Heinrich Hogrebe

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Memorial stone to Heinrich Hogrebe with plaque in the state forest of Burgholz

Heinrich Hogrebe (born June 22, 1913 in Bochum , † June 25, 1998 in Wuppertal ) was a German forester and officer. He became internationally known for his attempts to cultivate foreign tree species in the Burgholz state forest.

Live and act

Heinrich Hogrebe came from a respected family. His father, director of the school supervisory service, came from a forester's house and was a passionate hunter . He passed this passion on to the young Heinrich and his two brothers, one of whom also became a forest official within the North Rhine-Westphalian state forest administration.

Training and military career

Heinrich Hogrebe was born on June 22, 1913 in Bochum. After graduating from high school, he began training as a forest ranger , but also completed a year and a half course in Tharandt with Franz Heske with a final exam in colonial forestry . After that he had to do his military service and chose a military career. In 1934 Hogrebe joined the Jäger battalion in Goslar . Nevertheless, he still felt obliged to his forestry profession and in between took the district forester examination in Spangenberg .

Finally he switched to the Döberitz Army School , where he also saw the beginning of the Second World War . After being promoted to lieutenant on August 1, 1940, he joined the 422nd Infantry Regiment in October . With this he fought in the Soviet Union from June 1941 . On 22 June 1941 he was appointed chief of the 5th company and on April 1, 1942 active officer and captain promoted. For his services as a company commander, he received the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross on August 17, 1942 . Before that, on August 7th, he had become the commander of the 2nd Battalion . Since he also excellently fulfilled this management function, on April 13, 1944, as a major, he was awarded the oak leaves. He also received the Army Honorary Leaf Clasp and, as one of only 631 Wehrmacht soldiers, the Golden Close Combat Clasp .

Since Hogrebe was badly wounded in March 1944, he moved to Berlin after his recovery . After he had been given command of the guard battalion "Greater Germany" on September 1, 1944 , it was expanded to a regiment on October 1 and Hogrebe was its first commander. In the rank of lieutenant colonel , he and his regiment took part in the so-called battle for Berlin until the surrender . Even though Hogrebe retired from active military service severely injured after the end of the war, he was still in the Bundeswehr as a lieutenant colonel in the reserve until his death .

Pioneering dendrological work as a forester

After the war, Hogrebe embarked on a career in the higher forest service . After a forester working in East Westphalia , he moved to Wuppertal, where he in 1951 at the Küllenhahn located state district castle wood of the forest office Dusseldorf-Benrath (Forestry Office later Mettmann headed).

Due to the modest site conditions ( shale and greywacke ) and the rather uninteresting forest of its new mining area, he attacked the suggestion of a Forsteinrichters to try outlandish there tree species, like on. Especially since the cultivation of trees from other continents in the Burgholz had already started at the turn of the century, albeit not on a large area. Hogrebe became a member of the German Dendrological Society (DDG) and gained the necessary knowledge about the forest conditions in other parts of the world and about the location requirements and the capabilities of the local tree species on trips abroad and in constant contact with well-known experts. From this he then selected those that he considered most suitable for his territory, and from 1958 began to cultivate large-scale crops . He experimented among other deciduous trees like red oak and tulip tree , primarily but with conifers , including Douglas fir , Thuja plicata , incense cedar , Pacific silver fir , Abies grandis , Nikko fir , Japanese cedar , Western hemlock , and giant sequoia , coastal sequoia and redwood . This is how exotic forest landscapes were created in the Burgholz.

Exotic forest landscapes in Burgholz

This happened in part against considerable reservations and resistance from his superiors and various criticisms from colleagues. However, Hogrebe knew the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forests of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf by his side.

The start was anything but easy for silvicultural reasons. Because despite all his knowledge, Hogrebe, who was often on new forest territory, was not always able to assess exactly which starting conditions the individual tree species needed and whether the crops were successful. Fearing criticism from his colleagues and superiors, he had some of the plantings corrected as soon as the first signs of failure occurred, but this later turned out to be unnecessary because the trees that were initially planted were still growing. In the end, the overall cultures often turned out to be much too dense and sometimes based on a colorful mix of trees.

