Hermann Cuckoo

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Hermann Kuckuck (born September 7, 1903 in Berlin , † December 22, 1992 in Hanover ) was a German plant geneticist and breeding researcher . As a full professor of applied genetics, he taught from 1954 to 1969 at the Faculty of Horticulture at Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University in Hanover .

Life path

Hermann Kuckuck, son of a Spandau city architect, attended the humanistic Kaiserin-Augusta-Gymnasium in Berlin-Charlottenburg from 1910. In 1922 he passed the Abitur . From 1923 to 1925 he completed an agricultural apprenticeship in East Prussia . He then began studying at the Agricultural University in Berlin . Under the aegis of the crop researcher Elisabeth Schiemann , he received his doctorate there in 1930 with a dissertation on the breeding of winter types in barley . He then worked as a scientific assistant at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Breeding Research in Müncheberg . From 1934 to 1945 he was a member of the National Socialist People's Welfare (NSV), from 1934 to 1935 a sponsoring member of the SS and from 1935 to 1940 a member of the German Labor Front (DAF). In 1936 he was dismissed for political reasons along with Hans Stubbe and Rudolf Schick .

In the following four years Kuckuck worked as a seed breeding manager for vegetable and flower seed breeding at the August Haubner company in Eisleben and from 1940 until the end of the Second World War in the same position for a seed breeding company in East Prussia . In 1942 he obtained the venia legendi for plant genetics and plant breeding at the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Berlin without submitting a habilitation thesis (cumulative habilitation) . However, he was not offered a lectureship.

After a dramatic escape from East Prussia, Kuckuck found another job in June 1945 at the Haubner seed breeding company in Eisleben. In 1946 he was appointed professor and director of the Institute for Plant Breeding of the newly founded Faculty of Agriculture at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg . In 1948 he was appointed director of the Central Research Institute for Plant Breeding (Erwin Baur Institute) in Müncheberg, combined with a personal professorship for plant breeding at the Humboldt University in Berlin .

Kuckuck did not always agree with the research directives of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). He therefore ended his activity in Müncheberg at his own request, then worked as a visiting scientist in Svalöf ( Sweden ) and as a visiting lecturer at the Free University of Berlin and at the Hohenheim Agricultural University . In 1952 he went to Iran on behalf of the United Nations as an FAO expert on plant breeding . There he worked as a consultant and carried out collecting trips to conserve genetic resources .

In 1954, Kuckuck accepted a call from the Technical University of Hanover . At the Faculty of Horticulture, he took over the management of the Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding as a full professor of genetics . In 1960/61 he was dean of the horticultural faculty at the TH Hannover. He worked here until his retirement in 1969. As a “retired person”, he played a major role in the development of the German crop plant genebank in Braunschweig - Völkenrode . From 1971 to 1977 he was chairman of the gene bank committee there. From 1976 to 1978 he was acting head of the plant genetics department of the Society for Radiation and Environmental Research in Grünbach (Upper Bavaria).

Research and Teaching

Kuckuck was proficient in applied genetics and plant breeding . With the breeding of registered varieties ( runner beans , tomatoes , radishes ) he has also made a name for himself as a practical plant breeder. His life's work was strongly influenced by Erwin Baur and Elisabeth Schiemann . For Kuckuck, the fundamentals of theoretical genetics were therefore the key to scientifically founded plant breeding.

Kuckuck also documented his ideas of genetics as the basis of plant breeding in the name of his university institute at the Technical University of Hanover: In 1962 he replaced the previous name, Institute for Horticultural Plant Breeding, with the name Institute for Applied Genetics . In this institute he promoted groundbreaking research in the field of hybrid breeding , primarily in vegetables, flowers and ornamental plants.

Kuckuck recognized the importance of the genetically determined diversity of forms of wild and cultivated plants for practical plant breeding at an early stage. On research trips to Asian countries, he collected genetic resources from cereal species. He became the decisive pioneer for the establishment of a cultivated plant gene bank in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Kuckuck wrote several books on plant breeding. His first work, Von der Wildpflanze zur Kulturpflanze , published in 1934, deserves special mention . As a textbook author , he gained international renown with the work Basics of Plant Breeding , of which five editions were published between 1939 and 1985, followed by translations in several languages. Kuckuck's book Development and Problems of Modern Plant Breeding. Mendel and Lyssenko from 1951 contains articles on the development of plant breeding in Germany between 1919 and 1939 and a thoughtful study on the academic training of plant breeders. From 1946 to 1976 Kuckuck was editor or co-editor of the magazine Der Züchter and from 1959 to 1976 of the magazine for plant breeding .

