Walter bitterly

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Walter Bitterlich (born February 19, 1908 in Reutte , Tyrol ; † February 9, 2008 there ) was an Austrian forest scientist . Thanks to his inventions, he became the founder of the modern forest inventory . He was considered one of the best-known and most renowned personalities in forestry. The Society of American Foresters (SAF) has named him the "most famous forester of the world" (German: "most famous forester in the world").

Life

Walter Bitterlich was the son of forester Ernst Bitterlich and his wife Maria, nee Wachtel. His childhood and youth were marked by hardship. After completing secondary school in Innsbruck and then in Salzburg , Bitterlich, who actually wanted to become a painter , studied forestry at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna (BOKU). He completed his studies in 1930 with a degree in engineering . In 1933 he passed the state examination for higher forest service with honors . In the same year he became a member of the NSDAP . As he then was no place he worked as an unpaid volunteer in the Austrian Forestry (ÖBf) and took over forest management work in the Mayr-Melnhofschen Forestry Administration. In this way he gained extensive experience in taxation, surveying and cartography in forestry.

In 1935 he was finally taken over by the Öbf, and from 1938 until the beginning of the Second World War he worked as a forester in his home town of Reutte, where he headed the forestry office that his father had headed 30 years earlier . During the Second World War he was deployed on the Eastern Front from 1942 to 1943 and then transferred to Normandy . In later decades he dealt intensively with his war experiences, most recently in 2003 in Reutter Ehrenberg-Verlag, his war memoirs. Personal records from 1942 to 1945 . After the end of the war he returned to his hometown Reutte, but was initially not allowed to work for the ÖBf again due to the regulations at the time and moved with his family to his parents in Salzburg. In 1946 he was hired as a private forest worker at the Krupp estate administration in Blühnbach , where he was able to try out his first ideas for the angle counting test in practice.

He first published his idea for this inventory method in 1948, which caused a great stir in the professional world. In 1949 he presented the method, which was later used worldwide as the “Bitterlich Method”, to a large forest forum at the World Forest Congress in Helsinki . In the same year, his dissertation on the angle counting sample was accepted by the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, and bitterly awarded a Dr. nat. tech. PhD .

In the following years, Bitterlich devoted himself primarily to his scientific work and from 1948 was again active as forester for the ÖBf, first in Zell am See until 1953 and then in Hallein until 1967 .

In 1967 he received a call as a full professor at the chair for Forest Yield Science at the University (later University) for Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, combined with the management of the Institute for Forest Yield Science at the university. During this time his angle counting test became world famous in connection with the mirror relascope he developed . In Benno Hesske (* 1920 in Salzburg) he found a congenial colleague from 1949/50 who developed his inventions to the point where they were ready for production and made them known around the world, initially at Optimar, then from 1962 with his company "Feinmechanische Optische Betriebsgesellschaft (FOB)" . Bitterlich's methods are used today on all continents and have been included in all textbooks on forest measurement and forest inventory. He summarized his research and development results for this device and its possible applications in 1984 in the standard work The Relascope Idea. Relative Measurements in Forestry together. In 1978 he was at BOKU emeritus .

Bitterlich was married to Ilse, née Hauptmann. The couple had four children: Gerhard, Helga, Herwig and Sigrid. Bitterlich, who never drank alcohol and never smoked, was very athletic. His enthusiasm for gymnastics earned him the title of "Giant Wave Forest Master" among forest colleagues. In addition, he cultivated his artistic inclinations and talents and was active philosophically. He summarized his considerations in this regard in a "world moral doctrine".

After many years of living in Salzburg and Hallein, Professor Bitterlich had been living in his birthplace Reutte in Tyrol since 2006 and died there on February 9, 2008 ten days before his 100th birthday.

Act

Bitter published articles in various journals and has acquired patents on various inventions , not only in the field of forestry. In addition to forestry studies and inventions, such as the Winkelzählprobe , the bitterly rod that relascope and Telerelaskop , the rate measuring angle and an optical Baummesskluppe , his inventions for example, relate to the field of surveying , the weaponry and light on the development of snow vehicles. Bitterlich remained inventive into old age and worked in his workshop on the new and further development of tree measuring devices. For example, he created the so-called segment circle to record irregular tree cross-sections and, from 1996, he dealt with the further development of his sighting angle from 1952.

