Walter Schädelin

Walter Schädelin (born December 30, 1873 in Koppigen ; † December 21, 1953 in Zurich ) was a Swiss forest scientist and professor of silviculture at the ETH Zurich .

Life

Walter Schädelin was the son of the reformed pastor Karl Ferdinand Edmund Schädelin and his wife Sophie Elisabeth nee Andreä. His brother was the Bernese pastor and university professor Albert Schädelin .

After graduating from high school, he studied forest sciences at the Zurich Polytechnic, where he passed his diploma and state examination in 1896. From 1897 he also studied forest sciences at the University of Munich under Heinrich Mayr . In addition to this subject, he also studied history, literature and philosophy.

After spending some time outside Switzerland, he got a job with the task of drawing up forest management plans in Thun and in 1899 became chief forester in the civic community of Bern . In 1901 he married Helene Bühlmann. In 1924 he was appointed professor of silviculture at the ETH Zurich, whose teaching forest (teaching area) he also managed from 1927 to 1939. In 1940 he retired . His former student and assistant Hans Leibundgut became his successor to the silviculture chair in the same year .

As a forest scientist in Zurich, Schädelin demanded a selection thinning on an economic and ecological basis (so-called " Schädelin'sche selection thinning "). His main work, which was first published in 1934 under the title Thinning as a selection and refinement company of the highest value , made him known far beyond Switzerland and saw several editions and translations into other languages. It also had a major impact on silviculture in Germany.

In addition to his job as a forester and forest scientist, Schädelin also had literary interests. He wrote poems that he published in book form for the first time in 1905, for which Burkhard Mangold designed the book decorations. During his time as chief forester in the civic community of Bern, he also attended readings by Hermann Hesse , which then developed into a lifelong friendship. Among other things, he has also written numerous texts for choral songs , some of which were set to music by Volkmar Andreae . The texts for Andreae's Symphonic Fantasy, Op. 7, for tenor solo, chorus, organ and orchestra with the sentences Melancholy - Entrückung - Vision are also from Schädelin.

Honors

• 1931: Dr. hc from the University of Giessen
• 1940: Honorary membership of the Swiss Forestry Association

Fonts

• Poems , Bern 1905
• The goal. Poems , Volume 7 of the collection of private prints series , Horgen-Zurich 1928
• as co-author: Our forest. Issue 2: Care and Maintenance , Bern 1928
• Thinning as a selection and processing company of the highest value , Bern and Leipzig 1934 (3rd revised edition under the title Die Auslesedürthung as an educational company with the highest value , Bern and Leipzig 1942)
• Forest of our homeland , Erlenbach and Zurich 1941

After his death, Hans Leibundgut continued to use his main work, Auslesedürthung as an educational establishment of the highest value , in his textbook Die Waldpflege .

literature

• Collective of authors: Prof. Dr. hc Walter Schädelin as a souvenir. December 30, 1873 - December 21, 1953 . Swiss Journal of Forestry, Supplement 27th Swiss Forest Association, Zurich 1953, 62 pp.

Web links

• Literature by and about Walter Schädelin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Katja Hürlimann: skull, Walter. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Songs by V. Andreae / W. Schädelin