Max Popp

Otto Max Popp (born December 16, 1878 in Munich-Gladbach (today Mönchengladbach ), † March 16, 1943 in Berlin-Zehlendorf ) was a German agricultural scientist . He emerged primarily as an agricultural chemist and also wrote the first large German-language monograph on the famous French writer Jules Verne , which appeared in 1908.

Life

Career as an agricultural scientist

Max Popp was in 1902 at the University of Halle with the thesis about the formation of indoxyl derivatives of phenylglycine-o-carboxylic acid to Dr. phil. PhD. As an agricultural chemist, he then worked at the test and control station of the Chamber of Agriculture for the Duchy of Oldenburg , where he mainly dealt with questions of fertilization , his specialty that kept him busy throughout his life. When the test and control station of the Oldenburg Chamber of Agriculture celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1926, Popp wrote the commemorative publication . In Oldenburg he also worked in the Masonic lodge "Zum golden Hirsch", in which he held high offices and also contributed the commemorative publication to celebrate the lodge's 175th anniversary on December 6, 1927. In 1932 Popp, who meanwhile held a high position in the Ministry of Agriculture and was also a professor of agricultural chemistry, withdrew from the Masonic lodge. The exact reasons for this step are not known, and the further life and date of death of the agronomist are also in the dark. His name can be traced for the last time in 1939 with the publication of rules and regulations on sampling and content control of commercial fertilizers , after which his trace is lost.

Jules Verne biographer

Julius Verne and his work (from 1909)

Max Popp went down in the history of literary studies as the author of the first German-language biography of Jules Verne . It was published in 1908 (but pre-dated to 1909) under the title Julius Verne und seine Werk. The great romantic life, works and successors in Hartleben-Verlag, in which most of the German translations of Verne's works were published. In his very personal foreword (p. 1), Popp is probably the first to describe the significance and effect Verne's works can have for future scientists and engineers:

“But it also exerted a tremendous influence on several generations, and this influence, to which many discoverers and inventors owe their professional lives, will continue for a long time. I still remember very clearly the day when, only 11 years old, I got my hands on Verne's first novel; it was his journey to the center of the earth . The impression I got from the exciting, interesting book has remained a lasting one. "

Many other Verne readers - think of Arno Schmidt , for example - later made a very similar statement.

As Popp continues to write, he gradually acquired all of Verne's works and wanted, "when they were all devoured" , to learn more about the life of the writer, which ultimately led to the decision to write a biography about him. To this end, he came in contact with Charles Lemire (1839-1912), who was also working on a book about Verne, which was published in 1908 under the title Jules Verne 1828-1905. L'Homme. L'Écrivain. Le Voyageur. Le Citoyen. Son œuvre. Sa Mémoire. Ses Monuments. appeared in Paris, Amiens and Nantes. In consultation with Lemire, Popp not only took over many biographical details, but also a large part of the visual material from this book.

From today's literary perspective, Popp's Verne biography is significant because it classifies the writer and his work in the literary historical currents of their time and also goes into detail about Verne's successor in the genre of the "scientific novel".

With his Verne biography, which, as far as we know, is his only contribution to Verne research, Popp had great success. She was into it sold to the 1920s, in 1999 as a facsimile - Reprint released again and is now also as PDF available file as part of the "Arno Schmidt Reference Library" of GASL the Internet.

Esperanto

Popp was a member of the advisory board of the German Esperanto Association, responsible for "propaganda in scientific circles."

Fonts (selection)

• On the formation of indoxyl derivatives from phenylglycine-o-carboxylic acid , dissertation, Halle an der Saale 1902
• Julius Verne and his work. The great romantic life, works and successors , Vienna and Leipzig 1909 [recte: 1908] (Facsimile reprint 1999 under the title Jules Verne. His life, his works, his successors at Fabri, Ulm, ISBN 3-931997-08-1 )
• Fertilization experiments with phonolite . Notification of the test and control station of the Chamber of Agriculture for the Duchy of Oldenburg , Oldenburg 1912
• The iron citrate method for the determination of citric acid-soluble phosphoric acid in Thomasmehlen , Berlin 1915
• War fodder , pamphlets on people's nutrition (volume 6), Berlin 1915
• together with Walther Schoenichen : Our people's nutrition on the basis of our agriculture , Leipzig 1917
• together with other authors: Wasteland Culture and Natural Monument Preservation , Berlin 1924
• together with Willy Zielstorff , Dietrich Meyer, A. Gehring: Fertilization tests with various fertilizers on fields and meadows , work of the German Agricultural Society (No. 339), Berlin 1926
• Festschrift for the 50th anniversary of the test and control station of the Oldenburg Chamber of Agriculture 1876-1926 , Oldenburg 1926
• Black and white triangles from the history of the “Zum golden Hirsch” lodge in Oldenburg. Festival to celebrate the 175th anniversary of our Lodge on December 6, 1927 , Oldenburg 1927
• Modern bog culture , agricultural teaching books (No. 6), Berlin 1931
• Fermentation of non-sugars by yeast and its importance for alcoholic fermentation , Schwandorf 1933
• The mineral nutrition of our farm animals , Berlin 1937
• Rules and regulations on sampling and content control of commercial fertilizers , Berlin 1939

literature

• Robert Volz: Reich manual of the German society . The handbook of personalities in words and pictures. Volume 2: L-Z. German business publisher, Berlin 1931, DNB 453960294 .
• Volker Dehs , Wolfgang Thadewald : Hartleben & Co. - Postscript: the biographer Max Popp in Volker Dehs, Ralf Junkerjürgen (ed.): Jules Verne. Voices and interpretations of his work . Fantastic Library Wetzlar, Wetzlar 2005, pp. 278–279

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Esperanto. In: Esperanto Bund. Retrieved August 15, 2019 . 

Web links

• Literature by and about Max Popp in the catalog of the German National Library
• Max Popp: Julius Verne and his work. The life, works and successors of the great romantic . Vienna and Leipzig: Hartleben, 1909. PDF reprint, 12 MB, in the Arno Schmidt reference library