Otto Lemmermann

Otto Lemmermann (born July 1, 1869 in Buxtehude ; † July 28, 1953 in Berlin ) was a German agricultural chemist .

Live and act

Otto Lemmermann studied natural sciences in Göttingen and Jena and in 1894 became an assistant at the Agricultural Chemistry Institute and at the Agricultural Research Station of the University of Jena . In 1896 he received his doctorate there with a thesis on the informative value of plant and soil analysis for fertilization practice and in 1900 he obtained his habilitation, also in Jena, with studies on denitrification processes in manure for the field of agricultural chemistry.

In 1904 he took over the management of the agricultural chemical test station for the province of Brandenburg in Dahme / Mark . In 1905 he accepted an appointment at the Agricultural University in Berlin and, as the successor to Theodor Remy, became director of the Institute for Agricultural Chemistry and Bacteriology. At the same time he remained head of the agricultural chemical test station for the province of Brandenburg, which was later moved to Berlin. In 1934 Lemmermann retired, but in 1945 he was called back to his old chair. It was not until 1950, at the age of 80, that he finally retired.

Lemmermann's more than 300 publications cover all areas of agricultural chemistry. The focus of his research was in the areas of plant nutrition and fertilization. In many experiments he investigated the function of silica for plant growth and came to the conclusion, which is important for fertilization practice, that silica can convert poorly soluble soil phosphates into compounds that are available to plants and thus increase yields.

In 1922 Lemmermann founded the “ Zeitschrift für Pflanzenernahrung, Fertilization, Soil Science ”, which he was editorially responsible for until 1953. He published most of his scientific contributions in this specialist journal.

Major works

• The fertilizer doctrine. Textbook for self-teaching as well as for use by students and teachers in agriculture . Leipzig 1902.
• The development of agricultural chemistry and its influence on agriculture in the 19th century . Berlin 1913.
• The utilization of atmospheric nitrogen for agriculture . Berlin 1916.
• Investigations into various fertilization issues . Work of the German Agricultural Society H. 297, Berlin 1919.
• The yield-increasing effect of silica in the case of insufficient phosphoric acid fertilization . Leipzig 1922.
• Agricultural chemistry and its importance for national nutrition. A review and outlook . Braunschweig 1940.

literature

• H. Wiesmann: Otto Lemmermann and his position on agriculture and the fertilizer industry . In: Das Superphosphat Jg. 5, 1929, pp. 148-150.
• H. Karst: Otto Lemmermann - A life for science . In: Journal of Plant Nutrition, Fertilization, Bodenkunde Vol. 45, (90), 1949, pp. 4–10.
• K. Schmalfuß: Otto Lemmermann in memory . In. Die Deutsche Landwirtschaft Jg. 4, 1953, p. 565 (with picture).
• Wolfgang Böhm: Otto Lemmermann . In: Biographical handbook on the history of crop production. Munich 1997, pp. 182–183 (here further literature and references to the bibliography of his writings).

Web links

• Literature by and about Otto Lemmermann in the catalog of the German National Library