Wilhelm Rimpau (agricultural scientist)

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Arnold Diedrich Wilhelm Rimpau (born August 29, 1842 in Schlanstedt; † May 20, 1903 in Woltersdorf in Pomerania)
Bust of Wilhelm Rimpaus on the Steintor campus in Halle (Saale)

Arnold Diedrich Wilhelm Rimpau (born August 29, 1842 in Schlanstedt , † May 20, 1903 in Woltersdorf in Pomerania ) was a German farmer and plant breeder .

Rimpaus flower biological studies of the main European cereals and beets, its intra- and inter-species crossings in cereals and important breeding successes in wheat and triticale initiated the dawn of scientific plant breeding in the last third of the 19th century .

Live and act

Wilhelm Rimpau was the first son of the farmer August Wilhelm Rimpau (1814-1892) and his wife Sophie geb. Bode.

After attending secondary school in Braunschweig from 1855 to 1859, he completed an agricultural apprenticeship on the Liebenburg domain with Karl von Hoppenstedt by 1861. From the fall semester of 1861 Rimpau studied at the Königl until 1863. Agricultural Academy Bonn-Poppelsdorf and received decisive suggestions for scientific work from the plant physiologist Julius Sachs . After completing his studies at the University of Berlin until autumn 1864 , he went on a study trip to England, which was followed by a job as a volunteer in Salzmünde.

In April 1865 Rimpau took over the management of the Schlanstedt domain for his father , of which he became a joint tenant in 1868. In the same year he began - stimulated by travel experiences in Scotland - a multi-year selection attempt with rye, the failure of which he explained himself through insufficient knowledge of flower biology. For this reason, from 1876 onwards, he carried out flower biology studies, which he continued for a decade and a half with cereals and other cultivated plants. During this time he corresponded a. a. with Friedrich Körnicke , Hermann Müller , Charles Darwin and Hugo de Vries . In 1882 he published the first results of his own crossbreeding experiments and in 1891 the work “Crossing products of agricultural cultivated plants”, in which he described the breeding consequences of Mendel's laws of inheritance observed in extensive crossbreeding experiments before they were rediscovered in 1900.

In 1889, Rimpau converted the first winter wheat variety "early bastard wheat" that he created in Germany through combination breeding into large-scale cultivation. The first fertile hybrid between wheat and rye, "Triticosecale Rimpaui Wittmack" (now known as triticale ), emerged from its inter-species crossings in 1888 .

The University of Halle / Saale awarded Wilhelm Rimpau an honorary doctorate from the Philosophical Faculty in 1894, paying particular tribute to his flower biological studies on cereals and beets as well as his successful breeding.

Rimpau tried to bring modern technology and science to agriculture. He was a co-founder of the German Agricultural Society (DLG). He was also very successful as a breeder of improved grain varieties, where he (probably unknowingly) rediscovered Gregor Mendel's findings .

Rimpau not least because of its triticale -Roggen / wheat hybrid varieties as the "father of German plant breeding". In 1894 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Halle.

As a farmer, Rimpau was committed to progress in arable and crop production and animal husbandry. In 1869, a steam plow owned by John Fowler plowed for the first time in Germany on the areas of his domain in Schlanstedt. With Max Eyth , Hugo Thiel and Chlodwig zu Hohenlohe-Schillingsfürst , he developed the plans in 1883 that led to the establishment of the German Agricultural Society (DLG) in 1885 , and in 1886 he took over the chairmanship of the DLG's seed department. After the death of his uncle Theodor Hermann Rimpau (1822–1888), the founder of the Moordammkultur , he also managed his manor in Cunrau / Altmark from 1888.

For his services, Rimpau was appointed to the council in 1887 and in 1891 received the " Red Eagle Order 4th Class". The DLG awards the Wilhelm Rimpau Prize in his honor . His great-grandson Jürgen Rimpau is also involved in the family tradition of plant breeding and the DLG.

His grave is in Langenstein Park .

Fonts (selection)

  • The self-sterility of rye . Agricultural Yearbooks 6, 1877: 1073-1076
  • The breeding of new grain varieties . Agricultural Yearbooks 6, 1877: 193–233
  • The blooming of the grain . Agricultural Yearbooks 11, 1882: 875–919
  • Crossing products of agricultural crops . Berlin: Paul Parey, 1891
  • The genetic development of the various forms of our seed barley . Agricultural Yearbooks 21, 1892: 699–702
  • The tillering of the grain as a breeding moment . Yearbook of the German Agricultural Society 16, 1901: 210–215
  • Investigations into tillering of the grain . Agricultural Yearbooks 32, 1903: 317–336
  • Branconi's wife . Z. d. Harz Association f. History and Archeology 33, 1st issue, 1900

The written estate is on deposit in the State Archive of Saxony-Anhalt ( Wernigerode location ) under "H 137 Gutsarchiv Langenstein".

literature

  • Hans Geidel :  Rimpau, Wilhelm Arnold Diedrich. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 624 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Kurt von Rümker : Wilhelm Rimpau , in: Mitteldeutsche Lebensbilder, Volume 1, 19th Century Life Pictures, Magdeburg 1926, pp. 376–389
  • Albrecht Meinel: An early scientific approach to heredity by the plant breeder Wilhelm Rimpau (1842–1903). Plant Breeding 122: 195-198 (2003)
  • Albrecht Meinel: Departure into scientific plant breeding. The contribution by Wilhelm Rimpau (1842–1903). Lectures for Plant Breeding (Ges. F. Plant Breeding Göttingen) H. 76 (2008), ISSN 0723-7812.
  • Albrecht Meinel: Flower biology and the beginnings of scientific plant breeding - Hermann Müller and Wilhelm Rimpau. In: Fritz and Hermann Müller - Nature research for Darwin. Biology-historical symposia, Basilisk-Presse Natur + Text GmbH Rangsdorf (2013), pp. 136–159.
  • Albrecht Meinel: Julius Sachs and the students Rimpau, Beseler and Thiel in Poppelsdorf. About scientific beginnings in plant breeding. In: Negotiations for the History and Theory of Biology Vol. 21, ISSN 1435-7852 (2019), in press.
  • Wilhelm Rimpau: The pioneers of 'rational agriculture' in the Magdeburger Börde. Work and impact of father and son Wilhelm Rimpau. In: THAER HEUTE, Volume 10, ISBN 978-3-9812614-4-8 (2015), pp. 69-85.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Noel Kingsbury : Onwards And Upwards - The "German Method" In; Hybrid: The History and Science of Plant Breeding University of Chicago Press, 2009, ISBN 978-0-226-43705-7 , p. 110
  2. ↑ Awarded the Wilhelm Rimpau Prize

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rimpau, Wilhelm
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rimpau, Arnold Diedrich Wilhelm
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German seed breeder and natural scientist
DATE OF BIRTH August 29, 1842
PLACE OF BIRTH Schlanstedt
DATE OF DEATH May 20, 1903
Place of death Woltersdorf in Pomerania