Willy Wobst

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Willy Wobst , born as Rudolph Willy Wobst (born October 10, 1897 in Mahlitzsch (now part of Roßwein ), Central Saxony district ; † May 9, 1978 in Bad Gandersheim ) was a German forester , civil servant and author. From 1954 to 1971 he was the federal chairman of the Working Group on Natural Forest Management (ANW).

Willy Wobst, approx. 1968

Education and family

Willy Wobst was born as the second of four sons of the district forester Richard Wobst and his wife Laura, b. Lindner, born. In the elementary school in 1904 in Niederstriegis followed from 1908 Bürgerschule and Royal Grammar School in Döbeln . After graduating from high school , he took part in the First World War as a volunteer from June 1, 1916 , at the end of which he was released as a lieutenant .

He completed his studies in forest science at the Tharandt Forest University / Technical University of Dresden in 1922 with the diploma exam. After successfully passing the state examination in 1924 and being appointed forest assessor , Wobst served in the Saxon Forestry Office in Dresden.

In 1925 he married Helene Müller. The marriage had five children.

His work as a forest supervisor was increasingly combined with scientifically accompanied site exploration and soil studies. This resulted in his PhD in 1932 . with Gustav Adolf Krauss (subject: site investigations in the context of forest management). During this time he was appointed head forester and civil servant for life.

Professional career and goals

Beginning of forest management in Saxony

After completing his academic training, Wobst got to know the entire spectrum of Saxon forests as a forestry supervisor, committed soil scientist and site explorer by 1931. At the same time, doubts grew about the way they were cultivated. The cultivation of pure stands, especially conifers, clear-cutting and the associated high risks of windthrow, snow breakage and insect calamities were characteristic for this. The close cooperation with Gustav Adolf Krauss in the still young forest site theory and soil science, as well as study trips to selected German and Austrian forest areas with appropriate technical suggestions, fed these doubts further.

Head of the Hinterhermsdorf Forestry Office (Saxon Switzerland)

In the autumn of 1931, Wobst was transferred to the Hinterhermsdorf Forestry Office in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains ( Saxon Switzerland ). Now, for the first time, Wobst was able to put his ideas of natural forest management to the test as a sustainable alternative to conventional forest management . The main objectives of the natural approach were: no further clear cuts, increased natural regeneration and their addition with deciduous and other mixed tree species, fence construction to protect natural regeneration and against browsing and peeling damage due to initially far excessive deer populations , reduction of deer through increased shooting .

There was a particularly intensive exchange of experiences with colleagues Johannes Blanckmeister and Hermann Krutzsch .

“All three practitioners were imbued with the ideas of the emerging natural forest management. They met regularly to exchange ideas in their districts. On the occasion of such an encounter, they climbed the Raumberg at Hinterhermsdorfer Revier and agreed on this summit to work incessantly and uncompromisingly for a natural forest management ('Oath of the Raumberg') "

- Dietrich Graf

The work that had begun developed so promisingly that in 1937 the Hinterhermsdorf forestry company, together with five other Saxon forestry offices, was declared an experimental forestry office for "natural forest management".

This development was interrupted twice, once by military service from September 1939 to June 1940 and again from May to October 1942, when Wobst was seconded by the Reich Forestry Office as head of site mapping for a large reforestation program in the Opole district (Polish: Opole ).

Memorial stone of the forestry department manager Hinterhermsdorf from 1632 to 1943; Altar stone (Saxon Switzerland)

During the last absence, the Nazi Gauleiter Martin Mutschmann , who regularly hunted in the forestry department, increased the pressure on Wobst's employees in the forestry department. The location

“... came to a head that the Gauleiter, like a renaissance prince, finally demanded that silvicultural and forestry matters be subordinated to hunting. The gates were partially closed on the instructions of the new sovereign and the forester, who remained in his protest, was finally expelled from the country in 1943 with an eight-day deadline. "

- Wolfgang Knigge

Three other colleagues, including Krutzsch, were also instructed by phone call from the party office to leave the state of Saxony within eight days . The Reich Forestry Office was powerless against such acts of pure party arbitrariness and could not prevent Mutschmann's interventions from ruining the results of many years of silvicultural efforts in a very short time. Willy Wobst's service time is evidenced by his name carved in stone on the place known as Altarstein (Saxon Switzerland) south of the Raumberg .

