Paul Rintelen

Paul Rintelen (1968)

Paul Rintelen (born March 1, 1904 in Ahlen , † November 4, 1985 in Freising ) was a German agricultural economist. He is considered to be the decisive pioneer for the rapid expansion of the maize cultivation areas in the Federal Republic of Germany.

Life

Rintelen, the son of a higher regional judge, attended high school in Hamm, completed a two-year internship on two farms in the Münsterland from 1921 and then began studying agriculture. In 1923 he enrolled at the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster . But since only part of the course was offered there, he switched to the Agricultural University of Bonn-Poppelsdorf in 1924 . In 1926 he passed the diploma exam. In the following years he worked on experimental farms at the agricultural research station in Münster. In 1929 he obtained his doctorate in Münster. phil. with a thesis on potato experiments under economic aspects and in 1932 he acquired the Dr.agr. with a dissertation on "Population development, food production and food consumption in Germany".

Since 1934, Rintelen was responsible for the specialist areas of economic advice, accounting and agricultural statistics at the Landesbauernschaft Westfalen-Lippe . In May 1938, in a secret "Memorandum on the State of Agriculture in the District of the Regional Farmers' Union of Westphalia", he submitted a harsh business and economic criticism of the Nazi regime's agricultural policy and its effects. In 1938 he completed his habilitation in Bonn with a thesis on the risk in intensive agricultural operations. Since there was no prospect of a job as a university lecturer at the time, he took on a job as an agricultural consultant in the chemical industry in 1939. In 1943 he was drafted into the Wehrmacht . Seriously wounded, he returned to Germany from Soviet captivity at the end of 1945. In 1949 he took over the management of the central office for economic advice and business administration at the Chamber of Agriculture for Westphalia-Lippe . He was also responsible for the supervision of all associated experimental properties. In 1952 he went on a study trip to the most important agricultural regions of the USA for several months. In 1952 he followed a call to the Faculty of Agriculture and Horticulture at the Technical University of Munich in Weihenstephan . Here, as full professor and director, until his retirement in 1971, he headed the "Institute for Economic Studies in Agriculture".

Research services

The scientific activity of Rintelen is characterized by great breadth and practical relevance. The thematic focal points in Weihenstephan included research work on Bavarian accounting, agricultural statistics and the division of Bavaria into agricultural production operations. With numerous original ideas, Rintelen provided food for thought for the development of new production processes and for the optimization of farm structures on farms. Over 100 scientific publications, including several independent writings, are the result of his pen. 72 doctoral students have completed their doctorates under his aegis, including B. also the later Bavarian Minister of Agriculture Hans Eisenmann .

The name Paul Rintelen is inseparable from the cultivation of maize in the Federal Republic of Germany. Influenced by cultivation experiments with maize in Westphalia in the 1930s, but especially through the various suggestions during his study trip to the maize regions of the USA carried out in 1952, Rintelen began his own cultivation experiments on his experimental estates after 1953. With a large number of doctoral students, he determinedly examined the performance of this field crop for German agriculture, both from a cultivation point of view and from a business perspective.

Rintelen's research on the cultivation of maize in Central European climatic regions has had a decisive influence on the rapid spread of this crop in the Federal Republic of Germany. With his ideas, Rintelen particularly stimulated the activities of the German Maize Committee , which was founded in 1956 by plant breeders and the German Agricultural Society, and was elected 1st chairman in 1961. The book published by Rintelen in 1971 “ Mais. A manual on production technology and economics ”is one of the standard works in German-language maize literature.

honors and awards

For his services to science and to German agriculture, Paul Rintelen received the highest recognitions and awards, including the Justus von Liebig Prize , the Great Cross of Merit of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany , and the Wilhelm Niklas Medal of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture und Forsten , the gold state medal from the Bavarian State Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forests , the Bavarian Order of Merit and the gold plaque from the Westphalia-Lippe Chamber of Agriculture. The Universities of Bonn and Hohenheim awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1974.

Fonts (selection)

• Potato experiments on the experimental estate of the Chamber of Agriculture for the Province of Westphalia in Sprakel in the light of business management . Diss. Phil. Münster 1929. Zugl. in: Landwirtschaftliche Jahrbücher Vol. 70, 1929, pp. 727-774.
• Germany population development, food production and food consumption. A contribution to the self-sufficiency of the German people with food . Diss. Agricultural University Bonn-Poppelsdorf 1932.
• The risk on farms. A contribution to the question of the structure and management of land-based intensive farms . Agricultural Habil. Bonn 1939. Zugl. in: Reports on Agriculture, Special Issue NF No. 144, 1938.
• Agricultural business planning . Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag Munich 4th edition 1958; 5th edition 1959; 6th edition. 1962. - Previously under the title: Operational planning for peasant economies . 1943; 2nd edition 1948; 3rd edition 1949.
• Corn. A handbook on production engineering and economics . Published by Paul Rintelen with the collaboration of numerous specialist colleagues. Bayerischer Landwirtschaftsverlag Munich 1971.

literature

• Paul Rintelen . In: Agrarwirtschaft Jg. 13, 1964, pp. 107-108 (with scripts up to 1963).
• Speeches and lecture on the occasion of the academic ceremony for the completion of the 80th year of life by o. Prof. Drs. Drs. Hc Paul Rintelen . In: Bayerisches Landwirtschaftliches Jahrbuch vol. 61, special issue 1, 1964, pp. 155–187 (with cataloging of the dissertations prepared by Rintelen).
• H. Steinhauser and R. Zapf: In memoriam Paul Rintelen . In: Agrarwirtschaft vol. 35, 1986, p. 28.
• In memory of Professor Dr. phil., Dr. agr. habil, Dr. oec. hc, Dr. agr. hc Paul Rintelen . In: Mais Jg. 14, 1986, H. 1, P. 7 (with picture).
• Gisbert Strotdrees : Secret paper: "Falling income of the farmer" . In other words: farms, farmers, years of hunger. From the history of Westphalian agriculture 1890-1950 , Münster 1991, pp. 151–152.