH GmbH & Co KGaA Weinheim 2004, pp. 277-304.

literature

  • Günther Schilling . In: Hans Wagemann (Ed.): From the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences to Berlin to the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR. A contribution to the history of 1951–1991 . Verlag am Park Berlin 1991, pp. 440–443.
  • Wilhelm Römer: Günther Schilling. 65 years of age - 35 years of university teaching . In: personalia halensia. The science journal of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg. Special issue, 1996 edition, pp. 3-4 (with picture).
  • Contributions from plant nutrition research in Halle. Festschrift for the honorary colloquium for Professor Dr. agr. habil. Günther Schilling on the occasion of his retirement from active service in the Theodor-Roemer-Saal of the Faculty of Agriculture in Halle an der Saale on March 17, 1998. Editors: Wolfgang Merbach and Lutz Wittenmayer, Halle (Saale) 1998. - The commemorative publication contains greetings , one Laudation by Wolfgang Merbach, the text of the scientific lectures given there and a bibliography of the publications by G. Schilling (with picture).
  • Wolfgang Merbach and Wilhelm Römer: laudation. Prof. Dr. Guenther Schilling . In: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science Vol. 163, 2000, pp. 335-336 (with picture).
  • Wolfgang Merbach: Laudation for the festive event for the 50th anniversary of Prof. Dr. Schilling in Jena on July 3, 2007 . Communications from the German Society for Plant Nutrition in: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science Vol. 170, 2007, pp. 702–705.
  • Dieter Hoffmann:  Schilling, Günther . In: Who was who in the GDR? 5th edition. Volume 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Martin Luther University Halle: Martin Luther University mourns Günther Schilling - first freely elected rector after 1990. , press release, August 13, 2018.
  2. ↑ Dissertation: About the magnesium content of central German soils and its binding state .
  3. ↑ Habilitation thesis: The uptake of strontium, its distribution and its binding state in the plant .
  4. ↑ Member entry by Prof. Dr. Günther Schilling (with picture and CV) at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on July 20, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Schilling, Günther
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agricultural chemist in the field of physiology and nutrition of cultivated plants
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH August 8, 2018