Hans Foerster (chemist)

Hans Foerster

Hans Foerster: Trees in Berg and Mark , Berlin 1918, book cover of the first edition.

Hans Foerster (born September 10, 1864 in Pirna , † December 6, 1917 in Barmen ) was a German chemist and dendrologist and a promoter of the preservation of natural monuments .

Live and act

Foerster studied chemistry from 1884 to 1887 at the Grand Ducal Technical University in Karlsruhe, where he became a member of the Teutonia fraternity . He moved in 1887 to the University of Freiburg , where he in 1889 to Dr. phil. PhD on a subject in organic chemistry ; Title of his “multa cum laude” inaugural dissertation : Contributions to the knowledge of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane and its homologues , Freiburg 1889. Foerster got his first job as plant manager at the paint factory Wülfing, Dahl & Co. in Barmen, today a district of Wuppertal .

In 1910 Foerster was one of the founders of the Bergisch Committee for the Preservation of Natural Monuments .

From 1912 Foerster suffered from oral cancer, of which he died in 1917. Foerster was married and had two children. His son was the Radolfzell doctor Dr. Hans Foerster jun. (1894-1970).

Works

The "Dr. Foerster-Hülse “in Mittel-Grandchildren , photographed by Hans Foerster, reproduced in: Hans Foerster: Trees in Berg und Mark , 1918.

The "Dr. Foerster-Hülse ”approx. 1918 with a circumference of 1.45 m and a height of 10 m.

In addition to his dissertation, Foerster published numerous articles and essays in newspapers and specialist journals, which, however, did not deal with chemistry. His life's work is what he himself called the tree book , the manuscript of which with the original photographs are now in the archive of the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis . For the project, Foerster traveled and hiked through the Märkische and Bergisches Land and photographed, mapped and described “remarkable” trees. The work was published posthumously in 1918 and lists around 2,000 trees and their locations; 15 selected photographs serve as illustration. Foerster's work, which he carried out from 1911 until his death in 1917, formed the basis for later natural monument lists that were drawn up by the municipalities and the district as part of the implementation of the Reich Nature Conservation Act of 1935. A particularly striking example that Foerster dedicated himself to in his book is probably the oldest European holly in Germany. In Foerster's own words: “Largest pod tree in the Rhine Province and, as far as the research so far, also all of Germany. Outstanding natural monument. ”Foerster discovered the tree on April 23, 1911 in the three-part town of Enkel, which today belongs to the municipality of Kürten . He photographed it, estimated its age at "700–800 years" and measured a trunk circumference of 1.45 m and a height of 10 m and noted: "A seldom beautiful tree with a smooth trunk and smooth-edged and laurel-like leaves". Hugo Conwentz , Head of the State Agency for Natural Monument Preservation in Prussia , baptized the tree on April 8, 1913 in the presence of the discoverer with the name “Dr. Foerster sleeve ”. The tree still stands today.

Web links

The Book of Trees , archive of the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis; Online (PDF)
H. Loesener: Hans Foerster. Obituary , presented at the meeting on December 21, 1917, in: Negotiations of the Botanical Association for the Province of Brandenburg 60 (1918), pp. 125–130; Online (PDF)

Individual evidence

^ Georg Kirschner: Directory of members of the Karlsruhe Burschenschaft Teutonia . 1966.
↑ A gnarled rarity for hundreds of years , report in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger by Claus Boelen-Theile, issue of October 24, 2018, page 36
^ Entry in the German National Library
↑ Markus Wolter: The Radolfzeller medical profession in National Socialism. The case study Dr. med. Hans Foerster (1894-1970) , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 138 (2020), Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2020, pp. 157–192.
↑ List of scriptures see: H. Loesener: Hans Foerster. Obituary , presented at the session on December 21, 1917, in: Negotiations of the Botanical Association for the Province of Brandenburg 60 (1918), pp. 125–130, here pp. 128 ff .; Online (PDF) .
↑ Cf.: The Book of Trees , Archive of the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis; Online (PDF) .
↑ Hans Foerster: Trees in Berg and Mark and some adjacent parts of the country. Visited, measured and recorded , ed. from the Bergisches Komitee for Natural Monument Preservation, with 15 plates, Bornträger Verlag, Berlin 1918.

personal data
SURNAME	Foerster, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	German dendrologist
DATE OF BIRTH	September 10, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH	Pirna
DATE OF DEATH	December 6, 1917
Place of death	Barmen

[1] Georg Kirschner: Directory of members of the Karlsruhe Burschenschaft Teutonia . 1966.

[2] A gnarled rarity for hundreds of years , report in the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger by Claus Boelen-Theile, issue of October 24, 2018, page 36

[3] Entry in the German National Library

[4] Markus Wolter: The Radolfzeller medical profession in National Socialism. The case study Dr. med. Hans Foerster (1894-1970) , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 138 (2020), Thorbecke Verlag, Ostfildern 2020, pp. 157–192.

[5] List of scriptures see: H. Loesener: Hans Foerster. Obituary , presented at the session on December 21, 1917, in: Negotiations of the Botanical Association for the Province of Brandenburg 60 (1918), pp. 125–130, here pp. 128 ff .; Online (PDF) .

[6] Cf.: The Book of Trees , Archive of the Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis; Online (PDF) .

[7] Hans Foerster: Trees in Berg and Mark and some adjacent parts of the country. Visited, measured and recorded , ed. from the Bergisches Komitee for Natural Monument Preservation, with 15 plates, Bornträger Verlag, Berlin 1918.