Heinrich Mayr

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Heinrich Mayr (born October 29, 1854 in Landsberg am Lech ; † January 24, 1911 in Munich ) was a German forest scientist who emerged primarily as a forest botanist . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Mayr ".

Live and act

Heinrich Mayr was the son of the royal Bavarian forest clerk Clemens Mayr, who last worked as chief forester in the Grafrath district . After attending the humanistic Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Munich, he studied for two years in Aschaffenburg . He then completed a one-year political economy course at the University of Munich . There he also joined the Akademischer Gesangverein München (AGV) and was finally employed as a "forest assistant" in the Upper Bavarian Alpine Foreland.

After he had passed the state bankruptcy in 1880, as the second state examination in Bavaria was called at the time, he worked for the next six years as an assistant to the well-known forest scientist and mycologist Robert Hartig in the botanical department of the Forest Research Institute (FVA). In Hartig, he was also a drafted in Latin dissertation on the two parasitic birch - Porlinge Polyporus betulinus and Polyporus laevigatus doctorate . Already in 1884 the habilitation followed with the comparative anatomical study of the origin and distribution of the secretion organs of the spruce and larch .

Ministerialrat August von Ganghofer then granted him leave and a grant for a trip around the world, which took Mayr to North America (where he met Karl Ludloff, among others ) and Japan . He wanted to explore the possibilities for the introduction of economically important American and Japanese tree species to Germany and Europe . On the way home, his journey took him through Japan, China , Java and British India . From 1888 to 1891 Mayr then read the subject “Botany” at the Academy of Agriculture and Forestry in Tokyo and got to know the flora of Japan during this time. He processed the knowledge gained on his travels and as a lecturer in the books The forests of North America, their types of wood, their cultivability and forestry value for Europe in general and Germany in particular (1890), monograph of the Abietinees of the Japanese Empire ( firs , spruces , tsugen , Larches and pines ). In systematic, geographical and forestry relation (1890) and From the forests of Japan. Contributions to the assessment of the cultivability and value of Japanese wood species in the German forest and suggestions for the cultivation of the same in forestry culture (1891). In these books he also formulated clear warnings against the exploitation and devastation of the forests in the USA , as they were still common at that time.

With these works, Mayr had earned such a good reputation that the State Economics Faculty of the University of Munich appointed its private lecturer as his successor to the chair for silviculture and forest production theory after Karl Gayer's retirement in 1892 . Together with Robert Hartig, he set up a forest experimental garden for foreign tree species in the Grafrath teaching area. On trips to Europe he deepened his knowledge of the origins of forest seeds. In 1902 he went on his third trip around the world with Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria and his family. This resulted in Mayr's book, Foreign Forest and Park Trees for Europe (1906), with his own drawings , which enjoyed great popularity.

Mayr not only acted as chairman of the Bavarian Horticultural Society, but also corresponded with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and numerous foreign forest associations. Its good reputation also attracted students from abroad, among them Aimo Kaarlo Cajander and Walter Schädelin .

But when Mayr, who had been used to success to date, wanted to revise Gayer's ideas about silviculture and to do so in his teaching and manual silviculture on the basis of natural law published in 1909, he moved away from his forest harvest theory and suggested replacing Gayer's eyrie and group farming with small-scale farming, arose immediately a storm of criticism. Forestry practitioners recognized it as "an extreme contempt for economic rules". Although Mayr's controversial work saw a second edition in 1925, he was denied sustainable success in applied silviculture.

On January 19, 1911, he suffered a stroke on his chair , of which he died five days later. Mayr found his final resting place in the Munich forest cemetery . He left two sons and two daughters.

Fonts (selection)

  • Polyporus betulinus and Polyporus laevigatus, two parasites of the birch , dissertation, Kassel 1884 (separate print from the Botanical Centralblatte Volume XIX, 1884)
  • Origin and distribution of the secretion organs of the spruce and larch. A comparative anatomical study , habilitation thesis, (separate reprint from Botanisches Centralblatt , Volume XX / 1884), Kassel 1885
  • The forests of North America, their types of wood, their cultivability and forestry value for Europe in general and Germany in particular , Munich 1890 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.44999
  • Monograph of the abietinees of the Japanese Empire (firs, spruces, tsugen, larches and pines). In a systematic, geographical and forestry relationship , Munich 1890
  • From the groves of Japan. Contributions to the assessment of the cultivability and the value of Japanese wood species in the German forest and suggestions for the cultivation of the same in the forestry culture , Munich 1891
  • as processor: The resin of the conifers. Its origin, distribution, meaning and acquisition. For forest men, botanists and technicians , (reprint from Zeitschrift für Forst- und Jagdwesen , 1893), Berlin 1894
  • Results of forest cultivation trials with Japanese, Indian, Russian and more rare American types of wood in Bavaria , In: Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt , 20/1898, Hamburg 1898
  • Foreign forest and park trees for Europe , Berlin 1906 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.30017
  • Silviculture based on natural law. A teaching and manual , Berlin 1909 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.36351 doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.29675 (2nd edition Berlin 1925)

In addition, from the 9th edition (1903) onwards, he was also the editor of Karl Gayer's The Forest Usage ( doi: 10.5962 / bhl.title.20737 ).

See also

  • Heinrich von Mayr (1806–1871), German oriental, genre, battle and horse and cabinet painter for Duke Maximilian in Bavaria

literature

  • Heinrich Rubner : Heinrich Mayr . In other words: Hundreds of important foresters in Bavaria (1875 to 1970) . Messages from the State Forestry Administration of Bavaria. Bavarian State Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forests, Munich 1994, pp. 239–241
  • Robert Zander : Zander concise dictionary of plant names. Edited by Fritz Encke , Günther Buchheim, Siegmund Seybold . 13th, revised and expanded edition. Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-8001-5042-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b c Heinrich Rubner: Hundreds of important Bavarian forest people (1875 to 1970) . Munich 1994, p. 239
  2. ↑ a b c d Heinrich Rubner: Hundreds of important forest people in Bavaria (1875 to 1970) . Munich 1994, p. 240


personal data
SURNAME Mayr, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German botanist
DATE OF BIRTH October 29, 1854
PLACE OF BIRTH Landsberg am Lech
DATE OF DEATH January 24, 1911
Place of death Munich