Karl Rathsack

Karl Rathsack (born March 11, 1899 in Lübeck , † November 13, 1989 in Hanover ) was a German agricultural chemist in the field of plant nutrition .

Life

Karl Rathsack, son of an engineer, studied chemistry at the University of Jena since 1919 and received his doctorate there in 1924 with a dissertation on a new method for determining root-soluble nutrients in the soil. He then worked for a year at the H. Strube Saatzuchtwirtschaft in Schlanstedt , where he carried out soil studies and prepared fertilization plans for breeding purposes. He then worked for several months as an industrial chemist in a fertilizer factory.

From 1926 Rathsack worked as an assistant or senior assistant with Kurt Opitz at the Institute for Arable and Plant Production at the Agricultural University in Berlin . There he initially dealt with current fertilization problems. Later his scientific interest turned to the cooking properties of the potato. With a publication on the dietary value of the potato , he received the Venia legendi for the field of plant nutrition in 1935 .

From 1936 to 1947 Rathsack headed the agricultural chemistry department of the Bavarian nitrogen works in Berlin. From 1947 to 1949 he was managing director of the arable and crop production department of the German Agricultural Society in East Berlin. In 1949 he took over the management of the agricultural advice center of the South German Limestone Works in Hanover.

From 1954 to 1967 Rathsack was a full professor of plant nutrition at the Faculty of Horticulture and Regional Culture at the Technical University of Hanover and director of the institute of the same name. The focus of his research was on questions about the fertilization of horticultural crops. He paid particular attention to potted plants , where the limited root space often caused nutritional problems. Rathsack's work on long-term fertilizers and the development of nutrient salt mixtures that are compatible with roots have had a lasting influence on fertilization practice in horticulture. Most of his publications have appeared in the journals “Nutrition of the Plant”, “Advances in Agriculture”, in the “Agricultural Yearbooks”, in the “Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition” and in the specialist journal “Horticultural Science”.

Publications (selection)

• The Neubauer method for the determination of root-soluble nutrients with special consideration of the phosphoric acid and the hydrogen acid concentration . Diss. Phil. Jena 1924.
• What practical successes do we achieve with the newer methods for determining the nutrient requirements of our arable soils? In: Advances in Agriculture . Volume 5, 1930, pp. 86–92.
• The edible value of the potato. An attempt to make an objective assessment based on physical and chemical investigations . Publishing company for arable farming Berlin 1935.
• Via reaction products of the cyanamide in the soil . In: Agricultural Research . 6. Special issue, 1955, pp. 116-130.

literature

• Karl Henry Rathsack . In: Catalogus Professorum 1831–1981. Festschrift for the 150th anniversary of the University of Hanover . Volume 2. Verlag W. Kohlhammer Stuttgart 1981, p. 244 (with picture).
• Albrecht Jungk: Professor em. Dr. Karl Rathsack on his 80th birthday . In: Journal for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science . Volume 142, 1979, pp. 1-2 (with picture).