Otto Schmitz-Hübsch

Otto Schmitz-Hübsch (born February 26, 1868 at the Winnenthal estate near Xanten ; † November 2, 1950 in Merten near Bonn ) was a German fruit growing pioneer and breeder. He established fruit growing as a branch of the economy in Germany, developed the fruit tree shapes that are used around the world today with the branch tree and spindle bush and discovered one of the most popular apple varieties, the Red Boskoop .

Career

Otto Schmitz-Hübsch came from an old farming family in the Lower Rhine region. He was a grandson of the landowner and economist Johann Anton Schmitz (since his nobility: Schmitz-Hübsch) and son of the Landesökonomierat Johann Wilhelm Schmitz-Hübsch, who was already enthusiastic about pomological variety studies and fruit growing. Otto was infected by this passion as a boy. After stint at the Agricultural University in Berlin and the State Horticultural School in Ghent, Belgium, he undertook extensive study trips to the fruit-growing regions of Belgium and France. After making the decision to set up a pure fruit business, he spent two years looking for suitable terrain. He finally found it in the foothills , a very fertile region west of the Rhine between Cologne and Bonn.

With the introduction of commercial fruit growing in Germany, Otto Schmitz-Hübsch also founded a "fruit growing dynasty": his children all also planted apple and pear plantations and further developed modern fruit growing. Two of them - Hans and Heribert - contributed to the spread of Schmitz-Hübsch's knowledge with numerous publications. The family estate, now run by a great-grandson, is still considered a model company in specialist circles. One of the three fruit-growing museums in Germany is also located there.

Work and effect

Until the 19th century, fruit growing was limited to meadow orchards , pathways ( avenues ) and orchards that were only used for personal needs or as a sideline. In 1896 Otto Schmitz-Hübsch founded the first pure fruit estate for large-scale, efficient apple and pear cultivation, thereby laying the foundation for commercial fruit growing in Germany.

Apple harvest in the Schmitz-Hübsch facilities around 1900

This pioneering act was accompanied by another innovation that was to change fruit growing in Germany and around the world: Schmitz-Hübsch did not plant its plantations with conventional, tall fruit trees, but was the first to systematically cultivate weakly growing apple and pear trees. These lower trees have proven to be hugely beneficial: they bring earlier and higher yields with better quality; They are also much easier to harvest and maintain because ladders are no longer necessary. The bases on which Schmitz-Hübsch refined his trees were later classified as M8 and M9 - the latter is now by far the most common apple base worldwide.

At the beginning of the 1930s Otto Schmitz-Hübsch (together with his son Heribert) succeeded in a groundbreaking further development of his M9 low-stem trees: With the spindle bush, he introduced a particularly small, slender tree shape that is superior to all other forms in terms of cultivation and fertility. Together with the M9 underlay, the "spindle" has also established itself worldwide since 1950. Around nine out of ten apple trees in Europe are spindle bushes.

Otto Schmitz-Hübsch became known as a fruit grower through the Red Boskoop. In 1923 he discovered and refined a reddish colored mutation of the Boskoop variety, which he brought to the market in 1939 as the Red Boskoop Schmitz-Hübsch. It is still one of the most widely grown apple varieties.

See also

• List of pomologists

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• Georg Wenzel: German business leader , Hamburg 1929
• Gerhard Friedrich: Fruit growing , Leipzig 1977
• Elmar Schmitz-Hübsch: Fruit growing in 3 generations . In: Obstbau  12 (August 1987)
• Ulli Albin, Fritz Schmitz-Hübsch: Biography of Otto Schmitz-Hübsch , o.O., 1996

Web links

• Fruit growing museum dedicated to Otto Schmitz-Hübsch