Reinhold Tüxen

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Reinhold Hermann Hans Tüxen (born May 21, 1899 in Ulsnis (Schleswig-Holstein), † May 16, 1980 in Rinteln ) was a German botanist and plant sociologist. Along with Erich Oberdorfer, he was one of the early promoters and founders of today's modern plant sociology in Germany. Its botanical author's abbreviation is Tüxen, in plant sociology it is also the abbreviation Tx. in use.

Life

Reinhold Tüxen was born as the son of the teacher Hermann Christian Tüxen and his wife Anna Catharina Tüxen. Lüthge born. He grew up in the rural north of Schleswig-Holstein , in the Schleiregion of fishing , between the cities of Schleswig and Kappeln, where the Nordschau, one of our rural beech forests, was one of our most intimate places to play and discover as a child . This childlike character was at the beginning of a scientific career that ultimately made Reinhold Tüxen one of the pioneers of plant sociology. Tüxen put 1917 Notabitur now and then participated in the First World War in part. In 1926, shortly after receiving his doctorate, he married Johanna Berger from Haltingen . The marriage resulted in three sons: Jes Tüxen (1929–2015), who was to become an important moor botanist, Fritz Tüxen and Hans Tüxen. The family lived first in Hanover , later in Stolzenau on the Weser and when Tüxen retired in 1963 in Rinteln .

Early scientific career

Tüxen studied from 1919 to 1925, initially also art, but then focused on chemistry, botany and geology in Heidelberg , then plant sociology with Josias Braun-Blanquet at the ETH Zurich and in Montpellier . The contact with Braun-Blanquet, who is considered to be the actual founder of plant sociology, is likely to have shaped the further direction of Tüxen's entire work. Over the following decades they were both close friends and went on several research trips together.

In 1926 Tüxen received his doctorate at the University of Heidelberg with the thesis on 1,5-naphthalene disulfone hydrazide and 1,5-naphthalene disulfonazide and its behavior towards malonic esters with Theodor Curtius, however, with a classical chemical thesis summa cum laude. In 1925 he built the Provincial Museum Hannover , the provincial Office for Conservation on. In 1927, he founded the Floristic-Sociological Working Group in Lower Saxony in Göttingen , which was expressly intended to bring together scientists and interested laypeople, and from 1928 onwards it published its own journal, the communications of the Floristic-Sociological Working Group .

In 1929 he completed his habilitation at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover on the subject of grassland associations in Northwest Germany. There, in May 1931, he founded the department for theoretical and applied plant sociology at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover. Even in this early phase of his work, Tüxen was intensively involved in mapping the vegetation , which was to remain one of his most important scientific tools throughout his life, and laid the foundations for his pioneering work in the field of plant sociology. By 1934 he and his colleagues completed a vegetation mapping of large parts of northern Germany on 75 map sheets at a scale of 1: 25,000.

In the German Reich from 1933 to 1945

In 1933 he was commissioned by Governor Ludwig Gessner (1886–1958) to map the vegetation of the entire province of Hanover. Looking back, Tüxen said that this task marked the breakthrough in German plant sociology as a discipline. He was able to correlate scientific objectives with practical requirements by inferring from his results the optimal economic use of an area (e.g. grassland management). Alwin Seifert , who, as a lawyer for the landscape of the Reich, was supposed to connect the planned motorways with the German landscape , needed a botanist. This first had to map the existing vegetation of the planned routes. Then Tüxen should take into account in his proposals which plants should be considered indigenous in the sense of the blood and soil ideology , and which corresponded best to the existing climate and soil conditions. The aim was to keep the maintenance effort for the planted vegetation as low as possible due to the resilience based on the selection. The selection was based on ideological and scientific criteria. Organizationally, this resulted in an alliance with National Socialist road construction.

