Johann Nepomuk Hubert von Schwerz

Johann Nepomuk Hubert von Schwerz

Johann Nepomuk Hubert Schwerz , from 1821 from Schwerz , (born June 11, 1759 in Koblenz ; † December 11, 1844 there ) was a German agricultural scientist. On behalf of the King of Württemberg, he founded a state agricultural training institute in Hohenheim (now the University of Hohenheim ) in 1818 . Schwerz is considered to be the main representative of the empirical-rational school of agriculture.

Life path and life achievement

Johann Nepomuk Hubert von Schwerz, son of a merchant, visited the Jesuit college in Koblenz and then worked as a tutor , first in St. Goar and from 1783 in the diocese of Liège with the Count of Renesse . His widow appointed him in 1801 to be the manager of the count's estates. In this role, Schwerz found his way to agriculture . He acquired extensive knowledge through studying specialist literature, through his own field trials and through numerous study trips. He established his reputation as an agricultural scientist with the three-volume work Instructions for Knowledge of Belgian Agriculture (1807, 1808, 1811) .

From 1810 Schwerz worked as a tax inspector in Strasbourg ( Alsace ). During this activity, too, he studied the production conditions in agriculture on many trips and published two more books in 1816: Description of agriculture in Lower Alsace and observations on agriculture in the Palatinate . He also visited the agricultural institute in Hofwyl (Switzerland) , headed by Philipp Emanuel von Fellenberg and at the time internationally famous, and also published an informative textbook about this study visit.

At the suggestion of Albrecht Daniel Thaer , Schwerz entered Prussian service in 1816. As a government councilor based in Munster , he was commissioned to travel to the provinces of Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia , to inspect the local agriculture and to work out proposals for their future development. The descriptions of these provinces he wrote and which were published in extracts in the Möglinsche Annalen der Landwirthschaft , formed the basis for his late work published in 1836. In the LVR open-air museum in Kommern, the figure of the Prussian agricultural economist von Schwerz is represented by employees and brought closer to the visitors.

In 1818 Schwerz followed the call of King Wilhelm I of Württemberg to take over as director of an agricultural training institute to be newly founded in his state. The institution, which was originally planned to be founded in Denkendorf near Stuttgart, was given its permanent seat in neighboring Hohenheim, where it was officially opened on November 20, 1818. From the smallest of beginnings, it developed over time into an important training center (1847 Agricultural Academy , 1904 Agricultural University , 1967 University of Hohenheim). The teaching concept of Schwerz was strongly influenced by the socio-educational ideas Philipp Emanuel of skin mountain . Facilitating the farmers' work in the fields was a particular concern of his.

Among other things, Schwerz improved the plows, which were largely made entirely of wood at the beginning of the 19th century . He further developed the “Brabant or Flemish plows” he brought with him from Belgium in a workshop set up in Hohenheim and introduced them to practical agriculture with a lot of persuasion. The first German farm equipment factory developed from his Hohenheim workshop, in which around 500 plows were manufactured between 1840 and 1850.

In Hohenheim, Schwerz wrote his main work, the textbook Instructions for Practical Agriculture , which appeared in three volumes in 1823, 1825 and 1828 and which was reprinted several times in the following decades. In the first volume, Schwerz deals with the climatic and soil-scientific location factors for plant cultivation and in great detail the theory of grassland, in the second volume the cultivation of the most important crops and in the third volume the crop rotation systems. The work is one of the best textbooks on plant cultivation of its time.

Schwerz, awarded the personal title of nobility by the King of Württemberg in 1821 by awarding the Knight's Cross and in 1828 the Commentary Cross of the Order of the Württemberg Crown , was an honorary member of around twenty agricultural associations and several scientific academies. In 1822 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences in Paris. In 1828 he resigned from his position as director of the Hohenheim Institute. He had remained unmarried and had lived with two of his sisters in his native city of Koblenz since 1829 . He took orphans into his house and was responsible for their upbringing. He also published several books of religious edification . During this time he also completed his last major scientific work, Description of Agriculture in Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia (1836), one of the most important sources for the history of Rhenish agriculture at the beginning of the 19th century.

Most recently, Schwerz died completely blind at the age of 85. His grave in the main cemetery in Koblenz is maintained by the city as an honorary grave .

