Karl Bertsch

Karl Bertsch (born February 1, 1878 in Dormettingen , Oberamt Rottweil, Kingdom of Württemberg; † 1965 in Ravensburg , Baden-Württemberg) was a German botanist specializing in mossology , vascular plant taxonomy and distribution, and paleobotany . Its official botanical author's abbreviation is " Bertsch ".

Life

The son of Emilie Bertsch b. Ott and the cabinet maker Josef Anton Bertsch went to school in Dormettingen. He later visited the aspirant institute in Saulgau and finally switched to the school teacher seminar there. He got his first job in school as a teaching assistant at the elementary school in Oberndorf am Neckar . From 1897 to 1902 he was an assistant teacher at the preparatory institute in Saulgau. He then came briefly to the Schwabschule in Stuttgart as administrative administrator , then again became administrative administrator at the secondary school in Biberach and from 1902 to 1903 at the elementary school in Weingarten . In 1903 he came as an assistant teacher at the Oberrealschule in Esslingen and from 1903 to 1904 at the Realschule Waldsee , later at the Realschule in Schramberg and finally from 1904–1905 at the Latin and Realschule in Buchau . In 1905 he got his first permanent job as a real teacher at the Latin and Realschule in Mengen . In 1913 he was transferred to the upper secondary school in Ravensburg and was promoted to senior secondary school teacher in 1920. After all, he was a professor at the teachers' college in Weingarten.

In 1952 he became an honorary member of the Association for Patriotic Natural History in Württemberg , of which he was a member of the Upper Swabian branch of the association founded in 1874. In 1958 he was made an honorary doctorate from the University of Tübingen . Large parts of his herbarium are now in the botanical collection of the State Museum for Natural History in Stuttgart .

plant

Karl Bertsch was one of the most important botanists in Württemberg in the first half of the 20th century. He not only examined in detail the distribution of the higher plants, especially in Upper Swabia, but also their history in the post-ice age with the help of pollen analysis . In addition, his most important works were the moss flora, initially for Württemberg and later the lichen flora , which he then both extended to the area of ​​southwest Germany and which for the first time formed a basis for knowledge about these plants in this area. He also wrote some popular books after World War II, bringing the biology of plant communities closer to the layman.

family

The older of his sons, Karl Andreas Bertsch, who was born in 1907, later became an art teacher at a grammar school in Stuttgart. The younger, Franz Josef Bertsch , who was born in 1910 and who was to continue his father's botany, was killed in 1944 at the Battle of Vitebsk in Belarus . One of the grandchildren, a son of Karl Andreas Bertsch, Professor Andreas Bertsch (born on February 22, 1934) became an ecologist at the University of Marburg with the connection between botany and zoology . Among Karl Bertsch's most important students were Gerhard Lang , who later became a professor at the Geobotanical Institute in Bern, Switzerland, and Hansjörg Eichler (Ravensburg April 1, 1916 - June 22, 1992 Berlin), who emigrated to Australia in 1955 and was one of the became the most influential botanist in the country in the 20th century.

Works

• 1926: The plant remains from the cultural history of the Neolithic settlement Riedschachen near Schussenried , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 54th year 1926, pp. 261–279 ( digitized version )
• 1927: The pollen diagram of the late Bronze Age settlement in Federseeried , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 55th year 1927, pp. 215–220 ( digitized )
• 1927 (with Hermann Poeverlein ). Contributions to the fungal flora of Württemberg. III. Rust fungi (Uredineen) . In: Annual Association fatherland. Natural history Württemberg 83, 159 ff.
• 1928 Forest history of the Württemberg Lake Constance area , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 56th year 1928, pp. 221–268 ( digitized version )
• 1931: Federseeried paleobotanical monograph . Bibliotheca Botanica 127 p., 86 fig., 8 tab.
• 1940: History of the German Forest . Jena: G. Fischer. 124 p., New edition 1949.
• 1941: fruits and seeds. Handbook of practical research into prehistory . Volume 1, 247 pages, Stuttgart 1941.
• 1942: Textbook of pollen analysis. Handbook of practical research into prehistory . Volume 3, 195 pp., Enke, Stuttgart 1942.
• 1947: Swamp and moor as a community . Ravensburg, Otto Maier, 142 pp. (2, adv.), 50 illustrations in the text.
• 1947: The lake as a community . Ravensburg: Otto Maier. 146 pages with illustrations. Carton with dust jacket. 236 g
• 1947: The forest as a community . Ravensburg: Maier. 179 pages with illustrations.
• 1947: The meadow as a community . Ravensburg: Maier. 146 pages with illustrations.
• 1947 (with Franz Josef Bertsch ): History of our cultivated plants . 78 Fig. And maps in the text. 268 pp., Stuttgart
• 1949: moss flora . Stuttgart: E. Ulmer. 193 pp.
• 1954: The chronological position of the reindeer hunters at the Schussenquelle , in: Writings of the Association for the History of Lake Constance and its Surroundings , 72nd year 1953/54, pp. 19-30 ( digitized version )
• 1955: Lichen flora of southwest Germany. Stuttgart: E. Ulmer. 256 pp.
• 1959: Moss flora from southwest Germany . 234 S., E. Ulmer, Stuttgart.
• 1962: Flora of Southwest Germany. For use on hikes, in schools and for self-teaching. Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 3rd revised and expanded edition, 470 pages with 55 illustrations.

literature

• Helmut Herwanger: Upper Swabian botanists from five centuries. A biographical bibliographical lexicon . Annual Natural History Society of Württemberg 170, part 2, pages 54–69, 2014.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Jan-Peter Frahm, Jens Eggers: Lexikon deutschsprachiger Bryologen, Volume 2
2. ^ Honorary members of the Society for Natural History in Württemberg
3. ↑ History of the Society for Natural History in Württemberg ( Memento of the original from February 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ^ Zollern-Alb Kurier: "Hieracium Bertschanium" has Dormettinger godparents
5. ^ State Museum for Natural History Stuttgart: Botanical Collection

Web links

• Author entry and list of the described plant names for Karl Bertsch at the IPNI
• Literature by and about Karl Bertsch in the catalog of the German National Library