It gave Tüxen access to the elites of the Third Reich and was decisive for his personal advancement, as well as for that of the subject of plant sociology in Germany. Fritz Todt , the inspector general for German roads who was responsible for motorway construction under Adolf Hitler , decidedly relied on Tüxen. When Todt was ordered to accelerate the construction of the western wall in 1938 , Tüxen also used his methods and suggestions for planting and thus camouflaging the bunkers there.

Before that, he was involved in the planning of the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg . In 1936/1937 Tüxen made suggestions for the selection of the lawn mixture, which had to be optimally adapted to the loads of the marches carried out there, as well as for the planting of the area. I.a. his vote for an oak-birch forest led to the planting of around 42,000 deciduous trees, mostly oaks between the ages of 2 and 60 years. They replaced parts of the older park and local recreation facilities. In addition, Tüxen recommended planting gorse, aspen and birch to give the newly created SA camp a forest-like character . By 1937 at the latest there was a substantive relationship with the forest administration. Because on October 25, 1937, the examination subject plant sociology was introduced into the new study regulations for forest science. According to Hermann Göring's will , the forest trainees were supposed to learn which tree species could be used to rejuvenate and reforest German forests .

In 1937 Tüxen published The Plant Societies of Northwest Germany , which remained a standard work for plant sociologists in the region and in the Netherlands for decades. In 1938, the floristic-sociological working group in Lower Saxony was merged into the German working group for plant sociology as part of the coordination of numerous organizations in the German Reich . Tüxen initially remained chairman of the working group, but was replaced by Erwin Aichinger in 1941 due to a lack of NSDAP membership and alleged political unreliability . In 1942 the consortium was forced to dissolve.

In 1939, Tüxen achieved a further institutionalization of his field of work: He became head of the newly established Central Office for Vegetation Mapping of the Reich. In the same year he received an extraordinary professorship at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover . In addition, he began in Hanover to set up one of the first botanical gardens based on the knowledge of plant sociology .

When the Second World War broke out, Tüxen was called up for military service. However, the protection of the Reich Forestry Office enabled him to retire from the military in the same year and return to his work. The basis was presumably a decision that Hermann Göring had already made in June 1939 in his role as Reich Forest Master: Work stations for vegetation mapping were to be integrated into the forest management offices. The most important one should be set up in Hanover at the Central Office for Vegetation Mapping of the Reich, i.e. near Tüxen, if it should also remain subordinate to the Kassel Forestry Agency. In August he then apparently handed this staff over directly to Tüxen, with the task of carrying out a vegetation mapping of the entire German Empire. After the major territorial gains of the Axis Powers in Eastern Europe, Tüxen's position was given even more tasks, including mapping the vegetation around the Auschwitz concentration camp . He noted himself: In the vicinity of Auschwitz (East Upper Silesia) a vegetation mapping was made of a larger area as the basis for the reorganization of all economic conditions. (* 24, editor, Miss. Von Rochow , Sauer, Tx., 1:25 000).

In 1942 Tüxen expanded its sphere of activity. Albert Speer as the successor of Todt in his offices and Göring as Reichsforstmeister were arguing at this time about the utilization of the Tüxen staff for their respective areas. In 1942, Göring demanded that a separate sub-department be set up for the interests of the General Inspector for Water and Energy and German Roads, which he should also finance himself. In fact, however, the Reich Finance Minister Johann Ludwig Graf Schwerin von Krosigk prevented the implementation of this project until 1943 , as he could see no significance for the success of the war. This resistance did not last long, however, because on March 11, 1943, the following tasks and projects were classified or legitimized as important to the war effort.

  1. Plant-sociological advice on camouflage work on the Atlantic, Channel and North Sea coasts and possibly the Mediterranean coast, which was started in November 1942 for Belgium and northern France.
  2. A 1: 1 million vegetation mapping of occupied Russia is to be drawn up in conjunction with Provincial Councilor Niemeyer from Planning East by the Reich Ministry for Armaments and Ammunition . Field work is scheduled to begin on May 1, 1943. The preparatory work has already started.