The farewell lecture on teaching and research in plant breeding given by Kuckuck on the occasion of his retirement in 1969 is not only a review of his teaching and research activities at the Technical University of Hanover, but also a contribution to the understanding of the discipline of plant breeding that is still relevant today. His autobiography , published in 1988 by the Berlin publisher Paul Parey under the title Change and Resistance in the Life of a Plant Breeder, is considered a highly informative book for the history of science in the agricultural sector.

honors and awards

Main publications

  • The emergence of winter types after crossing summer types in barley. In: Journal for inductive descent and inheritance. Vol. 53, 1929, pp. 1-25 (dissertation, Agricultural University Berlin, 1930).
  • From the wild plant to the cultivated plant. The importance of natural and artificial selection for the emergence of new plant breeds . Metzner, Berlin 1934; 2nd improved edition ibid. 1943.
  • Plant breeding (= Göschen Collection . Vol. 1134). De Gruyter Berlin 1939; 2nd revised edition ibid. 1944: 3rd completely revised and expanded edition ibid. 1952; 4th completely revised and expanded edition from now on under the title Principles of Plant Breeding (= Göschen Collection. Vol. 7134). Ibid. 1972; 5th, revised and expanded edition together with Gerd Kobabe and Gerhard Wenzel, ibid. 1985. Edition in Japanese 1986; Hungarian edition 1988. English edition entitled Fundamentals of Plant Breeding . Springer, Berlin 1991; Reprint: Narosa Publishing House, New Delhi 1993.
  • with Alois Mudra: Textbook of general plant breeding (= Agricultural Science. Vol. 3). Hirzel, Stuttgart 1950.
  • Development and problems of modern plant breeding. Mendel and Lyssenkow. Parey, Berlin 1951.
  • Special horticultural plant breeding (= Göschen Collection. Vol. 1178 / 1178a). De Gruyter, Berlin 1957; 2nd edition under the title Horticultural Plant Breeding. Breeding of vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants. Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1979.
  • with Gerd Kobabe: kitchen onion (Allium cepa L.). In: Handbook of Plant Breeding. 2nd Edition. Volume 6, Verlag Paul Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1962, pp. 270-312.
  • Teaching and research in plant breeding. In: Seed Industry. Jg. 22, 1970, pp. 250-255 and 292–296 (farewell lecture on the occasion of his retirement in 1969).
  • Change and persistence in a plant breeder's life. Parey, Berlin / Hamburg 1988 (autobiography, with list of publications).

literature

  • Elisabeth Schiemann : Hermann Kuckuck on the 60th birthday. In: Journal of Plant Breeding. Vol. 50, 1963, pp. 1-8 (with picture).
  • Gerhard Fischbeck : Honorary doctorate (Dr. agr. Hc) as part of a ceremony of the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture on December 8, 1978: Prof. Dr. agr. habil. Hermann Cuckoo. In: Yearbook 1979 of the Technical University of Munich. Published by the Technical University of Munich and the Association of Friends of the Technical University of Munich [1980], pp. 84–87.
  • Hermann Cuckoo. In: Catalogus Professorum 1831–1981. Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the University of Hanover. Verlag W. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1981, vol. 2, p. 163 f. (with picture).
  • Wolfgang Böhm : Biographical manual on the history of crop production. Saur, Munich 1997, p. 171 f.
  • Walter Hondelmann: Hermann Kuckuck, Professor of Applied Genetics and gardening. Plant breeder. In: Biographical lexicon for the history of plant breeding (= lectures for plant breeding. Issue 50). Edited by Gerhard Röbbelen . 1st episode, Göttingen 2000, pp. 131–133 (with picture and list of publications).
  • Theophil Gerber: personalities from agriculture, forestry, horticulture and veterinary medicine. Biographical Lexicon. Nora, Berlin 2004, p. 406 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Harry Waibel : Servants of many gentlemen: Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 186.
personal data
SURNAME Cuckoo, Hermann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German plant geneticist and breeding researcher
DATE OF BIRTH September 7, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH 22nd December 1992
Place of death Hanover