George Sessous

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George Sessous (born July 25, 1876 in Berlin , † May 25, 1962 in Gießen ) was a German crop scientist.

Life path

Sessous, son of a Huguenot family who immigrated to Germany in the 17th century , studied agriculture in Berlin, Bonn and Jena. In 1900 he became a member of the Corps Agronomia Jena. In 1903 he was awarded a doctorate degree at the University of Jena with a dissertation on the nitrogen losses caused by fertilization with ammonia salts phil. PhD. He then worked as an assistant in the botanical department of the agricultural research station in Jena. From 1906 to 1911 he was the seed breeding manager at the Heinrich Mette company in Quedlinburg .

In 1912 Sessous got a job in the Reich Colonial Office and went to the German protected area of Samoa as an agricultural expert . During the occupation of Samoa by the New Zealanders in 1914, he fell into civilian captivity. In 1919 he succeeded Theodor Roemer as the seed breeding director at the world-famous seed breeding company F. Strube in Schlanstedt (Saxony). In 1926 he followed a call to the University of Giessen . He took over the chair for arable and crop production, which he held until 1946. From 1926 to 1938 he was also the managing director of all individual agricultural institutes that had emerged from the former Agricultural Institute of the University of Giessen after the end of the First World War.

Research priorities

Sessous was one of the classic representatives of plant cultivation, who always considered plant breeding as a branch of their subject. His favorite research objects throughout his life were sugar beets or fodder beets and soybeans . He found high recognition in the professional world for his fundamental field tests to test the possibilities of growing soybeans in Central European climatic regions. For many years, Sessous was considered the leading German soybean grower. Since 1935 he was chairman of the “Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft Pflanzenbau”. In 1940 he headed the 1st Reich Conference on Plant Cultivation in Breslau.

honors and awards

In recognition of his services to the expansion of the agricultural institutes as well as the continued existence of agricultural sciences at the University of Giessen after the Second World War, the Senate of the Justus Liebig University of Giessen awarded him the title of Honorary Senator in 1951. He received further honors by being awarded the gold plaque from the Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Forests, the silver honorary plaque from the Hessian minister of agriculture and the Max Eyth medal in silver from the German Agricultural Society.

Fonts (selection)

  • Plant breeding and its importance for the self-sufficiency of the German people . Writings of the Hessian universities. University of Giessen born 1935, volume 1. - Zugl. as a separate brochure Gießen 1936.
  • Climate and soil and their importance for well-planned agriculture geared towards food supply . In: Raumforschung und Raumordnung Vol. 1, 1937, pp. 313-320.
  • Breeding work and culture experiments with the soybean . In: Research for people and freedom of food = Der Forschungsdienst, special issue 8, 1938, pp. 297-300.
  • Several posts on seeds and grains . In: Geo A. Schmidt and August Marcus: Handbook of tropical and subtropical agriculture, 2 volumes, Berlin 1943.

literature

  • Arnold Scheibe: George Sessous for his 75th birthday . In: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 93, 1951, pp. 397-399 (with picture).
  • Ludwig Pielen: Address on the 80th birthday of Prof. Dr. George Sessous . In: Nachrichten der Gießener Hochschulgesellschaft Vol. 25, 1956, pp. 74–79.
  • Eduard von Boguslawski: George Sessous † . In: Nachrichten der Gießener Hochschulgesellschaft Vol. 31, 1962, pp. 20-22 (with picture).
  • Arnold Scheibe: George Sessous (1876-1962) agricultural scientist . In: Gießen scholars in the first half of the 20th century. Edited by Hans Georg Gundel , Peter Moraw and Volker Press. Part 2 (Publications of the Historical Commission for Hesse 35. Pictures of Life from Hesse, Vol. 2). Marburg 1982, pp. 856-865 (with picture).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Erwin Willmann (Ed.): Directory of the old Rudolstädter Corps students. (AH. List of the RSC.) , 1928 edition, No. 4597
personal data
SURNAME Sessous, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German crop scientist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH May 25, 1962
Place of death to water