Gerhard Michael

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Gerhard Michael

Gerhard Michael (born March 25, 1911 in Magdeburg ; † December 24, 2004 in Stuttgart ) was a German agricultural chemist in the field of plant nutrition . Taking into account knowledge, ways of thinking and experimental methods of the natural sciences, he has further developed core areas of the traditional teaching of mineral fertilization to a biochemically oriented physiology of crop yields in the Institute for Plant Nutrition .

Life

Gerhard Michael, the son of a master watchmaker, passed the school leaving examination at the Guericke secondary school in Magdeburg in 1930 and then studied chemistry and botany at the Universities of Halle (Saale) and Berlin . In 1935 he received his PhD from the plant physiologist Kurt Noack in Berlin with a dissertation on the breakdown of chlorophyll and protein in yellowing leaves. phil. PhD. In the following year he worked at the Botanical Institute of the University of Leipzig with Wilhelm Ruhland on a research assignment on the physiology of " potato cultivation " and thus found connection to one of the most important German schools in experimental plant physiology. Another year of research with studies on resin extraction from pines followed at the Institute for Technology and Goods Science at the Königsberg / Pr.

In March 1937 Michael took on an assistant position at the Institute for Plant Nutrition and Soil Biology at the University of Berlin , headed by Fritz Giesecke . In 1941 he qualified as a professor at the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Berlin with a paper on the absorption and distribution of magnesium and its role in the higher green plant. He received the Venia legendi for the fields of plant nutrition and soil biology . In 1942 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht.

After returning from captivity, Michael resumed his interrupted lecturing activity at the Institute for Plant Nutrition and Soil Biology at the University of Berlin in 1946 . In 1947 he accepted the call to the Friedrich Schiller University Jena as a professor with a chair for agricultural chemistry and director of the Agricultural-Chemical Institute. There he was head of the agricultural department in the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. After founding the Faculty of Agriculture in Jena in 1953, he was elected Vice Dean. From May 1959 he was director of the chemical-physiological department at the Institute for Crop Plant Research Gatersleben of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin.

Due to the increasing political influence of the SED and the state leadership on the universities, Michael saw his intellectual freedom and the independence of teaching and research no longer guaranteed. In 1960 he left the GDR . In the same year he took a call to the Department of Plant Nutrition and Soil Biology at the Agricultural University of Hohenheim on (since 1967 University of Hohenheim), which he until his retirement held in 1976th During the period of office 1964/65 he was dean there.

Research and Teaching

The focus of Michael's research work in Jena was on questions about the absorption of mineral nutrients by the plant roots , in particular their ability to select depending on the availability of the nutrients in the soil. At the beginning Michael preferred to deal with problems of phosphate nutrition, as well as implemented the knowledge about the magnesium supply of cultivated plants already developed in his Berlin habilitation thesis in concrete fertilization recommendations for the practice of arable farming. He later investigated, among other things, the fertilization effects of sulfur during the growth of agricultural crops as well as the behavior of organic substances and nitrogen dynamics in arable soils.

A characteristic of Michael's experimental work was the constant endeavor to make methods of the natural sciences usable for agricultural research fields, which are mainly oriented towards practical application. Michael was one of the first agricultural scientists in Germany to study the movement of nutrient and harmful elements in plants and soils using isotope technology . This applied not only to his research on the selective uptake of the cations Ca , Sr , K , Cs and Rb , but also to the stable 15N isotope when tracking the amount and composition of the proteins in the grain of the nitrogen fertilizer applied at different times .

During his time in Jena, Michael published several comprehensive articles on sub-areas of plant nutrition . He edited Volume IV, The Mineral Nutrition of the Plant (1958) , for the Handbuch der Pflanzenphysiologie published by Wilhelm Ruhland and colleagues . One of the noteworthy contributions on this subject is his lecture published in 1959 in the meeting reports of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin on the ability of plants to choose when it comes to mineral intake .

In Hohenheim, Michael developed the traditional theory of plant nutrition more and more in the direction of a biochemically oriented yield physiology . The focus was on studies of the role of phytohormones as control elements of growth and yield formation in cultivated plants. An important area of ​​work was the regulation of substance storage in ripening cereal grains and the influence of environmental factors on the ripening process. Within the framework of the priority program of the German Research Foundation initiated and led by him, “Storage processes and their regulation in cultivated plants”, representatives of basic and applied sciences worked together on an interdisciplinary basis and published over 80 scientific articles between 1968 and 1983.

