Hans Peter Rusch

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Hans Peter Rusch (born November 29, 1906 in Goldap ( East Prussia ), † August 17, 1977 in southern France) was a German doctor and microbiologist and a pioneer in organic agriculture .

Life

Rusch spent his childhood and youth in East Prussia. He studied medicine at the University of Giessen and practiced as a gynecologist at the university clinic there from 1932 .

During the Second World War , Rusch served as a military doctor in Sicily .

After the war, Rusch found a job as a doctor at a cancer clinic in Lehrbach , where he and the bacteriologist A. Becker examined the function of bacteria with the aim of developing new drugs. The knowledge he gained from this flowed into an article published in 1950 with the title “The Cycle of Bacteria as Life Principle” in a medical journal.

In this article, the Swiss biologist, agricultural politician and leader of the Swiss farmers' homeland movement, Hans Müller, found the basis for a scientific approach to the problems of organic farming, whereupon he approached Rusch and was able to win him over for years of cooperation. In the early days of this cooperation, Rusch conducted research in a garage made available by a pharmacist in Herborn , in which a laboratory was set up, from which an important medical research institution developed over the years.

In this laboratory, Rusch examined the microbiological conditions of various soils and developed a test procedure named after him ("Rusch test"), which farmers and gardeners can use to determine soil fertility. The test determines the amount and quality of living matter in the soil, which chemical methods cannot do.

Rusch coined the concept of the "cycle of living matter" as the basis for all biological thinking and acting and, together with Hans Müller and his wife Maria, developed the organic farming theory based on their work on the care of the soil and the preservation of its long-term fertility was based. In Germany, these impulses led farmers, gardeners, vintners and beekeepers to join forces to form the Bioland Association for organic farming and to develop binding guidelines for organic farming.

Works

  • Tomorrow's science: lectures on conservation and Living Substance cycle . Küsnacht-Zurich 1955. unchanged. Neudr .: Inst. For Microecology, Herborn-Dill 1980, ISBN 3-923022-04-2
  • Soil Fertility - A Study of Ecological Thought . 7th edition Xanten 2004, ISBN 3-922201-45-8

swell

  • Iris Lehmann: The doctor who examined the soil . In: bioland, specialist magazine for organic farming, Mainz issue 02/2006

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rusch, Hans Peter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German doctor
DATE OF BIRTH November 29, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Goldap ( East Prussia )
DATE OF DEATH 17th August 1977
Place of death South France