Like Albrecht Daniel Thaer, Schwerz was also convinced that agriculture had to be operated according to scientific principles. But Schwerz thought more modestly about the possibilities of science. He was not so much interested in researching exact rational principles as he relied more on experience . He tried to gain scientific knowledge in agriculture primarily through long-term observation and assessment of natural site factors. With his exemplary agricultural geographic monographs and his doctrine of the relative excellence of cultivation systems, Schwerz is also one of the fathers of regional crop production in Germany.

Major works

• Guide to knowledge of Belgian agriculture . Hemmerde and Schwetzke Halle publishing house. Vol. 1: 1807; Vol. 2: 1808; Vol. 3: 1811.
• Description and results of the Fellenberg agriculture in Hofwyl . Verlag Hahn Brothers Hanover 1816.
• Description of the agriculture in Lower Alsace . Publisher G. Reimer Berlin 1816.
• Observations on agriculture in the Palatinate . Publisher G. Reimer Berlin 1816.
• Report on the agricultural institution in Hohenheim: In addition to the comparative crop rotation of the same . Metzler Stuttgart publishing house 1821.
• Instructions for practical agriculture . Verlag JG Cotta´sche Buchhandlung Stuttgart and Tübingen. Vol. 1: 1823, Vol. 2: 1825, Vol. 3: 1828; 2nd ed. 1837; 3rd edition 1843; 4th ed. 1857 (3rd and 4th ed. Each in two volumes); Revised version by Victor Funk under the title Practical Agriculture with the addition of cattle breeding . Publisher Paul Parey Berlin 1882.
• Description of agriculture in Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia. With an appendix on viticulture in Rhenish Prussia . Edited by Karl Göriz. 2 vols., Verlag JG Cotta Stuttgart and Tübingen 1836. - Facsimile print of this edition in two volumes. Vol. 1: Description of agriculture in Westphalia , Landwirtschaftsverlag Münster-Hiltrup; Vol. 2: Description of agriculture in Rhenish Prussia , Rheinischer Landwirtschafts-Verlag Bonn (both volumes without indication of the year of publication, around 1980).
• Flowers for eternity . Collected by Joh. Nepomuk von Schwerz. Verlag J. Hölscher Coblenz 1842.
• Joh. Nep. v. Schwerz's agricultural estate. Contains the culture of commercial plants as a supplement to the third volume of his instructions for practical agriculture and the collection of scattered leaves and extracts about various agricultural objects . Edited and edited by Dr. HW from Pabst. Verlag JG Cotta Stuttgart and Tübingen 1845.

literature

• Carl Leisewitz :  Schwerz, Johann Nepomuk Hubert von . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 33, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, pp. 438-440.
• Günther Franz : On the 200th birthday of Johann Nepomuk Schwerz . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft Vol. 74, 1959, pp. 738–739 (with picture).
• Günther Franz: Johann Nepomuk Hubert Schwerz . Commemorative speech on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of his birthday at the annual celebration of the Agricultural University on November 20, 1959. Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1960 = speeches and treatises of the Agricultural University Hohenheim No. 10 (with list of publications).
• Günther Franz: Johann Nepomuk Hubert (von) Schwerz. Farmer, founder and first director of the Hohenheim Agricultural University . In: Lebensbilder from Swabia and Franconia, Vol. 8, 1962, pp. 149–160 (with picture).
• University of Hohenheim. Agricultural College 1818–1968 . Published by Günther Franz. Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1968 (with picture).
• Günther Franz: Johann Nepomuk Hubert (von) Schwerz (1759-1844) . In: Great Farmers. Edited by Günther Franz and Heinz Haushofer. DLG-Verlag Frankfurt (Main) 1970, pp. 79-90 (with picture).
• Wilfried Krings: JN Schwerz and the Agrarian Quete of 1816/18 in the Prussian Rhine provinces . In: Rheinische Vierteljahrsblätter Vol. 42, 1978, pp. 258–297.
• Herbert Pruns: On dealing with the life's work of Johann Nepomuk von Schwerz in the Federal Republic of Germany . In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology, vol. 41, 1993, pp. 1–10.
• Hans Geidel :  Schwerz, Johann Nepomuk Hubert von. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 24, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-428-11205-0 , p. 81 f. ( Digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hohenheim's directors, rectors and presidents ( memento of the original from March 25, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Acting story in the open-air museum in Kommern
3. ↑ Royal Württemberg Court and State Handbook 1828, page 33
4. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter S. Académie des sciences, accessed on February 28, 2020 (French). 
5. ^ Description of agriculture in Westphalia and Rhenish Prussia online version of the University of Cologne