Walter Dix (agronomist)

Walter Dix (born November 7, 1879 in Rhaunen ( Hunsrück ), † March 1, 1965 in Wiesbaden ) was a German crop scientist. From 1924 to 1934 he headed the newly founded Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel .

Life

Dix studied agriculture in Bonn and received his doctorate in 1911 at the University of Gießen with a dissertation on the organization of agriculture in the Lower Rhine region . He then worked for several years as a seed breeding manager in private plant breeding companies. From 1921 he headed the arable and seed breeding department of the Silesian Chamber of Agriculture in Wroclaw . In 1924 he followed a call as a full professor at the University of Kiel . As the successor to Hermann Rodewald , he became director of the newly created Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding.

For almost eleven years, Dix represented not only plant cultivation and plant breeding at Kiel University , but all fields of plant production . Of his research work, studies on the behavior of phosphate fertilizers in the soil are particularly noteworthy. He has published thoughtful articles on pasture management . His most important publication in the field of plant breeding is the book Practical Plant Breeding on a Theoretical Basis , published in 1931 .

On January 26, 1934, Dix's lectures were severely disrupted by the National Socialists, whereupon he had to break off the lecture. Both the National Socialist student body and the rural peasantry demanded his dismissal. In April 1934 Dix took leave of his own accord and in 1935, after completing his agricultural studies at the University of Kiel, retired . From 1936 to 1938 he taught at the Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding of the Agricultural University Yüksek Ziraat Enstitüsüdür YZE, in Ankara . After the war he returned from Turkey and took up residence in Eltville am Rhein . Most recently he lived in Wiesbaden.

Fonts (selection)

• Investigations into the operational organization of agriculture on the Lower Rhine . Diss. Phil. Gießen 1911. Zugl .: Work of the German Agricultural Society, no. 185, part 2, Berlin 1911.
• The essence of permanent and alternating pasture . In: Modern measures to increase agricultural production. Verlag Ferdinand Hirt, Breslau 1929. Zugl .: Publications of the Schleswig-Holstein University Society No. 22.
• Practical plant breeding on a theoretical basis . Published by J. Neumann, Neudamm 1931.
• Sterilization of the soil by means of an electric current . In: Scientific Archive for Agriculture Dept. A, Archive for Plant Cultivation, Vol. 10, 1934, pp. 172–190.
• The climate of the Rheingau and quality viticulture . In: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 93, 1951, pp. 33–44.

literature

• Friedrich Volbehr and Richard Weyl: Professors and lecturers at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel 1665–1954. 4th edition Kiel 1956, p. 248.
• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar, born in 1966, Vol. 1, pp. 398–399 (with a list of his most important publications).
• Uhlig, Ralph: Expelled scientists from the Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel (CAU) after 1933. On the history of the CAU under National Socialism . A documentation (Kieler Werkstücke. Series A: Contributions to Schleswig-Holstein and Scandinavian history, 2). Frankfurt am Main et al. 1991.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Professor Dr. Walter Dix. uni-kiel.de , accessed on August 23, 2013 .