The aim was to systematize the plant society of Russia in relation to forest, grassland and arable weed societies. For this purpose, the entire staff of the department for theoretical and applied plant sociology of the veterinary university and the central office should be fully deployed.

There were also other tasks:

  2. Mapping of the water intake and withdrawal area of ​​the Hermann-Göring-Werke .
  3. Mapping of the flood area around Dessar .

The mappings in the forest area have been suspended. In 1943 the headquarters of the central office was relocated to Stolzenau an der Weser due to increasing air raids on Hanover . Tüxen's activity in connection with the research squadron eg V. This special unit had the task of exploring regions that are difficult to access for troops in order to provide the military command with information about the terrain. The Central Office for Vegetation Mapping had the task of evaluating the aerial photographs obtained by the research team. For example, it was about assessing the extent to which a terrain is suitable for heavy armored vehicles, or about the possibility of military camouflage on site.

After 1945

The central office for vegetation mapping of the Reich was transferred to the Federal Institute for Vegetation Mapping after the Second World War. In the immediate post-war period, Tüxen was able to fend off several attempts to close the facility with the help of foreign research colleagues. Tüxen remained its head until 1962, when the Federal Institute was transferred to the Federal Research Institute for Nature Conservation and Landscape Ecology. In 1964 he retired, but continued to conduct plant sociological research at his new place of residence in the Rinteln district of Todenmann and remained in lively exchange with the international research community in this field until his death in 1980.

In 1946, Tüxen re-founded the floristic-sociological working group in Lower Saxony , now under the name of the floristic-sociological working group, of which he remained chairman until 1971 and whose work he decisively determined. The working group became one of the largest botanical organizations in Germany. Since Tüxen's death, the consortium's communications have been published under the name Tuexenia.

In addition, Tüxen worked as an editor for the trade journal Vegetatio (today: Plant Ecology ), founded in 1949 .

Afterlife

Tüxen's estate, which the state of Lower Saxony acquired after his death, is now being kept in the Institute for Geobotany at the University of Hanover . In particular, it includes around 25,000 partly handwritten and unpublished vegetation photographs from Tüxen and his staff. In 2003 these were digitized.

The Reinhold-Tüxen-Gesellschaft , the Reinhold-Tüxen-Preis of the city of Rinteln, the trade journal Tuexenia , as well as the Reinhold-und-Johanna-Tüxen-Stiftung are named after him.

Honors

Works (selection)

  • The plant communities of northwest Germany . Hanover 1937. Reprint of the edition by Cramer, Studium 1970 (= Historiae naturalis classica. Volume 85), ISBN 3-7682-0701-3 .
  • The plant communities of northwest Germany. 2. completely rework. Edition. Volume 2, Cramer, Studium 1979, ISBN 3-7682-0862-1 .
  • Bibliographia phytosociologica syntaxonomica. Edited by Reinhold Tüxen. Cramer, Lehr, Liefer 1–39 (1971–1986) + Supplement (1976).
  • Our beech forest in the course of the year (= publications for nature conservation and landscape management in Baden-Württemberg. Volume 47). Institute for Ecology and Nature Conservation, Karlsruhe 1986, ISBN 3-88251-109-5 (Describes the beech forest above Tüxen's house in Rinteln-Todenmann).

