Louis Reuss

Chief Forestry Officer Louis Reuss

Memorial for Reuss in Bad Laasphe

Louis Reuss (born October 10, 1812 in the forester's house Wilhelmshof, † March 30, 1888 in Dobříš , Bohemia) was a German forest clerk. He advocated reforestation of the Wittgenstein forests and promoted the large-scale cultivation of spruce there.

Life

Louis Reuss comes from a family of forest officials in Anhalt. His father Friedrich Reuss (1781-1853) was a forester with an official seat in the forester's house Wilhelmshof near Harzgerode . Louis Reuss first attended the Rector's School in Harzgerode and then switched to the grammar school in Bernburg, 60 kilometers away . Instead of an academic training, he began a forestry apprenticeship with Oberförster Brocke in Harzgerode.

In 1837 he first served the princely family Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein for two years and took a position as a court hunter; a little later he became the cabinet secretary of Prince Alexander . In 1839 Reuss returned to his homeland and entered service in Anhalt, where a promising forest career opened up for him. Under the guidance of his superior, Oberforstrat König, he was entrusted with various tasks within the Anhalt-Bernburg forest reform. In addition, through self-study and a visit to the König Forst-Lehr-Institut, he sought a position in the higher forest service. His qualification earned him a transfer to the ducal government college in Bernburg in 1848. In 1853 he was appointed government and forestry council, which was entrusted with the entire technical management of the local forests.

Louis Reuss married Karoline Brocke (1815–1892), the daughter of his former teacher, on November 26, 1842 in Harzgerode. The marriage resulted in six children, including a. the later head of the Anhalt Forest Administration, Carl Reuss , the director of the higher forest school in Mährisch Weißkirchen, Hermann Reuss and the writer Elly Allesch geb. Reuss. Despite the initially short employment in Wittgenstein, there was further contact with Alexander Prince zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, with whom he had a personal friendship. At his urging, Reuss took his leave in Anhalt-Bernburg and he moved with his family to Wittgenstein. On January 1, 1857, Louis Reuss was hired as chief forest adviser and head of the Wittgenstein rent chamber. This replacement of the Rentkammer led to a considerable upheaval in the Wittgenstein forest administration. In the next few years, Louis Reuss intended to reforest the low-yield, but also deciduous hardwood stands and extensive pelts of the Wittgenstein Forest, which had deteriorated due to the effects of the weather and overexploitation. Here he relied heavily on a change in the tree population and introduced large-scale planting of the relatively fast-growing spruce. This profound change in the Wittgenstein forestry was not without controversy, it brought the new head of the Rentkammer many animosities. At the head of his opponents in the forestry field was his predecessor, the former forest director Ludwig Jäger (1800–1884), who violently attacked Reuss in scientific journals. But the Wittgenstein population also saw the conversion of the hardwood stock into spruce forests as a direct attack on their old forest servants, e.g. B. the Hude- and Streulaubrechte, which have now been restricted and gradually replaced. The residents feared a threat to their own economic existence. The numerous hostilities of his chief forest officer, but also the economic efforts at a time when the newly introduced tree was not yet expected to yield, led to a cooling of the personal relationship between Prince Alexander and Louis Reuss. Reuss tried to counteract this and from 1868 wrote a comprehensive report on the condition of the forest entrusted to him: "The Princely Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein Forests - their past, present and future". Over a period of 100 years (1759–1859), using the example of the Erndtebrücker Forest, he demonstrated that beech forest management had failed there and that immeasurable damage for future generations could only be averted through alternative coniferous wood cultivation, primarily spruce. Apparently this extensive report, with which Reuss tried not least to convince his employer, did not find the desired recognition.

After a total of 15 years, the head of the Wittgenstein Rent Chamber was looking for a new challenge and asked for his release. On April 1, 1872, Reuss followed a call from Prince Colloredo-Mansfeld and moved with his family to the small town of Dobříš (Dobrisch) in Bohemia , where he took over the management of three large forest estates.

View to Wittgenstein Castle at the Louis Reuss monument

He died there on March 30, 1888 at the age of 75. "The following generations may judge my work in the Princely Forests themselves," said Reuss with conviction against his opponents.

The successes of the forest conversion in Wittgenstein soon became apparent and the princely family in particular, who had been skeptical of his work for a long time, recognized what economic gain is also possible with the spruce.

On July 12, 1910, Prince Ludwig zu Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, the son of Prince Alexander, honored the former head of the Rentkammer with the inauguration of a mighty monument on the "Old Castle", directly opposite Wittgenstein Castle . Members of the Reuss family who traveled to Laasphe especially for the occasion took part in the celebrations as guests of honor. The family grave of Louis Reuss is preserved in the Evangelical Cemetery of Stará Huť .

literature

• Werner Wied : The Erndtebrück Forest Cooperative 1855–1980. A contribution to the history of the Wittgenstein Forest. Ed .: Self-published by the Erndtebrück Forest Cooperative. Erndtebrück 1980, p. 25 ff.
• Werner Fontaine: Forests, forestry and hunting. Ed .: Fritz Krämer on behalf of the Wittgenstein Homeland Book Working Committee. BI Gebr. Zimmermann, Buchdruckerei und Verlag GmbH, Balve 1965, p. 420 ff.
• Louis Reuss: The Princely Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein Forests - their past, present and future. Laasphe 1868, unpublished, Wittgenstein Archive, WA F 1204.
• Louis Reuss: Reply to the article by the forest director Jäger (Allg. Forst-u. Jagd-Zeitung, June 1870) regarding the condition and management of the Fürstlich Wittgenstein forests. By L. Reuss, Fürstlich Wittgensteinscher Oberforstbeamter. Carl Rümpler Publishing House, Hanover 1870
• Gerhard Naumann: Forest history of the former county Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein up to 1900 , dissertation, Hann.Münden 1970

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baptismal register of St. Marienkirche Harzgerode, No. 68/1812. Accessed October 30, 2018.
2. ↑ Elly Allesch-Reuß: On the history of the Reuss family , Goslar 1934, reprint Freiburg 1978.
3. ^ Archive Wittgenstein, WA F 1023, employment and management of the Oberforstrats L. Reuss 1839-1872
4. ^ Josef Kügler: Biographies of important Hessian foresters , here: Johann Philipp Ernst Ludwig Jäger p. 357-364, publisher: Georg-Ludwig-Hartig-Stiftung, Wiesbaden 1990
5. ^ Report of the Wittgensteiner Zeitung of July 15, 1910 about the "Memorial Service for Oberforstrat Reuss"
6. ↑ Dieter Bald: Died 130 years ago: Memories of Louis Reuss In: Wittgenstein. Leaves of the Wittgensteiner Heimatverein eV , year 106, December 2018, vol. 82, no. 3, pp. 136-146.