Hermann Stremme

Hermann Stremme (born May 17, 1879 in Krefeld , † April 29, 1961 in Berlin ) was a German soil scientist . He mainly devoted himself to questions of soil type theory and developed methodologically groundbreaking soil maps .

Live and act

Hermann Stremme, son of a businessman, studied natural sciences , in particular chemistry, geology and mineralogy , at the universities of Bonn and Berlin . In 1903 he received his doctorate from the University of Berlin with a dissertation on aluminum silicates . He then worked as an assistant at the Geological-Paleontological Institute of the University of Berlin. In 1908 he completed his habilitation with a paper on kaolin formation . In 1912 he was appointed adjunct professor. From 1914 to 1945 he taught as a full professor of mineralogy and geology at the Technical University of Danzig . In November 1933 he signed the German professors' confession of Adolf Hitler . From 1947 to 1959 he was director of the Institute for Soil Mapping in Berlin, which had been subordinate to the GDR Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry since 1950 .

Stremme found his way to soil science through chemistry and geology . In Gdańsk, he mainly devotes himself to questions of soil type theory . In his book Basics of Practical Soil Science (1926) he turned against the one-sided geological orientation of soil science and tried to emphasize the practical use of soil science for plant cultivation. In 1927 he published a soil map of Europe drawn up together with 36 specialist colleagues. A map of the soils of the German Reich was created under his direction in 1936 . In 1937 Stremme published a large international soil map of Europe with colors for the biogenetic soil types on a scale of 1: 2,500,000.

Stremme has published many other soil maps, several papers and around 150 articles on soil science in handbooks and specialist journals. Noteworthy are his overview contributions in the "Handbuch der Bodenlehre" (1930 and 1932), as well as the work " The Soils of the German Democratic Republic " (1950) published together with his colleagues . From 1951 to 1958 he published the series "Bodenkunde und Bodenkultur". The German Soil Science Society appointed Stremme as an honorary member in 1954 in recognition of his significant services to soil science. On the occasion of his 80th birthday in 1959 he was awarded the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver.

tomb

He is buried in the cemetery of the Dorotheenstadt and Friedrichswerder communities in Berlin-Mitte.

Writings and contributions in manuals

• Basics of practical soil science . Publishing house by Gebrüder Borntraeger Berlin 1926.
• The soils of Germany . In: Handbuch der Bodenlehre. Edited by E. Blanck. Julius Springer Berlin 1930, Vol. 5, pp. 271-429.
• The mineral properties of the soils . In: Handbook of plant nutrition and fertilizer theory. Edited by F. Honcamp. Published by Julius Springer Berlin 1931, Vol. 1, 1931, pp. 424-426.
• The soil mapping . In: Handbuch der Bodenlehre. Edited by E. Blanck. Julius Springer Berlin 1932, Vol. 10, 1932, pp. 259-428.
• Soil types and soil maps . In: Handbuch der Naturwissenschaften. 2nd Edition. Verlag von Gustav Fischer in Jena Vol. 2, 1933, pp. 127-135.
• The soils of the German Empire and the Free City of Danzig . Explanations of the overview soil map 1: 1,000,000 of the German Empire and the Free City of Danzig. Supplementary booklet No. 226 to Petermann's communications. Publishing house Justus Perthes Gotha 1936.
• The rural settlement capacity of the German Empire (with E. Ostendorff). Supplementary booklet No. 228 to Petermann's communications. Publishing house Justus Perthes Gotha 1937.
• The floors of the German Democratic Republic. Introduction to biogenetic soil science and its practical application (H. Stremme with his colleagues). Deutscher Zentralverlag Berlin 1950.

literature

• JC Poggendorff: Biographical-literary concise dictionary of the exact natural sciences : Vol. VI, Tl. 4, 1940, pp. 2565-2566 u. Vol. VII a, Part 4, 1961, pp. 578-579 (list of publications).
• W.Kasch: Fifty-year doctoral jubilee Professor Dr. Hermann Stremme . In: Die Deutsche Landwirtschaft Vol. 4, 1953, pp. 564-565 (with picture).
• F. Scheffer: Professor Dr. phil. Hermann Stremme on his 75th birthday . In: Journal for plant nutrition, fertilization, soil science, vol. 65 (110), 1954, before p. 1 (with picture).
• Knott: Prof. Dr. Hermann Stremme 80 years . In: Die Deutsche Landwirtschaft Vol. 10, 1959, pp. 305–306 (with picture).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , June 18, 1959, p. 2

Web links

• Literature by and about Hermann Stremme in the catalog of the German National Library