Werner von Nitzsch

Werner von Nitzsch (born September 22, 1901 in Würzburg ; † September 9, 1947 in special camp No. 4 Bautzen ) was a German agricultural scientist and soil scientist .

Life

Werner von Nitzsch, son of a ministerial advisor, studied at the Hohenheim Agricultural University from 1921 to 1924 and then worked as a research assistant at the research and teaching institute for soil milling culture at the Siemens-Schuckert-Werke Gieshof near Wriezen , which was headed by Hans Holldack . Here he dealt with the effects of cultivation measures on the physical properties of arable soils . He developed new agricultural physics research methods and published his first articles in specialist journals. In 1923 he joined the NSDAP and was a member until it was banned, and after the transfer of power to the National Socialists , he became a member again on May 1, 1933 under membership number 2 990 638.

After Holldack took over the chair for agricultural engineering at the University of Leipzig in 1928, Nietzsch received an assistant position there and was able to continue the research work he had started in Gieshof on a broader basis. In 1933 he received his doctorate at the University of Leipzig with the dissertation " On porosity of water movement in the soil and its relationship to soil cultivation ".

In June 1933, Nitzsch took over the management of the research center for soil cultivation set up by the Reich Board of Trustees for Technology in Agriculture in Berlin-Dahlem , which was relocated to the University of Halle (Saale) in 1936 and affiliated as an independent department to the Institute for Plant Production headed by Theodor Roemer . Here Nitzsch developed further methods for the quantification of soil physical parameters.

In 1939 Nitzsch received the venia legendi for agriculture and soil science with the habilitation thesis "Pore sizes in the soil, their relationship to soil cultivation and the water balance" . At the University of Halle (Saale) he gave lectures on the scientific principles of tillage . In 1941 his research center was relocated to Pillnitz near Dresden and incorporated into the Saxon Research Institute for Crop Production and Soil Science. Nitzsch remained head of the institution. He was drafted into the Wehrmacht and served as a war administrator in Eastern Europe and received the War Merit Cross 2nd Class . In 1944 he had the rank and function of a district councilor at the general commissioner in Minsk in occupied Belarus . When the Germans withdrew, he returned to Pillnitz. In 1945 he was dismissed as a lecturer at the University of Halle. In 1946 the Soviet military police arrested him. Nitzsch died on September 9, 1947 in the Bautzen internment camp.

Publications (selection)

• A method for the physical investigation of arable soils in natural storage . In: Pflanzenbau Jg. 2, 1925/26, pp. 245-250.
• About porosity and water movement in the soil and their relationship to soil cultivation . Diss. Phil. Leipzig 1933. Zugl .: Writings of the Reich Board of Trustees for Technology in Agriculture = RKTL-Schrift Nr. 41, Beuth-Verlag Berlin 1933.
• Pore ​​sizes in the soil, their relationship to soil cultivation and the water balance . Habil.-Schr. Natural science Faculty Univ. Halle (Saale) 1939. Zugl .: Writings of the Reich Board of Trustees for Technology in Agriculture = RKTL-Schrift Nr. 83, Verlag Paul Parey Berlin 1938.
• The effect of phosphoric acid fertilization on various structural properties of the soil . In: Die Phosphorsäure Vol. 8/9, 1939/40, pp. 422-435.

literature

• Kürschner's German Scholars Calendar 1940/41 , Verlag Walter de Gruyter & Co. Berlin 1941, 6th Edition, Vol. 2, Supplements, Columns 1246–1247 (with selected publications).
• Henrik Eberle: The Martin Luther University in the time of National Socialism. Mdv, Halle 2002, ISBN 3-89812-150-X , p. 431

Web links

• Entry on Werner von Nitzsch in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis

Individual evidence

1. ^ Book of the dead of the special camp Bautzen