Honors

On the occasion of Bitterlich's 90th birthday, his Göttingen colleague Horst Kramer wrote about him: “According to an ondit , there is only one living forester whose name every other forester knows.” This forester was bitter. The forest scientist has received numerous honors for his internationally recognized work. The city of Nashville , Tennessee, made him an honorary citizen and the Forest Science Society of Finland made him a corresponding member. He was since 1971 an honorary member of the American Association Forst (Society of American Foresters), which also him the "most famous forester of the world" (dt .: "berühmtester foresters in the world" appointed). On July 1st, 2006, the Tyrolean Forest Association recognized Bitterlich's life's work by awarding him honorary membership.

The State of Salzburg awarded him the gold medal of honor, the Federal President of the Republic of Austria awarded Bitterlich in 1983 the Cross of Honor for Science and Art, First Class . The Austrian Association of Patent Holders and Inventors honored his achievements with the Kaplan Medal . Bitterlich was also the recipient of the Reutte community's gold medal of merit. In Germany he was honored with the award of the award for the appreciation and promotion of outstanding achievements in the field of forest biometrics.

Some of his scientific documents and devices have been on view since 2004 in a permanent exhibition dedicated to him and his life's work in the Füssen Forest Experience Center .

Fonts

  • The angle counting sample , dissertation, Vienna 1949.
  • Forest harvest theory , compiled by Julius Marschall based on lectures by Bitterlich, Vienna 1973.
  • as processor: wood gauges. Teaching aid for the forestry and wood management course , Vienna 1974.
  • The Relascope Idea. Relative Measurements in Forestry , London 1984, ISBN 0-85198-539-4 .
  • Logic life. Food for thought also on behalf of many who can no longer speak , Salzburg 1986.
  • The first 13 months. Experience reports from the Second World War , Salzburg 1996.
  • War memories. Personal records from 1942 to 1945 , Reutte 2003, ISBN 3-901821-03-1 .

literature

  • Karl-Eugen Czernin: Walter Bitterlich. Origin, life, works . (Diploma thesis.) University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna 1987. p. 168.
  • Horst Kramer : Professor Dr. Walter Bitterlich 80 years. In: General forest and hunting newspaper. 159th year, 1988, ISSN  0002-5852 , p. 74.
  • Horst Kramer : To the completion of the 90th year of life of Professor Bitterlich. In: Forest and Wood. 53rd volume, issue 03/1998, ISSN  0932-9315 , p. 92.
  • Benno Hesske: Dr. Walter Bitterlich 80. In: Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift (AFZ). 43rd year, issue 07/1988, ISSN  0002-5860 , p. 159.
  • Albert Scharbach: Obituary Prof. Walter Bitterlich In: Forst und Holz 63, Issue 5/2008, p. 49.
  • Albert Scharbach: Over the edge, Walter Bitterlich 1908-2008 In: Walter Bitterlich Special p. 9, Austrian forest newspaper 03-2008.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ ORF: "World-famous Professor bitterly deceased" ; Retrieved February 10, 2008
  2. ↑ Confirmed, official date of death by the Reutte registry office, February 12, 2008
  3. ↑ a b c d N.N :: Honorary membership for Prof. Dr. Bitterly. The Tiroler Fortstverein pays tribute to an outstanding forester on June 28, 2006
  4. ^ A b John F. Bell: It's The People… Walter Bitterlich ( Memento of the original from November 13, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.proaxis.com
  5. ↑ a b c d e f Horst Kramer: Professor Dr. Walter Bitterlich 80 years. In: General forest and hunting newspaper. 159th year, 1988, p. 74.
  6. ↑ Profil , No. 9, 2010, p. 41, Vienna.
  7. ↑ a b c Rudolf Kwisda, Reinhard Pacher, Ernst Pflugbeil, Reinhold Sieber, Harald Sutter: Walter bitterly died . In: Bauernzeitung , online edition of February 11, 2008 ; Retrieved February 18, 2008.
  8. ↑ a b c d e Horst Kramer: On the completion of the 90th year of life of Professor Bitterlich. In: Forest and Wood. 53rd year, issue 03/1998, p. 92.
  9. ↑ a b -ves- .: As an idea fifty years ago revolutionized forestry , Local newspaper of 26 December 2004 (online archive) ; Retrieved February 10, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Bitter, Walter
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian forest scientist
DATE OF BIRTH February 19, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Reutte
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 2008
Place of death Reutte