Karl Silberschmidt

Karl Silberschmidt (born August 31, 1903 in Aschaffenburg , † April 2, 1973 in São Paulo ) was a German biologist and plant physiologist who had been working in Brazil since 1935.

Life

Karl Silberschmidt, a son of the Jewish higher regional judge and university professor Wilhelm Silberschmidt (1862–1939) and his wife Ida (1870–1943), grew up together with his siblings Rosa (* 1892), Hans (* 1895) and Benno (1899–1988) in Munich and attended the Maximiliansgymnasium in Munich from 1916 to 1922 (Abitur) . He studied natural sciences with a focus on biology (botany) at the universities in Munich and Berlin. In 1927 he received his doctorate “magna cum laude” on plant growth. He then received research assignments in the field of plant physiology and forest science at the universities of Munich and Vienna. On the subject of plant immunity , he gave a lecture at the 6th International Botanical Congress in Amsterdam in 1935 and was in scientific exchange with the Dutch phythopathologist Hendrik Marius Quanjer (1879–1961). As a result, he accepted an invitation from the director general of the "Instituto Biológico" in São Paulo , Henrique da Rocha Lima , to head a newly created department for plant physiology, and in 1935 he moved to Brazil .

Silberschmidt gave courses for students in Brazil and gave lectures in many other countries, including Tübingen. He was a member of the “Academia Brasileira”, the “Washington Academy of Sciences”, the “Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Sciencia”, the “ American Association for the Advancement of Science ”, the “American Phytological Society”, the “Torrey Botanical” Club ”, the“ Potato Association of America ”, the“ Sociedade Latino-Americana de Fitotecnia ”, the“ European Association for Potato Research ”, the“ Sociedate Botanica do Brasil ”, the“ Sociedate Brasileira de Fitopatologia ”, the“ Sociedate de Biologia do Brasil ”and the“ Associacão Brasileira de Tecnologia de Sementes ”.

Fonts (selection)

Karl Silberschmidt wrote numerous scientific articles on thermal growth, virology and immunity of plants, on the detection of antibodies in plants and much more, in German among others in “ Planta . Journal for Scientific Biology ”, published from 1926 to 1934 by Wilhelm Ruhland and Hans Winkler , after 1935 mainly in Portuguese and English in Brazilian and American journals.

• Investigations into the dependence of the plant growth process and the final length achieved on constant temperature levels. Award paper by study assessor Karl Silberschmidt, awarded by the High Philosophical Faculty II. Section of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. With 3 panels and 20 text illustrations. Scientific dissertation. Munich 1928.
• Methods of virus research (with H. Da Rocha-Lima and José Reis), in: [Emil] Adderhalden's handbook of biological working methods. Urban & Schwarzenberg, Berlin [a. a.] 1939.

literature

• Nathan Kravetz: Displaced German Scholars. A Guide to Academics in Peril in Nazi Germany During the 1930s (Studies in Judaica and the Holocaust 7). Borgo Press, San Bernardino, California, 1993, p. 12. ISBN 978-0893703745
• Reinhard Weber: Rechtsnacht - Jewish judicial employees in Bavaria after 1933. JVA, Landsberg am Lech 2012 (Wilhelm Silberschmidt: pp. 178–179). ISBN 978-3981380828
• City Archives Munich (Hrsg.): Biographical memorial book of Munich Jews 1933 - 1945. Vol. 2 (M - Z). Munich 2007. ISBN 978-3-8306-7280-7

Web links

• Marly Vicente: Karl Martin Silberschmidt , 1903-1973 (with photo) (pdf)
• (Gravestone Silberschmidt, Munich, Neuer Israelitischer Friedhof) on flickr.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ida, Rosa and Hans Silberschmidt were deported and murdered in 1942
2. ^ Annual report on the K. Maximilians-Gymnasium in Munich for the school year 1916/17 to 1921/22