Walter Sauerlandt

Walter Sauerlandt (born September 24, 1899 in Flurstedt , Thuringia , † August 26, 1982 in Kassel ) was a German agronomist . He was one of the most important humus researchers of his time. From 1948 to 1964 he headed the Institute for Humus Management at the Research Institute for Agriculture (FAL) in Braunschweig.

Live and act

Walter Sauerlandt, son of a factory director, completed an agricultural apprenticeship on a manor in Thuringia after graduating from high school and studied chemistry at Leipzig University from 1922 . During his studies he became a member of the Burgundia Jena Landsmannschaft in 1922 . In 1929 he received his doctorate there under the aegis of soil bacteriologist Felix Löhnis with a dissertation on the formation and decomposition of humus . This was followed by three years at the Agricultural Institute of the Technical University of Gdańsk , where he passed the examination to become a qualified farmer in 1932. He then worked as a research assistant with Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich at the University of Königsberg . Here he completed his habilitation in 1935 with a thesis on the plant-physiological evaluation of phosphoric acid in farm fertilizers .

In 1935, Sauerlandt moved to the Institute for Soil Science and Plant Nutrition at the Prussian Agricultural Experimental and Research Institute in Landsberg / Warthe , where he headed the Experimental Department. In 1938 he was appointed professor at the Reich Research Institute for Alpine Agriculture in Säusenstein (Austria). Here he was active, with interruptions due to military service, until the end of World War II.

From 1948 until his retirement in 1964, Sauerlandt headed the newly founded Institute for Humus Management (later renamed Institute for Soil Biology ) at the Research Institute for Agriculture (FAL) in Braunschweig . In the first few years he was particularly concerned with questions of the effective use of manure produced by the farm. The primary research objective was to increase the yield of the crops. He gave the farmers practical instructions with his book Fundamentals of Soil Fertility. Humusdüngung und Bodengare (1948) as well as with the sixth edition of Karl Beinert's book The farm's own fertilizer, its extraction, treatment and utilization (1951).

After 1950 Sauerlandt dealt increasingly with the influence of micro and macro organisms in humus formation . Sauerlandt was the first agricultural scientist to set up a post for soil zoology in agriculture and compost management at his institute , which Otto Graff was the first to hold. Together with his long-time colleague Cord Tietjen , he published the main results of his research in the book Humuswirtschaft des Ackerbau , published in 1970 . As in many of his writings, Sauerlandt also dealt with historical questions here and in an introductory chapter presented in detail the development of humus fertilization over the course of time. Of his historical and biographical contributions, the appreciation of the life's work of Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich (1956) should be emphasized.

Publications (selection)

• Investigations into the formation and decomposition of humus in manure and in the soil . Diss. Phil. Univ. Leipzig 1929. - Zugl. in: Scientific Archive for Agriculture Dept. A, Plant Cultivation Vol. 2, 1929, pp. 434–471.
• Investigations into the physiological evaluation of the phosphoric acid in the farm's own fertilizers . Dis. phil. Univ. Königsberg 1935. - Excerpt from: Journal of Plant Nutrition, Fertilization and Soil Science, Vol. 42, 1936, pp. 187–229.
• A contribution to the question of the investigation and assessment of organic fertilizers. The computational evaluation of humus fertilization experiments . In: Soil Science and Plant Nutrition Vol. 18 (63), 1940, pp. 214-228.
• Basics of soil fertility. Humus fertilization and soil fermentation. Practical instructions for preparing fertilizer, green manuring and soil care . Metta Kinau Verlag Nachf. Lüneburg 1948.
• Karl Beinert: The farm's own fertilizer, its extraction, treatment and utilization . Sixth, revised edition by Walter Sauerlandt. Paul Parey Berlin 1951.
• Eilhard Alfred Mitscherlich †. A researcher's life for agriculture . In: Landwirtschaftliche Forschung Vol. 9, 1956, pp. 75-89.
• Development opportunities for the development of arable land with a higher yield level . In: Landbauforschung Völkenrode Vol. 12, 1962, pp. 3–10.
• Humus management in agriculture (together with Cord Tietjen). DLG-Verlag Frankfurt am Main 1970.

literature

• Otto Graff : Prof. Dr. W. Sauerlandt 60 years . In: Organischer Landbau Vol. 5, 1959, p. 96.
• Walter Sauerlandt 65 years old . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft vol. 79, 1964, p. 1334 (with picture).
• Otto Graff and Cord Tietjen: Professor Dr. W. Sauerlandt † . In: Landbauforschung Völkenrode vol. 33, 1983, pp. 55–56 (with picture).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Berthold Ohm (Ed.): Addendum to the address directory of the old gentlemen of the German Landsmannschaft. Hamburg 1932, p. 6.