literature

  • Josias Braun-Blanquet : Reinhold Tüxen at the age of sixty. In: Vegetatio. Volume 8, No. 5-6, 1959, pp. 271-279, doi: 10.1007 / BF00518486 .
  • Josias Braun-Blanquet: Reinhold Tüxen, master plant sociologist. In: Vegetatio. Volume 17, No. 1, 1969, pp. 1-25, doi: 10.1007 / BF01965897 .
  • Akira Miyawaki , Shigetoshi Okuda (Ed.): Vegetation and Landscape of Japan. Festschrift for Prof. Dr. Drs. Hc Reinhold Tüxen, on his 80th birthday on May 21, 1979. The Yokohama Phytosociological Society, Yokohama 1979.
  • Siegfried Schneider: Obituary for Professor Dr. Drs. Hc Reinhold Tüxen . In: Report of the Natural History Society Hanover. Volume 123, 1980, pp. 283-288.
  • Jan Barkman: Reinhold Tüxen 1899–1980. In: Vegetatio. Volume 48, No. 1, 1981, pp. 87-91, doi: 10.1007 / BF00117365 .
  • Heinz Ellenberg : J. Braun-Blanquet, 3.8.1884-22.9.1980. R. Tüxen, May 21, 1899 to May 16, 1980. 50 years of plant sociology. In: Reports of the German Botanical Society. Volume 95, 1982, pp. 387-391.
  • Jes Tüxen: Reinhold Tüxen (1899–1980) . In: Report on the International Symposium. Vegetation science . 1981 (1982) pp. 11-18.
  • Ernst Preising : The scientific archive of the plant sociologist Professor Tüxen and its importance for the state of Lower Saxony. In: New archive for Lower Saxony . Volume 29, 1980, pp. 186-189.
  • Ansgar Hoppe: The Reinhold Tüxen Archive at the Institute for Geobotany at the University of Hanover. Digital recording of the vegetation recordings. In: Tuexenia. Volume 25, 2005, pp. 463-474, abstract .
  • Richard Pott (Ed.): 100 years of Reinhold Tüxen. Geobotany and vegetation geography . In: Reports of the Reinhold-Tüxen-Gesellschaft (RTG). Volume 11, 1999, ISBN 3-9804174-5-X .
  • Reports from the Reinhold Tüxen Society . Hanover 1989 ff.
  • Writings of the Reinhold-Tüxen-Gesellschaft . Cramer, Stuttgart 1985 ff.
  • Tuexenia. Communications from the Floristic-Sociological Working Group . Göttingen 1981 ff.
  • Elke von Radziewsky , Ruth Hübotter (ed.): Houses for gardeners. The architect Peter Hübotter (= garden culture. ). With an essay by Manfred Sack. Dölling and Galitz, Munich 2004, ISBN 3-935549-95-4 , Learning from the landscape for the garden. Research station for the plant sociologist Reinhold Tüxen and his wife Johanna, 1962, pp. 78–81 (about Tüxen's house and private institute in Rinteln-Todenmann on the slope of the Weser Mountains, designed by the Hanoverian architect Peter Hübotter ).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Our beech forest throughout the year. P. 7.
  2. ↑ Reinhold Tüxen: About 1,5-naphthalene disulfonhydrazide and 1,5-naphthalene disulfonazide and its behavior against malonic esters (Diss. Naturwiss.-Math. Faculty University of Heidelberg). Otto-Verlag, Heppenheim / Bergstrasse 1926, 51 pp.
  3. ↑ a b c R. Tüxen: From the office for theoretical and applied plant sociology of the veterinary surgeon. University of Hanover. An activity report by Reinhold Tüxen. (Special print from the 92nd and 93rd annual reports of the Natural History Society in Hanover). Hanover 1942. pp. 65/66
  4. ↑ R. Tüxen: From the office for theoretical and applied plant sociology of the veterinary surgeon. University of Hanover. An activity report by Reinhold Tüxen. (Special print from the 92nd and 93rd annual reports of the Natural History Society in Hanover ). Hanover 1942. pp. 74/75
  5. ↑ C. Vierle: Camillo Schneider . Dendrologist and horticultural writer. A study of his life and work. (Materials on the history of garden art, Vol. 4). Berlin 1998. p. 62; Nils M. Franke : The Siegfried Line in the landscape. Activities of nature conservation in the time of National Socialism and its actors. Mainz 2015. p. 45
  6. ↑ A. Seifert: A life for the landscape. Düsseldorf, Cologne 1962. pp. 71/72; R. Tüxen: From the office for theoretical and applied plant sociology of the veterinary surgeon. University of Hanover. An activity report by Reinhold Tüxen. (Special print from the 92nd and 93rd annual reports of the Natural History Society in Hanover). Hanover 1942. pp. 74/75
