Max Schönleutner

Max Schönleutner

Max Schönleutnerstraße (* 25. March 1778 in Prüfening at Regensburg ; † 19th July 1831 in Schleißheim ) was a German agronomist . He is considered to be the founder of the scientific school of Bavarian agriculture.

Live and act

Max (imilian) Joseph Adam Schönleit (h) ner, later called Schönleutner, was the son of an electoral toll collector. He attended grammar school in Prüfening and later to 1795, the (now) Wilhelm Gymnasium München . He completed his two-year basic course (= philosophy) at the adjoining lyceum. Immediately afterwards, in 1797, he began studying law at the University of Ingolstadt and finished it in Landshut in May 1800 after the university was relocated . After ten months of work with the "war deputation" of the Bavarian statesman Johann Adam von Aretin (1769-1822), he passed his first state examination in 1801. In 1802 he took part in the first agricultural training course with Albrecht Daniel Thaer in Celle at the behest of the Bavarian elector . Here he received lasting suggestions for his further life.

In 1803 Schönleutner was entrusted with the administration of the newly secularized Weihenstephan monastery . At the same time, he worked as a teacher at the forestry and agricultural school founded there. After this school was closed, he tried to continue training farmers in the form of a small internship institute. In 1811 he was also given the management of the Schleissheim and Fürstenried estates . In the following years he worked successfully as the administrator of these state estates, which the Bavarian assembly of estates recognized as model farms in 1819. In 1822 an agricultural college was established again in Schleissheim (later the “Agricultural Central School”) and Schönleutner was appointed director. He worked here until his early death in 1831.

Schönleutner was the pioneering pioneer of scientific agriculture in Bavaria. He published several reports on the management of the goods he managed. Twice (1823 and 1828) he made an attempt to establish a regularly published “Agricultural Yearbook”. His main scientific work is the book " Theory of agriculture based on physical principles that have been tested by years of experience ", published in 1828 . It is one of the best textbooks on plant cultivation of the first half of the 19th century. Like Albrecht Daniel Thaer, Schönleutner was also firmly convinced that only the increased application of scientific knowledge could advance agriculture. Due to his untimely death, he was no longer able to realize the plan to develop his “Theory of Agriculture” into a textbook for all of agricultural science.

During the last years of his life, Schönleutner was exposed to strong hostility. Sheep breeders and wool merchants in particular raised the charge against him that he favored arable farming too much on the model farms associated with his educational establishment and neglected sheep breeding, which at the time was of great importance in agriculture. Numerous critics even accused him that his preference for agriculture could damage the Kingdom of Bavaria. This public controversy, led with strong polemics, hit Schönleutner hard. Shortly before his death, he responded to these attacks on his life's work with the defensive pamphlet " The agricultural model farms in the Kingdom of Bavaria and their opponents ". Here he has clearly and unambiguously set out his ideas about the goals and tasks of an agricultural educational establishment and the model farms associated with it. This writing inadvertently became his scientific will.

Humiliated by his opponents, Schönleutner died at the age of 53 as a result of a stroke. He found his final resting place in the Gutsfriedhof Hochmutting near Munich. The Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture in Weihenstephan donated the Max Schönleutner Medal in 1970 . It is awarded as thanks and recognition to personalities who have made exceptional contributions to teaching, research and development in agriculture and horticulture in Bavaria. The Max Schönleutner Gesellschaft Weihenstephan e. V., which now also awards the Max Schönleutner Medal.

Major works

• Theory of agriculture based on physical principles that have been tested through many years of experience . Literary-artistic establishment at the Cotta'schen Buchhandlung Munich 1828.
• The agricultural model farms in the Kingdom of Bavaria and their opponents . Literary-artistic establishment at the Cotta'schen Buchhandlung Munich 1830.

literature

• A. Hofmann: In memory of Max Schönleutner . In: Landwirthschaftliches Centralblatt für Deutschland Vol. 1, 1853, pp. 145–154.
• Carl Leisewitz:  Schönleutner, Max . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 32, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1891, p. 319 f.
• Georg Holzner : The agricultural lessons in Weihenstephan and Schleißheim from 1804 to 1840. In addition to a detailed life history of the Kgl. State goods director Max Schoenleutner and many explanatory comments and additions . R. Oldenbourg, Munich and Berlin 1905 (with picture and list of publications).
• Ludwig Steuert: The Kgl. Bavarian Academy Weihenstephan and its history . Festschrift for the centenary. Paul Parey, Berlin 1905.
• H. Raum: Schönleutner, Zierl and Veit, the pioneers of agricultural science in Bavaria in the first half of the 19th century . In: Bayerisches Landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch vol. 32, 1955, pp. 258–275.
• Heinz Haushofer: Max Schönleutner and the development of the school of rational agriculture in Bavaria . In: Journal for Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology Vol. 6, 1958, pp. 33–38.
• Anton Spitlbauer: The Schönleutnerhof. Monograph of a part of the Weihenstephan State Estate . In: Bayerisches Landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch vol. 52, 1975, pp. 300–331.
• Alois Seidl: Max Schönleutner - Herald of rational agriculture in Bavaria . In: Journal of Agricultural History and Agricultural Sociology, vol. 46, 1998, pp. 135–147.
• Alois Seidl: Max Schönleutner - "Martyr of agricultural progress in Bavaria"? In: Journal for Bavarian State History Vol. 63, 2000, pp. 577–596.
• Alois Seidl:  Schönleutner, Max. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 23, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-428-11204-3 , pp. 420 f. ( Digitized version ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ADB names the year 1777 and Abbach as the place of birth.
2. ^ Max Leitschuh: The matriculations of the upper classes of the Wilhelmsgymnasium in Munich , 4 vol., Munich 1970–1976; Vol. 3, p. 202; There year of birth: 1778, place of birth: (Bad) Abbach.