Willi Laatsch

Willi Laatsch (also Willy Laatsch ; born October 18, 1905 in Vorwerk near Demmin ; † May 12, 1997 in Munich ) was a German soil and forest scientist . He was considered one of the great pioneers in scientific soil science and site research.

Life

Willi Laatsch was born on October 18, 1905 as the son of a distillery administrator in Vorwerk, today's district of Demmin. In Demmin he also attended elementary school and then continued his training at the preparatory institute and the Franzburg teacher training college . In 1926 he passed the elementary school teacher examination and was then a teacher at a private school until 1929. In the winter semester 1927/28 he began studying geography , German and English and in the summer semester 1928 he studied natural sciences - above all geology - at the University of Greifswald . In 1929 he first passed the school leaving examination at the Provincial School College in Breslau and then continued his studies in geology and chemistry at the University of Halle (Saale) until 1934 . There Laatsch 1934 with the investigation of the soil types around Halle (Saale) and their postdiluviale development to Dr. sc. nat. PhD .

On May 1, 1933, Laatsch was admitted to the NSDAP (member no. 1,881,106), and in 1936 he joined the National Socialist German Lecturer Association (NSDDB) .

In 1935/36 Laatsch worked as a scientific employee at the Institute for Soil Science of the Prussian State Geological Institute for soil mapping in Saarland . A grant from the German Research Foundation enabled him, 1936-1938 to conduct research at the Geological Institute of the University of Halle and there in 1937 with the signature trends and system of the German agricultural and forest soils to habilitation . At the same time he established the subject “Soil Science” at the University of Halle, for which he built up his own department, which he headed until 1945. In addition, he was appointed lecturer for soil science in 1938, so that he also represented the subject in teaching.

During the Second World War , Laatsch, drafted in 1941, initially did military service as a naval artilleryman , but was soon assigned to investigate the ground . Already at the beginning of 1942 he was asked to be "indispensable (uk)" and commissioned with research on better utilization of phosphorus fertilizers and the improvement of soil culture in the occupied eastern areas . During this time he analyzed, among other things, the soils of Belarus . In 1944 he received the War Merit Cross . Deported to the West by the Western powers in June 1945 on the “ Abderhalden Transport ”, Laatsch was finally released from the University of Halle in absentia.

From 1946 to 1954 he headed the Laboratory for Soil Preparation of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg , which mainly dealt with the composting of municipal waste . At the same time, Laatsch followed in 1948 the call to professor of soil science at the University of Kiel , where he was also director of the Institute for Plant Nutrition and Soil Science. In 1954 he accepted a position as head of the Institute for Soil Science and Site Studies at the Munich Forest Research Institute and holder of the Chair for Soil Science at the Forest Science Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University . In 1971 Laatsch retired.

Laatsch has received numerous awards for his scientific life's work. He was a member of the Leopoldina since 1965 , an honorary member of the Spanish Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and an honorary member of the German Soil Science Society . The forestry faculty of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen awarded him the honorary doctorate of Dr. forest. hc, and the state of Bavaria awarded him the Bavarian Order of Merit .

Willi Laatsch died on May 12, 1997 at the age of 91 in Munich.

Services

Willi Laatsch proved to be a very versatile researcher in his scientific work. During his time in Halle he mainly dealt with soil genesis and soil classification , soil water balance , clay mineral formation and phosphate binding . His textbook Dynamics of Central European Mineral Soils (1938), which had four editions up to 1957, became a fundamental work in soil science. In Hamburg and Kiel he investigated humic substances and their importance for soil fertility and the trace element nutrition of agricultural crops. In Munich, Laatsch researched the nitrogen and phosphorus balance of forest soils , devoted himself to questions of forest fertilization and the manifold relationships between location, nutritional status and growth rates of forest stands. In the course of this research, he developed forest nutrition studies at his institute into a separate discipline.

Willi Laatsch was considered a gifted and successful academic teacher. Eight of his students later also became professors.

After his retirement, he still worked on research on slope instability mapping and erosion in the Alpine region .

Fonts

• The soil types around Halle (Saale) and their postdiluvial development , doctoral thesis, Halle 1934 (published in: Yearbook of the Hallescher Verband for the exploration of central German mineral resources and their utilization , New Consequences, Volume 13, Dessau 1934)
• Development tendencies and system of German arable and forest soils , habilitation thesis, Halle / Dresden and Leipzig 1937 (from: Kolloidzeitschrift , supplements 5–8 1937)
• Dynamics of German arable and forest soils , 2nd edition, Dresden and Leipzig 1938 (from the 3rd edition under the title Dynamics of Central European Mineral Soils ; 4th edition, Dresden and Leipzig 1957)
• Studies on the formation and accumulation of humus substances , from: Reports on Landtechnik, Volume 4: Soil cultivation as a core problem of soil fertility , Wolfratshausen 1948
• Soil fertility and coniferous wood cultivation , Munich, Basel and Vienna 1963
• together with Walter Grottenthaler: instability and rehabilitation of the slopes in the alpine region of the Miesbach district . With a map of the slope lability forms and stages on a scale of 1: 25000 , Munich 1973
• together with Bernhard Zenke and Johann Dankerl: Method for the range and impact pressure calculation of flowing avalanches , Forest Research Reports Munich No. 47, Munich 1981

literature

• Karl-Eugen Rehfuess : forest floors. Development, properties and use. Prof. Dr. Dr. Dedicated to hc W. Laatsch on the occasion of his 75th birthday . Festschrift. Parey's Study Texts, No. 29. Parey, Hamburg and Berlin 1981, 192 pp., ISBN 3-490-06816-5
• Hans Achim Gussone : Professor Laatsch 90 years old , in: Forst und Holz , 50th year, issue 19/1995, p. 620 ISSN  0932-9315
• P. Schad, Karl-Eugen Rehfuess: Professor Laatsch died , in: Forst und Holz , 52nd year, issue 13/1997, p. 373 ISSN  0932-9315
• Anonymous: Prof. Laatsch died , in: AFZ / Der Wald. General forest journal for forest management and environmental protection , 52nd volume, issue 14/1997, p. 790, ISSN  0002-5860

Web links

• Literature by and about Willi Laatsch in the catalog of the German National Library
• Entry on Willi Laatsch in the Catalogus Professorum Halensis