Gustav Walz

Gustav Walz as director of the Hohenheim Agricultural Academy with his colleagues, around 1865

Gustav Walz with his wife Sophie geb. Schurr, around 1870

Gustav Walz , from 1853 von Walz , (born December 30, 1804 in Stuttgart , † October 30, 1876 ibid) was a German agricultural scientist . From 1850 to 1865 he was director of the agricultural and forestry academy in Hohenheim . He was the father of the benefactress and women's rights activist Mathilde Weber .

Live and act

Gustav Walz was a son of the Stuttgart pharmacist Ferdinand Friedrich Walz (1766–1816) and Maria Christina born from a wealthy family. Nagel (1770-1814). From 1821 he studied agriculture in Hohenheim, completed an agricultural apprenticeship on an estate in Silesia from 1823, returned to Hohenheim for six months in 1825 and then studied two semesters of natural sciences at the University of Tübingen . In 1828 he bought a 75 hectare estate near Ellwangen, which he managed himself. In 1842 he was appointed head of the first agricultural school founded in Württemberg in Ellwangen and was given the title of economics councilor .

From 1850 to 1865, Walz was director of the Hohenheim agricultural and forestry academy . He gave lectures on plant cultivation, agricultural management and agricultural construction. In 1853 he founded a scientific journal under the title "Mittheilungen aus Hohenheim". In the six booklets published up to 1865, several contributions came from his pen.

The second half of Walz's time as director was dominated by the disputes between the appendices and opponents of Justus von Liebig's teachings on agricultural chemistry . After Emil von Wolff, who had been teaching in Hohenheim since 1854 , had criticized Liebig's theory of nitrogen nutrition in plants in several articles, Liebig directed his attacks against the alleged backwardness and unscientific nature of the agricultural academies, especially against Hohenheim.

Walz has dealt with Liebig's theorems in several articles. On the basis of the results of Hohenheim field tests, he was able to prove that when applying scientific knowledge in agriculture, the economic conditions must also be taken into account. Liebig's polemical countermeasures, especially his criticism of the management of the Hohenheim estate, which is mainly based on manure fertilization , deeply offended Walz personally. This public dispute contributed to the fact that in 1865 he asked the Württemberg king to dismiss him from his office.

During his retirement, Walz mainly dealt with agricultural economic issues. In 1867 the Cotta'sche Buchhandlung in Stuttgart published his extensive textbook " Landwirthschaftliche Betriebslehre ". A second edition of this work, edited by his son-in-law Heinrich von Weber , appeared in 1878, two years after his death.

Ennoblement

Gustav rolling in 1853 with the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown excellent, which with the personal title of nobility ( ennoblement was connected).

Main publications

• About the forest litter. For the heart of agriculture and forestry . Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart 1850, 2nd edition 1870.
• On the nutrition of agricultural plants. An illumination of the 50 theses of Baron Justus von Liebig from the agricultural side . Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart 1857 = communications from Hohenheim, volume 3.
• The mineral spoonbill and the stick spoonbill in agriculture . In addition to an illumination of the latest chemical letters from Baron Justus von Liebig from Emil Wolff. Cotta'sche Buchhandlung Stuttgart 1858 = messages from Hohenheim, issue 4.
• Defense against attacks by Baron Justus von Liebig on the Hohenheim business enterprise . In: Communications from Hohenheim . No. 6, 1865, pp. 1–61 and 119–129.
• Agricultural management . Cotta'sche Buchhandlung, Stuttgart 1867; Second edition, reviewed by Heinrich Weber and enlarged many times over, ibid. 1878.

literature

• Theodor Schott :  Walz, Gustav . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 41, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1896, pp. 129-131.
• Ulrich Thomas: Gustav Walz. Farmer and director of the agricultural and forestry academy Hohenheim 1804-1876 . In: Life pictures from Swabia and Franconia . Volume 9, 1963, pp. 277-301 (with picture).
• Günther Franz : Liebig and Hohenheim . Rector's speech. Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1963 = Agricultural University of Hohenheim. Speeches and Papers No. 15.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hohenheim's directors, rectors and presidents ( memento of the original from March 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Manual 1862, p. 43.