Karl Gayer

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Karl Gayer
Karl Gayer as rector of the University of Munich

Johann Christian Karl Gayer , also called Geyer (born October 15, 1822 in Speyer , † March 1, 1907 in Munich ) was a German forest scientist . Gayer initially worked as a simple forester , later as a professor of forest science and specialist book author.

Life

Karl Gayer was the son of the district archivist and draftsman Peter Otto Bernhard Franz Gayer (1793–1836). During his high school years in Speyer, Gayer was orphaned at the age of twelve. After his inheritance was paid out, he began studying architecture and mathematics at the Munich Polytechnic . For financial reasons, however, he had to give up his studies and from 1843 work as a forest assistant in Bobenthal and in the Bienwald . In 1845 he became a forestry actuary . Shortly thereafter, he was transferred to the government forest office in Speyer. In 1851 he was appointed district forester and assigned the Weisenheim am Berg district. As early as 1855 he represented the district forest master in Speyer. In the same year he received a professorship for forest science at the Royal Bavarian National Forest Training Institute in Aschaffenburg and also did a number of practical studies in the Black Forest , Spessart and the Odenwald . In 1868 he refused an appointment to the University of Giessen .

Monument to Karl Gayer in the Salinenhof of the University of Munich

In 1878, Gayer moved a first part of the Aschaffenburger Forst-Lehranstalt to the University of Munich (the complete relocation did not follow until 1910). There he was appointed an honorary doctorate from the State Economics Faculty and appointed full professor for forest production. From the winter semester 1889/90 to the summer semester 1890 he was rector of Munich University.

His two main publications, The Forest Usage (1868) and The Forestry (1880), were standard works of forest literature for a long time and had numerous editions. Gayer underlined the advantages of mixed forests and natural regeneration for the preservation of the quality of the location. In doing so, he expanded the forestry concept of sustainability for the first time to include an ecological dimension:

"Sustainable. It is a necessary part of the concept of the forestry enterprise that its production is carried out for everyone, or at least for a very long time in the same place. If this is to be made possible, and if from forest generation to forest generation production does not experience a decrease in either quantitative or qualitative relation, this presupposes an even maintenance of the means of production and economical use of them; and here alone is the real principle of sustainability, which timber cultivation has to satisfy as best as possible. "

- Carl Gayer : Der Waldbau, Berlin 4th ed. 1898, pp. 4-5.

Around 1890, Gayer's teachings and demands were incorporated into the economic rules for the state forests of Bavaria . Even after his retirement in 1892 - Heinrich Mayr was appointed his successor - he remained a member of his faculty. At the same time he was appointed to the Privy Council due to his great services and received numerous honorary memberships and orders. In retirement he wrote a number of books.

Honors

  • The sculptor Karl Kiefer created the memorial for Karl Gayer, which was erected in the garden of the forest research institute in Munich in 1920 . Today the monument is located in the Salinenhof of the University of Munich, where it also reminds of the forest science teaching and research at the university from 1878 to 1992.
  • After Gayer is Karl-Gayer Street in 80997 München named.
  • After Gayer is Karl-Gayer Street in 67273 Weisenheim am Berg named.
  • The Faculty of Forest Science and Resource Management at the Technical University of Munich awards the Karl Gayer Medal in memory of the pioneer and pioneer of natural silviculture in Europe . In this way, it recognizes forest people and forest owners at irregular intervals who have committed themselves to natural silviculture in an exemplary manner. The Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Bavaria (BUND) has also been awarding the Karl Gayer Medal of the Bund Naturschutz since 1977 .

Fonts (selection)

  • The forest use. Berlin 1868, 12th edition 1921.
  • Silviculture. Berlin 1878, 4th edition 1898 ( digitized version ).
  • The new economic direction in the state forests of the Spessart. Munich 1884.
  • The mixed forest, its establishment and maintenance, especially the eyrie and group management . Berlin 1886 ( digitized ).
  • The forest through the ages. Speech given at the beginning of the rectorate of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität on November 23, 1889. Munich 1889.

literature

Web links

Commons : Karl Gayer  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Richard Hölzl, Nature without forest? Or why "near-natural silviculture" and "nature conservation" did not come together - An essay, in: Manfred Jakubowski-Tiessen / Jana Sprenger (ed.), Nature and Society. Perspectives in interdisciplinary environmental history, Göttingen 2014 , pp. 103–113.
  2. ↑ Kiefer, Karl . In: Hans Vollmer (Hrsg.): General lexicon of fine artists from antiquity to the present . Founded by Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker . tape 20 : Kaufmann – Knilling . EA Seemann, Leipzig 1927, p. 258 .
personal data
SURNAME Gayer, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gayer, Johann Christian Karl; Geyer, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forest scientist
DATE OF BIRTH October 15, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Speyer
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1907
Place of death Munich