Richard Braungart (agronomist)

Richard Braungart

Richard Braungart (born December 4, 1839 in Kissingen , † April 7, 1916 in Munich ) was a German agricultural scientist . From 1867 to 1894 he taught at the Central Agricultural School in Weihenstephan .

Life path

Richard Braungart, son of a master tailor, studied agriculture in Weihenstephan, worked as a meadow builder and teacher at the Wiesenbauschule in Würzburg from 1860 to 1862 and then as a cultural engineer in Bohemia . In 1865 he became assistant director and in 1867 lecturer at the Central Agricultural School in Weihenstephan. From 1869 to 1894 he worked here as the “Royal Bavarian Professor of Soil Science, for General and Special Plant Production Studies and for Agricultural Equipment and Machine Science ”. He was the father of the eponymous writer Richard Braungart (1872–1963).

Teaching and Research

Braungart was a versatile teacher and researcher with great organizational talent. Between 1865 and 1875 he organized the first comparative plow tests in Germany in Weihenstephan . He made a name for himself in specialist circles in particular through his book publications . He preferred to look at the disciplines of agriculture from a historical perspective. This conception of the presentation can be seen particularly clearly in his textbook “Science in Soil Science” (1876), a largely person-centered history of science in this field.

Braungart did not publish his most important scientific works until he was retired. These books include a textbook on the cultivation of fodder maize (1894), a manual on meadow and willow culture (1899) and a manual on hops comprising almost 900 printed pages (1901). For decades, the latter was regarded as a standard work in the field of hop culture and research.

On numerous hikes, Braungart drew the farm implements available to farmers and published a bibliophile book as early as 1881 under the title “ Agricultural implements in their practical relationships and their prehistoric and ethnographic significance” . He caused a sensation in the professional world with his work, published in 1912, "The original home of agriculture for all Indo-European peoples, demonstrated by the history of cultivated plants and agricultural implements in Central and Northern Europe" . In this work and in two other books about the southern and northern Germanic peoples , published in 1914 and 1925 , he tried to establish close connections between agricultural history and folklore . Although some of his conclusions were later refuted, these late works are still today an informative source of documentation for agricultural-historical and folkloric research, mainly due to the observations that were communicated.

Major works

• The international agricultural exhibition in Bremen 1874. A contemporary picture of modern agriculture . Verlag A. Ackermann Munich 1875.
• The science in soil science. A guideline for geobotanical-economic studies, for geologists, botanists, farmers and foresters, culture engineers etc. as well as for use in higher educational institutions . Hugo Voigt publisher Berlin and Leipzig 1876.
• The agricultural implements in their practical relationships as well as in their prehistoric and ethnographic significance. With 1 atlas of 48 plates . C. Winter's University Bookstore Heidelberg 1881.
• The fodder maize as the most effective and cheapest means against every fodder need . Publishing house Th.Ackermann Munich 1894.
• Manual of the rational meadow and pasture culture and forage use, developed and designed on the basis of modern feeding theory . Publishing house Th.Ackermann Munich 1899.
• The hops of all the hop-growing countries of the world as brewing material according to their historical, botanical, chemical, brewing, physiological-medical and agricultural-technical relationships, as well as according to their preservation and packaging. For self-study and reference . Publishing house R. Oldenbourg Munich and Leipzig 1901.
• The original home of agriculture for all Indo-European peoples, proven by the history of cultivated plants and agricultural implements in Central and Northern Europe . University bookstore Carl Winter Heidelberg 1912.
• The southern Germans. The Bojer, Vindelizier, Raeter, Noriker, Taurisker etc. were, after all their agricultural equipment and facilities, not Celts, but original Germans, most likely the original tribe of all Teutons . 2 volumes. Carl Winter University Bookstore Heidelberg 1914.
• The North Germanic . Edited by Friedrich Dettweiler based on the handwritten documents left by the author. University bookshop Carl Winter Heidelberg 1925.

literature

• Friedrich Dettweiler: Richard Braungart . In: Reports of the German Botanical Society vol. 35, 1917, General Assembly booklet pp. 93–96.
• Pastor a. D. Hermanns: Dr. Richard Braungart, professor at the Agricultural Academy in Weihenstephan 1839-1916 . In: Publications of the Society for Franconian History. Seventh row: Lebensbilder aus Franken Vol. 2, 1922, pp. 57–67 (with list of publications).
• Heinz Haushofer:  Braungart, Richard. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 560 ( digitized version ).

Web links

Wikisource: Richard Braungart  - Sources and full texts

• Literature by and about Richard Braungart in the catalog of the German National Library