Gustav Adolf Küppers

Gustav Adolf Küppers (born May 21, 1894 in Krefeld , † June 30, 1978 in Müden , Örtze ) was a German agricultural scientist and Jerusalem artichoke grower .

Youth and apprenticeship years

Gustav Adolf Küppers, son of an innkeeper, attended the secondary school in Krefeld , which he left with the Abitur at Easter 1914 . Immediately afterwards he enrolled as a student at the University of Göttingen . He studied philology and attended agricultural lectures . At the same time, he completed his military training as a one-year volunteer. In August 1914 he moved to France with an infantry regiment, and two months later to East Prussia. There he was badly wounded. In December 1914, his left leg had to be amputated.

He gave up his wish to become a pastor. He was looking for a new home in a natural cultural landscape and found it in the southern Lüneburg Heath . In 1915 he bought his own piece of land in the Wietzetal near Müden , built a log house and cultivated the slopes he called "Sonnenberg". In 1916 he published a volume of poetry entitled “ I go through night and sunshine ” . From 1918 he published several papers on current problems with the acquisition of his own land and on the forms of settlements in Germany.

Studied in Berlin

As the father of seven children (from his first marriage), Küppers repeatedly had difficulties earning a living for his large family. The barren heather soils on his Sonnenberg did not produce the expected natural yields every year. His long-term plan of one day being able to deal with the entire settlement system in Germany with scientific methods was therefore not fulfilled until 1926. Friends from Berlin obtained the necessary financial means for university studies through the student union .

From 1926 to 1931 Küppers studied economics at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin and obtained his dissertation “ Deutsche Siedlung. Overall representation of the German settlement system in all forms and varieties “the political science doctorate . In his work, he classified the forms of settlement in Germany according to various criteria and also indicated perspectives for the further development of the settlement system.

Journalist and explorer

From 1933 Küppers initially worked as a freelance journalist . On behalf of the Berlin Museum of Ethnology, he undertook several research trips to the Balkan countries from 1935 to 1939 , where he carried out ethnological and anthropological studies. Of the writings on the results of his travels, the following should be emphasized: “ The Danube Swabians and their environment ” (1935) and “one- legged at the wheel. A trip to the Balkans ”(1937). Küppers also worked as a radio reporter at times. Due to his profound knowledge of the Balkans, he was hired as a Balkan advisor to the Wehrwirtschaftsstab of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) during the Second World War .

Jerusalem artichoke grower

Küppers has made a name for himself far beyond the borders of Germany with the breeding, cultivation and uses of Jerusalem artichoke , a cultivated plant related to the sunflower. After 1946, under difficult economic conditions, he built a breeding garden on his Sonnenberg and in 1947 founded the "Tobinambur-Saatzucht Niedersachsen". He bred numerous new varieties.

He published his knowledge and his own profound experience with this cultivated plant in a large number of articles as well as in a self-published "Leaflet Series Topinambur". Despite his tireless commitment to this cultivated plant, the importance of Tobinambur in cultivation in Germany has remained relatively low.

Küppers also published several writings on general questions about life and the development of prosperity in Germany . His “ Lebensgender Garten ” (1948, 1987), a book with noteworthy ideas and advice for garden owners, is still considered highly topical in specialist circles .

Publications (selection)

• I go through night and sunshine. Seals . Sis Verlag , Zeitz 1916
• Own land . Arbor. Dresden 1918
• From academic to settler. Adventure and experiences . German country bookshop. Berlin 1924.
• The treasure in the field ... A word on the question of the German settlement and the general occidental situation . Dr. Theodor Fach, Wiesbaden 1929.
• Sun children. Narration . Safari, Berlin 1930.
• German settlement. Idea and reality. Overall representation of the German settlement system in all forms and varieties . State Science Diss. Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin 1933. - Published under the same title for the book trade by the publishing house "Die Grundstücks-Warte" Berlin 1933.
• The Danube Swabians and their environment. Experiences and insights from a folklore study trip in the summer of 1935 . Trebbin, Kr.Teltow 1935.
• One-legged at the wheel. A trip to the Balkans. Three months with the Hanomag record on difficult and difficult paths . Trebbin, Kr.Teltow 1937.
• Tobinambur. Cultivation and possibility of use. What is worth knowing from theory and practice . Land book, Hanover 1947.
• Life giver garden. A book for a new understanding of the garden and successful gardening practice . Kinau, Lüneburg 1948; 2nd edition, ibid. 1987.
• Overview of the breeding attempts on the Tobinambur up to World War II . In: Journal for Plant Breeding Vol. 31, 1952, pp. 196-217.
• On the history of the Tobinambur . In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology, Vol. 4, 1956, pp. 43–49.
• Prosperity? Dangers, conditions, possibilities for the fiction of a free market economy. Ideas for wealth development. A contribution to the discussion . Self-published by the author Müden / Oertze 1963.

literature

• Christoph Pätzold: The Tobinambur as an agricultural crop . Published by the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forests. Bonn 1957. - In the bibliography 66 articles by GA Küppers on Tobinambur and other field fruits, pp. 122–125.
• Dr. Gustav Adolf Küppers, Sonnenberg, 65 years old . In: Communications from the German Agricultural Society Vol. 74, 1959, p. 666.
• AH: As a hermit in the heath. On the death of the well-known plant breeder Dr. GA Küppers-Sonnenberg . In: Cellesche Zeitung Vol. 162, No. 154 of July 6, 1978, p. 6.