Colorful and varied forest images developed from Hogrebes cultures

This was also due to the fact that propagation material from foreign tree species was either not available at all or only as seeds or as cuttings . However, Hogrebe was fortunate that the Czechoslovak district forester Richard Pajonk was put at his side as an assistant. Pajonk - later the city forester of Velbert - had experience in growing trees. He put his talent for this into practice in Burgholzer Pflanzkamp , where cold frames were soon created for growing seedlings and propagating cuttings. By purchasing land, Hogrebe was also able to significantly expand and round off the Burgholz state forest . The construction of wild fences and other forest roads were necessary to establish and develop the culture .

The reputation of the Burgholz district soon spread far beyond Wuppertal and North Rhine-Westphalia and it developed into a meeting place for domestic and foreign dendrologists. Many silvicultural recommendations started there. Last but not least, Hogrebe's activity also laid the basis for the later planned foreign country trial cultivation of the State Forestry Administration of North Rhine-Westphalia. The experimental area he founded was officially recognized as such by the state forest administration at the beginning of the 1970s and later developed into an arboretum , which also met with great interest outside of the dendrological and forestry experts and gained great tourist value. As early as 1978, the Burgholz forestry district, including all of its individual plants, had more than 200 exotic species that grew on around 170 hectares of forest. Today (2007) the arboretum takes up around 250 hectares of the approximately 1000 hectare forestry district of Burgholz and is the largest recognized German experimental area for the cultivation of foreign woody plants.

Entrance to the Burgholz Arboretum at Zimmerplatz

Hogrebe also worked as a consultant outside the state forest administration. In total, he cultivated foreign tree species on more than 140 hectares in the Burgholz state forest and other locations in the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria. In doing so, he created an important fund for dendrological and silvicultural studies.

Heinrich Hogrebe published his findings mostly in the yearbooks " Mitteilungen" of the German Dendrological Society as well as in forestry journals . On the occasion of the excursion of the German Forest Association to the State Forestry Office in Düsseldorf-Benrath in September 1966, he put together a detailed treatise on foreign tree species in the Burgholz state forest ranger .

He himself recommended his successor as Burgholz district manager, Forestry Officer Herbert Dautzenberg, who took office on May 1, 1973. Until his early retirement in 1975, forestry officer Hogrebe was then seconded to the State Institute for Ecology, Landscape Development and Forest Planning North Rhine-Westphalia (LÖLF).

Heinrich Hogrebe was married and had three sons and two daughters.

Awards

literature

  • Dietrich Böhlmann: Obituary for Heinrich Hogrebe . In communications from the German Dendrological Society , No. 85/2000, pp. 5–7, ISBN 3-8001-8319-6 .
  • Herbert Dautzenberg, Klaus Offenberg, Ute Nolden-Seemann, Alfred Becker, Uta Schulte et al .: Burgholz. From the experimental area to the arboretum . Issue 11 of the publication series of the state forest administration of North Rhine-Westphalia. Published by the Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Agriculture and Consumer Protection of North Rhine-Westphalia / State Forestry Office Bergisch Gladbach-Königsforst, Düsseldorf 2000, 60 p., On Hogrebe: p. 9–11 ( online version as PDF file ( Memento from March 15, 2007 on the Internet Archives ))
  • NN: Heinrich Hogrebe on his 65th birthday . Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift, 33rd volume, issue 36/1978, p. 1033.
  • Gottfried Pöppinghaus, Becker: Heinrich Hogrebe is 70 years old . In: Der Forst- und Holzwirt , 38th year, issue 11/1983, pp. 283–284, ISSN  0015-7961

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Heinrich Hogrebe on his 65th birthday , AFZ 1978, p. 1033
  2. ↑ a b c d Burgholz. Von Versuchsrevier zum Arboretum , Düsseldorf 2000, pp. 9-11
  3. ↑ a b Heinrich Hogrebe is 70 years old , Der Forst- und Holzwirt 1983, pp. 283–284
  4. ↑ a b Veit Scherzer : Knight's Cross bearer 1939–1945. The holders of the Iron Cross of the Army, Air Force, Navy, Waffen-SS, Volkssturm and armed forces allied with Germany according to the documents of the Federal Archives. 2nd Edition. Scherzers Militaer-Verlag, Ranis / Jena 2007, ISBN 978-3-938845-17-2 , p. 401.
  5. ↑ Office of the Federal President
personal data
SURNAME Hogrebe, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forester and officer
DATE OF BIRTH June 22, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Bochum
DATE OF DEATH June 25, 1998
Place of death Wuppertal