  7. ↑ Copy: The General Inspector for German Roads No. 2228 / 3-59 A 20.40. Berlin W8, February 4, 1939. Route mapping and engineering biology. Main State Archives Wiesbaden Section 485 No. 138b. P. 1/2
  8. ↑ H. Singer (ed.): Development and use of the Todt organization. Vol. I and II. (Sources on the history of the Todt organization). Osnabrück 1998. p. 3 / Letter: W. Hirsch to A. Seifert of March 8, 1939. 3 See file F1b / 130. A. Seifert held at the Technical University of Munich. P. 1
  9. ↑ A. Schmidt: Synchronized landscape - dealing with nature and landscape when building the Nazi party rally grounds in Nuremberg. In: N. Franke, K. Werk (Ed.): Nature conservation on the former Westwall. Large-scale Nazi systems in discourse. Geisenheimer Contributions to the Cultural Landscape Vol. 1). Mainz 2016. ISBN 978-3-934742-72-7
  10. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister to the Reich Minister for Finance. Berlin W 8, August 2, 1939. In: Bundesarchiv Berlin R 2 RFM 4654. S. 1
  11. ↑ Dear comrades: [Circular letter from W. Hirsch to the landscape lawyers.] October 22, 1939. 4 See file F1b / 130. A. Seifert held at the Technical University of Munich. P. 4
  12. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister. Sign II 4529. Berlin, June… June 1939. [Unfortunately no exact date]. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. pp. 1–4
  13. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister II / P7062 to the Reich Minister for Finance in Berlin. Berlin, August 25, 1939. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. S. 1
  14. ↑ R. Tüxen: From the office for theoretical and applied plant sociology of the veterinary surgeon. University of Hanover. An activity report by Reinhold Tüxen. (Special print from the 92nd and 93rd annual reports of the Natural History Society in Hanover). Hanover 1942. pp. 78/79
  15. ^ The Reichsforstmeister to the Reich Minister for Finance in Berlin. B 349.51-1. Berlin W8, October 12, 1942. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. P. 1 / See also attachment to the document
  16. ↑ Ref. V. Knorre / FA3781. Berlin [illegible] February 1943. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. S. 1
  17. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister to the Reich Minister for Finance. Berlin W 8, March 11, 1943. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. S. 1/2
  18. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister to the Reich Minister for Finance. Berlin W 8, March 11, 1943. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. S. 1
  19. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister to the Reich Minister for Finance. Berlin W 8, March 11, 1943. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. S. 1
  20. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister to the Reich Minister for Finance. Berlin W 8, March 11, 1943. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. S. 2
  21. ↑ The Reichsforstmeister to the Reich Minister for Finance. Berlin W 8, March 11, 1943. In: Bundesarchiv R 2 RFM 4740. S. 2
  22. ↑ Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Ed.): Nature and State. State nature conservation in Germany 1906–2006. (Nature Conservation and Biodiversity Issue 35). Edit v. H.-W. Frohn and Friedemann Schmoll Bonn 2006
  23. ^ N. Franke: The Siegfried Line in the landscape. Activities of nature conservation in the time of National Socialism and its actors. Mainz 2015. pp. 63/64
  24. ↑ J. Braun-Blanquet 1969, p. 8.
  25. ^ Website of the city of Rinteln
  26. ↑ J. Barkman 1981, p. 90.
  27. ↑ Otti Wilmanns in: Our beech forest in the course of the year. P. 7.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tüxen, Reinhold
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tüxen, Reinhold Hermann Hans (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German biologist, botanist and plant sociologist
DATE OF BIRTH May 21, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Ulsnis (Schleswig-Holstein)
DATE OF DEATH May 16, 1980
Place of death Rinteln