Ladislaus Michael Kopetz

Ladislaus Michael Kopetz (born August 8, 1902 in Preßburg ; † July 22, 1966 in Tamsweg near Salzburg ) was an Austrian crop scientist.

Live and act

Kopetz comes from an old Austrian officer family, studied agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna from 1920 to 1924 and then worked for five years as an assistant to Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg in the field of plant breeding. In 1928 he received his doctorate in soil culture in Vienna with a dissertation on the planting and sowing of variety experiments.

From 1929 to 1937 Kopetz headed the vegetable growing department of the Federal Institute for Plant Production and Seed Testing in Vienna. During this time he recognized the central importance of the developmental physiological behavior of cultivated plants for plant cultivation and plant breeding. He dealt intensively with the problem of photoperiodism and was able to demonstrate fundamental relationships between day length and plant growth in experimental investigations. The work on photoperiodism was also the subject of his habilitation. In 1937 he received the Venia legendi for plant cultivation with a special focus on vegetable cultivation with the text " The importance of step-by-step seeds for the assessment of the photoperiodic reaction of summer annual plants " .

In 1937 Kopetz took over the management of the newly founded teaching and research institute for horticulture in Vienna. In 1939 he was transferred as a department head to the Horticultural Testing and Research Institute in Eisgrub , where he worked until the end of the Second World War. He reported on the research work carried out there in the 1943 publication “ Vegetable growing and folk nutrition ” and in several practical articles. His 1941 published by Karl Friedrich Wehlmann record of sweet peppers has significantly accelerated the cultivation of this Vegetable in Austria and Germany.

In 1946, at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, the previously independent chairs for agricultural plant cultivation and plant breeding were merged and an institute for plant cultivation and plant breeding was created. Kopetz was appointed head of this new institute, at which he worked - as a full professor from 1950 - until 1966. At the beginning he dealt with fundamental questions of fertilization , tillage and potato growing . He later continued his research on photoperiodism. Further research foci were staggered fertilization with nitrogen in grain cultivation , field irrigation , the effects of livestock farming on plant production and the improvement of breeding selection processes. Noteworthy are his three books on plant breeding, fertilization and potato growing, published after 1950.

Kopetz was for many years co-editor of the magazine "Die Gartenbauwissenschaft" and since 1959 chief editor of the leading Austrian agricultural journal "Die Bodenkultur".

Since 1920 he was a member of the Catholic student union KÖHV Nordgau Vienna.

Books and writings

• Vegetable primer. Brief presentation of the field vegetable cultivation for farmers and allotment gardeners . Agricultural Publishing House Vienna 1935; 2nd edition 1938; 3rd edition 1941; 4th edition 1947; 5th ed. Austrian. Agricultural publishing house Vienna 1957.
• Vegetable growing in the home garden . Reichsnährstand Verlagsges. Vienna 1940; 5th edition Austria. Agricultural publishing house Vienna 1947.
• The sweet pepper. Its culture and its exploitation (with Karl Friedrich Wehlmann). Publishing house Bechthold & Co. Wiesbaden 1941.
• Tillage and fertilization in the self-sufficient vegetable garden . Frick Verlag Vienna 1942 = Green Library H. 5.
• Vegetable growing and people feeding. A contribution to the work of the experimental and research institute for horticulture in Eisgrub, Niederdonau . St. Pöltner Zeitungs-Verlags-Ges. St. Pölten 1943 = Niederdonau, Ahnengau of the Führer H. 82.
• Basic concepts of plant breeding. With a specialist dictionary and 24 illustrations . Publishing house Gerold Vienna 1952.
• Are we fertilizing correctly? The application of commercial fertilizer to the arable land. Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz / Göttingen 1952; 2nd edition 1953; 3rd edition 1957.
• New ways in potato growing (with Otto Steineck). Leopold Stocker Verlag, Graz u. Göttingen 1953; 2nd edition 1959.

literature

• Otto Steineck: o. Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. LM Kopetz for his 60th birthday . In: Die Bodenkultur Vol. 13, 1962, before p. 185 (with picture).
• Otto Steineck: o. Professor Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Ladislaus M. Kopetz † . In: Die Bodenkultur Vol. 17, 1966, before p. 195 (with picture).

Web links

• Literature by and about Ladislaus Michael Kopetz in the catalog of the German National Library