Paul Limberg

Paul Limberg

Paul Limberg (born January 7, 1917 in Petrograd , † October 7, 1997 in Berlin ) was a German crop scientist . From 1965 to 1982 he worked as a professor for arable and crop production at the Technical University of Berlin .

Life

Paul Limberg, son of a Baltic landowner and factory owner, grew up on his parents' property in Estonia, attended elementary school and the humanistic grammar school in Dorpat (now: Tartu) and began studying agriculture at Dorpat University in 1934 . After the resettlement of the German population from the Baltic States, he continued his studies at the University of Königsberg and completed it in 1941 at the University of Wroclaw with the exam to become a qualified farmer. In 1942 he was called up for military service.

From autumn 1945 he worked as a seed breeding manager in Lower Bavaria. In 1948 he became a research assistant with Eduard von Boguslawski at the Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding of the former University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (since 1957 university again) in Giessen. As head of the Rauischholzhausen research station , he acquired basic knowledge of field research. In 1952 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on the influence of the leprosy period on the development and forage yield of the flat pea . After completing his doctorate, he stayed at the University of Giessen. As an assistant or senior assistant, he was closely involved with Eduard von Boguslawski at the Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding and supervised the entire field trials.

In 1961, Limberg completed his habilitation at the University of Gießen with a thesis on the determination of the productivity type using the example of some cultivated plants and acquired the Venia legendi for the field of plant cultivation and plant breeding. In 1964 he took over the management of the Institute for Crop and Seed Production at the Research Institute for Agriculture (FAL) in Braunschweig - Völkenrode . In 1965 he accepted the professorship for arable and crop production at the Faculty of Agriculture (later Department of International Agricultural Development) at the Technical University of Berlin . He worked here until his retirement in 1982.

Research and Teaching

Site research was at the center of Paul Limberg's scientific work . Through experiments and theoretical considerations, he tried to find out the laws of how climatic growth factors affect the production of agricultural crops. Ultimately, the characterization of use and performance properties of the most important crops grown in Central Europe was his actual research goal.

Limberg had already coined the term “ productivity type ” in his habilitation thesis and understood it to mean the yield-related physiological-ecological character of species and varieties of agricultural crops. From his knowledge of the species and cultivar characters or the productivity types, he tried to derive the conditions under which maximum yields can be expected in a rough approximation. In 1972 he published the best and most extensive article on this research area, which was previously little worked on by crop science, in the "Handbuch der Pflanzenernahrung und Fertilization".

Together with Eduard von Boguslawski , Limberg has been instrumental in setting up the European nitrogen fertilization test series (IDV / ISDV / IOSDV) of the International Soil Fertility Working Group since the early 1960s , which sustainably promoted the cross-border research cooperation on questions of nitrogen fertilization and the nitrogen balance of the soils has been.

From the beginning, Limberg maintained intensive international contacts with specialist colleagues. In 1968 and 1971 he traveled repeatedly to Canada and the USA . There were close contacts to scientists in Turkey , e. B. through joint research with the University of Izmir . At times Limberg was the deputy chairman of the "Association of German-Turkish Agricultural and Natural Scientists". Even after his retirement he continued to support research activities of Turkish agronomists who were looking for ways to green fallow land in Anatolia through the cultivation of legumes for many years . In 1990, with the opening of the borders to the Eastern European countries, he immediately made contact with “his old” Estonian University of Tartu (Dorpat). As a guest lecturer, he was able to give trend-setting advice on the reorientation of agricultural teaching and research.

Paul Limberg, a committed university professor and researcher, earned a high reputation in the professional world. From 1956 to 1963 he was a member of the board and from 1979 to 1981 deputy chairman of the " Society for Crop Science ". In 1963 he was awarded the Justus Liebig Prize from the University of Giessen . The University of Tartu (Estonia) awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1993 .

Publications (selection)

• Investigations into the influence of the sowing time on the development and forage yield of Lathyrus sativus . Diss. Agr. Gießen 1952. Typescript.
• Development, growth and income generation . In: Lectures for Plant Breeders, Vol. 6, 1960, pp. 27–57.
• A contribution to the determination of the productivity type using the example of some cultivated plants based on their reaction to climatic growth factors . Habil.-Schr. Agricultural Faculty Univ. Giessen 1961.
• The concept of the productivity type and its meaning for the selection of species and varieties in catch crops . In: Landbauforschung Völkenrode Vol. 2, 1963, pp. 115–130.
• The influence of nitrogen on development and yield formation . In: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 119, 1964, pp. 119-137.
• On the productivity type of the crop (illustrated by examples) . In: Hans Linser (Ed.): Handbook of plant nutrition and fertilization . Springer-Verlag Wien - New York, Vol. 1, Second Half, 1972, pp. 663-738.

literature

• Eduard von Boguslawski : Laudation for Professor Dr. Paul Limberg . In: Knud Caesar (Ed.): Lines of development in plant cultivation research. Symposium on the occasion of the 70th birthday of Professor Dr. Paul Limberg on January 9, 1987 . Series of publications, Department of International Agricultural Development (FIA), Technische Universität Berlin, 1987, No. 106, pp. 5–6 (with picture on p. 2).
• Prof. Dr. Dr. hc Paul Limberg in memoriam . In: News of the Society for Crop Science for 1998 . Issue 1, pp. 4-5.

Web links

• Literature by and about Paul Limberg in the catalog of the German National Library