Hugo Neubauer

Hugo Neubauer (born September 2, 1868 in Rothenhaus near Görkau , Bohemia , † November 26, 1945 in Dresden ) was a German agricultural chemist . The germination method he developed , a physiological-chemical investigation method for determining the nutrient content of soils, was used in many laboratories around the world for several decades (1930–1960).

Live and act

Neubauer studied chemistry at the Technical University of Dresden and at the University of Rostock , where he was awarded a doctorate in 1893 with a dissertation on methods of determining phosphoric acid. phil. received his doctorate. During his studies in 1887 he became a member of the Erato Dresden singers . He then worked at the agricultural test stations in Pommritz , Hamburg and Berlin . In 1905 he was appointed director of the agricultural research station in Bonn . Here he mainly dealt with questions of feed evaluation . In 1911 he also published an extensive treatise on agricultural testing and control in Germany. From 1924 to 1934 he was director and professor of the Agricultural Research Institute in Dresden . His successor there was his colleague Florus Kercher .

In Bonn, Neubauer and his colleague Wilhelm Schneider had already developed a new soil investigation method in which growing rye seedlings extract the plant-available nutrients from the soil sample to be tested, which are then determined in the harvested plants. The first detailed description of this physiological-chemical investigation method appeared in 1923 in the journal "Die Landwirtschaftliche Versuchs -ätze". In 1925 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In Dresden, Neubauer worked almost exclusively on improving this research method, which was soon to be known as the “germination method”, and optimizing it for use in fertilizer advice. Even after his retirement in 1934, Neubauer continued to do research and journalism at his long-term workplace in Dresden. As with almost every newly developed method, his seedling method has also been criticized by colleagues. The sometimes fierce scientific debate contributed to the clarification of many soil and plant physiological problems. In 1936, the "Neubauer Method" was recognized by the "Association of German Agricultural Research Institutes" as an official association method. For many years it was one of the most common soil analysis methods for the plant nutrients phosphorus and potassium - both in Germany and in many other countries. Neubauer described the development history of this method in detail in two fundamental writings (1939 and 1944).

Neubauer received numerous honors for his scientific life's work. In 1935 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Berlin . He was an honorary member of the German Soil Science Society and in 1938, on his 70th birthday, he was awarded the eagle shield of the German Empire with the dedication “The pioneer of German agricultural chemistry”. The Association of German Agricultural Investigation and research institutes founded in 1952 a "Hugo Neubauer Award" for exceptional scientific excellence.

Fonts

• The agricultural testing and control system in Germany . In: Archive of the German Agricultural Council vol. 35, 1911, pp. 174–296 u. 716-726.
• Laboratory method for determining the quantities of phosphoric acid and potash that can be absorbed by the plants from the soil . In: The agricultural test stations, Vol. 100, 1923, pp. 119–128. - Zugl. as a published lecture under the title: A new method for determining soil nutrients and its importance for agriculture . Reichenbachsche Verlagsbuchhandlung Leipzig [1924] = Writings of the Economic Society of Dresden, issue 2.
• The seedling method. A physiological-chemical method for determining the soil nutrients potassium and phosphorus accessible to plants . Publishing company for arable farming Berlin 1939.
• Twenty years of seedling method. A consideration about soil investigation . Verlag C. Heinrich Dresden 1944.

literature

• Werner Bergmann :  Neubauer, Hugo. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 19, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-428-00200-8 , p. 96 ( digitized version ).
• H. Kemmler, F. Kertscher and L. Schmitt: Hugo Neubauer to the memory . In: Landwirtschaftliche Forschung Vol. 8, 1955, pp. 91–99 (with picture and list of publications).
• F. Kertscher : Hugo Neubauer, man and work. In: Journal for agricultural testing and investigation, Vol. 1, 1955, pp. 483-489 (with picture).
• F. Kertscher: On the tenth anniversary of Hugo Neubauer's death . In: Die Deutsche Landwirtschaft Vol. 7, 1956, pp. 152–154 (with a picture of his grave).
• Popp: Prof. Dr. Hugo Neubauer on his 70th birthday . In: Das Superphosphat Vol. 14, 1938, pp. 97-98.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Paul Meißner (Ed.): Alt-Herren-Directory of the German Singers. Leipzig 1934, p. 120.