Wilhelm Christiansen

Christian Wilhelm , called Willi Christiansen (born September 28, 1885 in Ahrenviöl , † December 28, 1966 in Kiel ) was a middle school teacher and lecturer at the University of Kiel .

Life and work as a teacher

Wilhelm Christiansen was a son of the teacher Christian Peter Christiansen (1850-1930) from Achtrup . His mother Maria Wilhelmine Friederike, née Kersten (1849–1895) from Lütjenhorn was a teacher's daughter.

Christiansen attended a school in his birthplace. After that he received preparatory lessons for a teacher training from his father. From 1903 to 1906 he attended the teachers' college in Hadersleben . From 1906 to 1909 he worked as a teacher in Broacker and then switched to an elementary school in Kiel. In 1914 he passed the examination for middle school teachers in the subjects of physical exercise and biology. He then took on an apprenticeship at a boys' middle school in Kiel.

Christiansen's first marriage was Elfriede Anna Margaretha Jensen (1875–1925) from Hadersleben. In his second marriage he married Agnes Charlotte Paul (born January 14, 1894) from Frankfurt an der Oder . The marriages gave birth to two children.

Work as a researcher on the geography and sociology of plants

In his free time, Christiansen was exclusively concerned with the botany of Schleswig-Holstein. He continued the preparatory work of his older brother Albertus, who had been killed in Lille in 1917 during the First World War . For these activities he was largely on leave from the teaching company at the middle school.

As a founding member of the Working Group for Floristry in Schleswig-Holstein, Hamburg and Lübeck, he took over its chairmanship from 1922 to 1950. The herbalists had set themselves the primary goal of creating a card index of the locations of all flowering plant species in the region. Christiansen was able to attract more and more employees due to his personality and his commitment. For this he offered numerous excursions. He also gave many lectures on the compilation of municipal floras. His commitment meant that the region was one of the most floristically researched areas in Central Europe in the early 1970s. As part of this work, he put together a large state herbarium.

In 1934 Christiansen took on a teaching position at the University of Kiel for plant geography and sociology. The teaching post was attached to the University's Botanical Institute. He was also head of the State Agency for Plant Science, which was also part of this teaching institution. The Philosophical Faculty of Kiel University made him an honorary doctorate in 1944; the Natural Science Association for Schleswig-Holstein declared him an honorary member.

Christiansen was able to prove for the first time that in Schleswig-Holstein the number of distribution limits of flowering plants is above average. His findings have been confirmed by climatologists and faunistic researchers. He also researched the sociology of plants and campaigned for the promotion of nature conservation.

Christiansen wrote a richly illustrated botanical study of Schleswig-Holstein, the second edition of which was published in 1955. His main work is the "New Critical Flora of Schleswig-Holstein". This appeared in 1953 and contained 252 distribution maps.

literature

• Walther Emeis: Christiansen, Wilhelm . in: Schleswig-Holstein Biographical Lexicon . Volume 2. Karl Wachholtz Verlag, Neumünster 1971, pp. 100-102
• J.-P. Frahm, J. Eggers: Lexicon of German-speaking bryologists , 2nd edition 2001, p. 69