Karl Gallwitz (agricultural technician)

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Karl Gallwitz (born August 18, 1895 in Sigmaringen / Donau , † May 17, 1984 in Göttingen ) was a German agricultural engineer. He was also a successful fighter pilot in World War I and then an agricultural technician who taught at the Georg-August University in Göttingen from 1936 to 1965 with a focus on research in the field of crop protection technology .

Youth and war years

Karl Gallwitz attended high school in Nordhausen am Harz . During the First World War he signed up for the air force and was trained as a pilot . After completing his training flew Lieutenant Gallwitz initially a hunting biplane of the type Roland D.III in the Feldfliegerabteilung 37 on the Eastern Front in Riga where he two on 7 and 8 July 1917 observation balloon shot down.

After a brief assignment to Jasta 29 , Gallwitz was transferred to Jasta 2 “Boelcke” on August 24, 1917 . There he won in October three victories , including on 27 October on the British ace Arthur Rhys-Davids , on 23 September, the German ace Voss Werner had shot. Gallwitz achieved five more successes in the spring of 1918, the last on April 21 at Bailleul . A few days later he was seriously injured in a crash landing. After his recovery he was transferred to the staff of the "Commanding General of the Air Force" ( Kogenluft ). Gallwitz was awarded the Iron Cross Second and First Class.

academic career

From 1919 he studied mechanical engineering in Braunschweig, Danzig and Stuttgart. In 1922 he received the degree of graduate engineer at the Technical University of Stuttgart . In the following years he worked as an "estate engineer" in large farms. From 1926 to 1929 he worked as an assistant at the Institute for Agricultural Machinery at the University of Königsberg . In 1929 he received his doctorate in engineering from the Technical University of Berlin with a dissertation on materials and wear and tear of plowshares . From 1930 he headed the machine advice center of the Baden Chamber of Agriculture in Karlsruhe. In 1931 he completed his habilitation at the Technical University of Karlsruhe with the thesis Contributions to the motorization of rural tillage .

In 1936 Gallwitz took on a teaching position for "materials and agricultural machinery" at the University of Göttingen with the task of expanding the "agricultural machinery teaching apparatus" there into an institute for agricultural machinery. In 1938 he was appointed associate professor. The construction work, which was interrupted by the events of World War II, could not be completed until 1958. Gallwitz, who was appointed full professor in 1952, headed the Institute for Agricultural Engineering he founded until his retirement in 1965.

Research and Teaching

Gallwitz's research interest at the University of Göttingen concentrated primarily on improving crop protection technology . Questions of plant protection (including strong occurrence of Colorado beetle ) have been a current problem in agricultural research since the 1930s. About half of the 30 dissertations prepared under the auspices of Gallwitz dealt with crop protection technology. In addition, Gallwitz worked on questions of soil cultivation , combine harvesting , irrigation and drainage . His research on the use of winches in vineyards and the use of wind energy in agriculture should also be emphasized . Agricultural engineering in the tropics and subtropics was one of his other fields of work. Together with numerous guest scientists, he was able to develop customized technical solutions for the respective problems in tropical or subtropical regions.

Making scientific knowledge directly usable for agriculture has always been a special concern for Gallwitz, and close contact with industrial companies and practical farmers is a matter of course. In 1980 he described the changeful development of agricultural research and teaching at the University of Göttingen in a small brochure spiced with a pinch of humor.

Publications (selection)

  • Plowshare materials and wear . Diss. Techn. Hochsch. Berlin 1929. - Zugl. in: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 72, 1930, pp. 1-50.
  • Contributions to the motorization of rural tillage . Habil.-Schr. Techn. Hochsch. Karlsruhe 1931. - Zugl. in: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 75, 1932, pp. 347–388.
  • Plant protection technology . Wolfratshausen / Munich 1950 = reports on agricultural engineering H. 12.
  • The encounter of the machine with life in the field of agricultural engineering . Lecture conference of the agricultural faculty of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen from October 27th to 29th, 1953 in Göttingen. Landbuch-Verlag Hannover 1953, pp. 95–110.
  • Collection of agricultural tasks (together with H. Göhlich). DLG-Verlag Frankfurt / Main 1963.
  • Plant protection technology . In: The history of agricultural engineering in the 20th century. Edited by Günther Franz with the participation of numerous scholars. DLG-Verlag Frankfurt / Main 1969, pp. 238–251.
  • History of the Institute for Agricultural Engineering at the Georg-August University of Göttingen . Private printing Göttingen 1980. - In a modified version under the same title in: Miterlebte Landtechnik. Published by the Max Eyth Society for Agricultural Technology and the Board of Trustees for Technology and Construction in Agriculture. Vol. 1, Darmstadt 1981, pp. 115–125 (with a list of the doctoral theses carried out under the aegis of Gallwitz).

literature

  • Professor Dr.-Ing. Karl Gallwitz 70 years . In: Landtechnik Vol. 20, 1965, p. 650.
  • Karl Gallwitz passed away . In: Landtechnik Jg. 39, 1984, pp. 380-381.
  • Norman LR Franks, Frank W. Bailey, Russell Guest: Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps 1914-1918. Grub Street, London, 1993, ISBN 0-948817- 73-9 , ISBN 978-0-948817-73-1

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ On August 1, 1914, the fortress aviation department 7 was set up in the fortress Boyen from the 3rd Company of Flieger Battalion 2 in Königsberg (Prussia) . On September 13, 1914, it became the Feldfliegerabteilung (Artillery) (FFA) 37, renamed FA 37 on January 11, 1917.
  2. ↑ http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/germany/gallwitz.php
  3. ^ Above the Lines: The Aces and Fighter Units of the German Air Service, Naval Air Service and Flanders Marine Corps 1914-1918 , p. 113
personal data
SURNAME Gallwitz, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German agricultural technician
DATE OF BIRTH August 18, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Sigmaringen , Danube
DATE OF DEATH 17th May 1984
Place of death Goettingen