Michael was able to inspire many diploma and doctoral students as well as colleagues from related disciplines for these yield physiological research questions . Noteworthy publications were also made in the Collaborative Research Center of the German Research Foundation (DFG), which existed at the University of Hohenheim from 1972 to 1987, "On improving the quality of agricultural products" (SFB 142), in which Michael played a key role as a representative of the DFG and as a member of the staff.

The list of publications Michaels includes 297 scientific papers. He published most of the results of his experimental research work in the “ Journal for Soil Science and Plant Nutrition ”. From 1951 to 1974 he was co-editor and editor-in-chief of this trade journal, whose scientific profile he played a key role in shaping.

As an emeritus , Michael remained connected to his scientific field and the University of Hohenheim. In a small attic room (“ Emeritage ”) of the Institute for Plant Nutrition and Soil Biology, he maintained close contact with students and colleagues for many years and dealt with theoretical aspects of yield physiology , particularly with the ideas about the formation of root hairs . His contribution “ Ideas about the regulation of root hair formation ” from 1990, one of his last publications, is considered a classic example of how an idea arises, how knowledge from one's own life and hypotheses can be used for science.

In addition to his work as a scientist, the academic training and student support has always been a central concern of Michael. He viewed the university not only as a place of professional instruction, but also, in the spirit of Wilhelm von Humboldt, as the highest educational institution that shapes people's lives. As a university lecturer, he was guided by the motto of Georg Christoph Lichtenberg : "Do not teach forever what people think, but how they should think". Michael led 38 doctoral students to PhD . In addition, he initiated and sponsored eight post-doctoral qualifications .

honors and awards

Publications (selection)

  • About the relationship between chlorophyll and protein breakdown in the yellowing foliage of Tropaeolum . Diss. Phil. Univ. Berlin 1935. - Zugl. in: Zeitschrift für Botanik Vol. 29, 1935, pp. 385-425.
  • About the absorption and distribution of magnesium and its role in the higher green plant . Habil.-Schr. Univ. Berlin 1941. - Zugl. in: Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, Vol. 25, 1941, pp. 65-120.
  • About the binding state of phosphoric acid in Thuringian shell limestone and red sandstone weathered soils . In: Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Vol. 61, 1953, pp. 118–129.
  • About the magnesium supply of central German arable soils (together with G. Schilling). In: Journal for plant nutrition, fertilization and soil science, Vol. 79 (124), 1957, pp. 31-50.
  • Investigations on the phosphate deposition from plant roots with the help of 32P (together with H. Marschner). In: Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Vol. 80, 1958, pp. 1-18.
  • The mineral diet of the plant . Handbook of Plant Physiology. Published by Wilhelm Ruhland et al., Springer Verlag Berlin-Göttingen-Heidelberg, Volume IV, 1958, edited by Gerhard Michael.
  • About the choice of plants in terms of mineral intake . Meeting reports of the German Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Berlin Vol. 8, Issue 4, 1959.
  • Influence of fertilization on protein quality and protein fractions of the food plants . In: Qualitas Plantarum et Materiae Vegetabiles Vol. 10, 1963, pp. 248-265.
  • About the contribution of phytohormones to the regulation of the storage processes in the grain . In: Reports of the German Botanical Society, Vol. 97, 1984, pp. 151-165.
  • Ideas about the regulation of root hair formation . In: Kali-Briefe (Büntehof) Vol. 20 (5), 1990, pp. 411-429.
  • The control of root hair formation: suggested mechanisms . In: Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Vol. 164, 2001, pp. 111–119.
  • Gerhard Michael tells from his life - childhood, training, assistant and lecturer at the Berlin University . Edited by Brigitte Michael. Private printing Stuttgart 2008.

literature

  • H. Marschner: Professor Dr. Dr. hc Gerhard Michael on his 70th birthday . In: Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science Vol. 144, 1981, H. 1, before p. 1 (I – II).
  • B. Parthier: Prof. Dr. hc Gerhard Michael on his 80th birthday . In: Leopoldina, Jahrbuch 1991, series 3, vol. 37, 1992, pp. 44–46.
  • W. Merbach, H. Beringer and W. Horst: Editorial. Contribution to the 90th birthday of Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Gerhard Michael . In: Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science Vol. 164, H. 3, 2001, p. 109 (with picture).
  • Heiner E. Goldbach: Obituary Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Gerhard Michael . In: Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science, Vol. 168, 2005, pp. 284–285 (with picture).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Michael, Gerhard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agricultural chemist and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Magdeburg
DATE OF DEATH December 24, 2004
Place of death Stuttgart