Käthe Seidel

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Käthe Marthe Seidel (* 1907 in Frankenstein , † 1990 in Krefeld ) was a German teacher and hydro botanist . She became known as the "Binsen-Käthe".

Life

1924 Seidel reached the average maturity of the seminar and secondary school in Frankenstein and made a training for the teacher at the Agricultural University in Halle. There she passed the master craftsman examination in 1934. She completed her advanced training as a horticultural teacher at the teacher training college in Leipzig. While she was teaching biology, horticulture and handicrafts , she made up her Abitur and then studied prehistory, art history and natural sciences at the University of Greifswald from 1939 .

As a craftsman, she had also made the acquaintance of rush weaving and published over 20 articles about this old cultural technique between 1922 and 1945. After the war, she founded the Schleswig-Holstein rush teaching and experimental workshops and from 1947 also continued her botany studies (with microbiology and limnology ) in Kiel . Seidel received his doctorate in 1951 with a thesis on the ecology and technology of the lichen and pond rush .

After that, Seidel continued to work at the Krefeld Bas-Rhine River Station of the Hydrobiological Institute in Plön , whose long-time director, August Thienemann , said of her: “The permanent position of Miss Dr. Seidels at the Hydrobiological Institute meant a lot to our scientific work. Because only rarely will you meet a woman who is such a productive researcher nature, charged with vitality and energy. "

Seidel's love of raspberry culminated in 1955 in the standard work by Seidel: Die Flechtbinse, Scirpus lacustris. L. Ecology, morphology and development, their position among peoples and their economic importance. The inland waters, vol. 21. 1955. XV, 216 p., 42 fig., 18 plate, 3 hatchet.

Towards the end of 1968 the river station was given up by the Max Planck Society , which was responsible for it, but Seidel was able to continue working in it until his retirement in 1976 and then bought the station from the Max Planck Society. She stayed there as part of her “Foundation Limnological Working Group Dr. Seidel eV “for another 14 years. When she died in 1990, she was still doing research and propagation.

In 1977 she received the Environment Medal of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 1982 the Cross of Merit on ribbon.

The sewage treatment plant

Over time, Seidel had become convinced that the rush (like all aquatic plants, but these are the best of all) is also suitable for clarifying and renaturing wastewater. “Everyone knew that higher plants only thrive in unpolluted waters. The limnologist Käthe Seidel knew better ”, they wrote based on a bon mot in the Frankfurter Allgemeine in 1986. She propagated this idea everywhere she went on research trips. In the 1950s, it had already set up pilot rush sewage treatment plants at over 20 locations. She found that the rush can cope with very different ecological conditions and can also change them favorably because it brings oxygen into the root space.

But Käthe Seidel also triggered major controversies in principle. The “reductionists” among the botanists claimed that a green plant only needs (with a few exceptions) as nutrients only inorganic salts from the soil (water), as can be proven at any time using hydroponics . Seidel and her supporters, on the other hand, took the view that in this way, at best, the minimum requirements of plant life are met - plants always thrive better in a "natural" environment, with organic substances, microbes and other living beings around their root system.

Today, their theses are no longer controversial, it is recognized that Seidel's plant-based sewage treatment systems (with rushes and other macrophytes such as Iris , Phragmites , Arundö, etc.) can be used if there is enough space and, above all, inorganic toxins (such as heavy metals) do not play a role (Organic ones can be broken down, for example phenols) - in other words, in single-layer farms, in developing countries, with low population densities (e.g. in areas of the USA). Reinhold Kickuth and others have improved the theory of plant-based sewage treatment systems so that they can now be used worldwide (root zone method). The plants may also absorb heavy metals from the wastewater, but must then be treated accordingly as hazardous waste . Otherwise the plants can be mowed and used again.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Käthe Seidel Ring. From: ploen.de , from 2013, accessed on June 16, 2015.
  2. ↑ https://www.mpg.de/995377/S003_Rueckblende_058_059.pdf
  3. ↑ http://www.thomas.tittizer.de/assets/Seidel.pdf  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  ; http://www.umwelt.uni-hannover.de/ Pflanzen_abwasserreinigung.html@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.thomas.tittizer.de  
  4. ↑ http://pages.unibas.ch/environment/Studium/Lect_WS0506/Umweltprobleme/05-11-21_Bruch_Leistungsfaehigkeit%20und%20-grenzen%20von%20PKA.pdf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / pages.unibas.ch  

Publications (selection)

  • (1935) Horticulture in the Country Year. (Appelhans)
  • (1943) Rush work: The new rush objects, developed together with Gertrud Mosenthin. (Voggenreiter)
  • (1959) Will the rush become a colonization plant for the second time? Your task in the 19th and 20th centuries (Schleswig-Holstein).
  • (1963) About phenol storage and phenol degradation in aquatic plants - Naturwiss. 50: 452 f.
  • (1964) Degradation of Bacterium coli by higher aquatic plants - Naturwiss. 51: 395
  • (1966) Purification of waters by higher plants.
  • (1969) On the bactericidal effect of higher plants.
  • (1970) Mixotrophy in Scirpus lacustris L.
  • (1971) Physiological performance of Alisma plantago L. (frog spoon) .- Naturwiss. 58: 151
  • (1971) Effect of higher plants on pathogenic germs in bodies of water.- Naturwiss. 58: 150 f.
  • (1973) System for Purification of Polluted Water. United States Patent Office, No. 3770623
  • (1973) Purification of industrial wastewater by Juncus maritimus Lamarck.- Naturwiss. 60: 158 f.
  • (1973) On the biology and water purification capacity of Iris pseudacorus L. ibidem .
  • (1974) Schoenoplectus lacustris (L.) Palla for the purification of gouty waters.- Naturwiss. 61: 81
  • (1976) About the self-purification of natural waters - Naturwiss. 63: 286-291
  • (1976) Macrophytes and water purification. In: J. Tourbier and RW Pierson, Jr. (Eds.): Biological control of water pollution. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia (PA), p. 109-121.
  • (1978) Contributions to the recovery of water bodies. 2., ext. Edition (Krefeld-Hülseberg)
  • (1988) Käthe Seidel and Helga Happel: Limnology in brief: Contributions from the water calendars 1980–1988 (yearbook for the entire water subject).

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Seidel, Kathe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Binsen-Käthe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German teacher and hydro botanist
DATE OF BIRTH 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankenstein
DATE OF DEATH 1990
Place of death Krefeld