Head of the Seesen II Forestry Office

With the help of the Reich Forestry Office, Wobst was given a new assignment in April 1943 as head of the Forestry Office in the Free State of Braunschweig : in the Seesen II Forestry Office on the western edge of the Harz Mountains , which was renamed Stauffenburg Forestry Office in 1956.

Here Wobst began again to put his alternative silvicultural ideas into practice. That was by no means in the interests of the Braunschweig state forest administration . For several years, Wobst tried to obtain official approval to operate the business naturally.

The now Lower Saxony State Forestry Commission presented in 1947 the "land portion" as a trial operation are available. It was a state forest area of ​​800 hectares located in front of the western edge of the Harz Mountains. Now it was necessary to thoroughly record the initial state and to monitor the further development periodically. With the support of Fritz Loetsch , the first nationwide inventory of wood was carried out in 1950 on a sample basis. Regular repetitions every 10 years make the land part one of the best-documented test farms in Germany. The specialist press reported in detail about the substantial changes.

From 1943 until his retirement in 1962, Wobst in Seesen created the basis for a convincing example of natural forest management, which developed into a highly regarded learning and demonstration object . Already in his service time he carried out numerous excursions and educational hikes by foresters and forest owners from home and abroad and brought the visitors closer to the possibilities, goals, principles and visible successes of his economic method. (See Knigge.) Lectures and numerous articles in the specialist press (67 in total, 45 of them in his service) prove his tireless commitment in the context of the discussion about the pros and cons of natural forest management, which continued well into the 1970s. The fact that there were not enough practical and also economically convincing examples of natural forest management made a particular contribution to this ongoing discussion , because nature requires long periods of time for this.

Work in the working group for natural forest management

Wobst played a key role in founding the Working Group on Natural Forest Management (ANW).

“In the autumn of 1949, an agreement was reached on the island of Mainau to publish a call for the establishment of the» Working Group on Natural Forest Management «in specialist journals. Willy Wobst wrote the appeal, which was published on February 22, 1950 in the Allgemeine Forst-Zeitschrift (AFZ). --- A total of 20 representatives, some of them well-known, from forest practice and science signed this appeal. The topic is taken up in numerous papers and several (special) editions of the AFZ, and the goals and principles of a »Working Group on Natural Forest Management« (ANW) are explained. "

- Eduard Schmidt

"Establishment of the» Working Group on Natural Forest Management «- The founding and first working conference of the West German ANW takes place in Schwäbisch Hall from May 29 to June 1, 1950."

- General forest journal . No. 8/1950.

Among the 21 signatories were Krutzsch and Blanckmeister, whose further cooperation was soon made difficult by the GDR government and completely forbidden in 1955. Landforstmeister Karl Dannecker from Stuttgart was elected first chairman.

At the workshop in May 1954, Wobst clearly highlighted the differences to classic forestry with his lecture “To clarify the principles of natural forest management”. Then Wobst was elected chairman.

Until 1971 he organized 25 working conferences in this function, spread over the whole of Germany. After retiring, Wobst used a large part of his free time to visit other forest operations on the way to natural forest management, to discuss the condition and future development of the forests with owners and managers, and to give and receive advice. So new objects and topics for conferences were found. The conferences received regular reports in the specialist press, which triggered increased interest in the ANW. In May 1971, at the end of Wobst's term of office, the ANW had around 200 members (foresters and forest owners). Willi Gayler became the new chairman .

1957 Wobst received at the Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Management of the Technical University of Hanover a lecturer for the subject forestry. With lectures and excursions, he imparted basic knowledge about forest management and its relevant relationships to landscape and landscape management to landscape conservation students. This engagement ended in 1965.

Memorial stone for the 100th birthday of Willy Wobst

On October 31, 1962, Wobst retired and was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit, 1st Class, for his lifetime achievement . In 1996 it was included in the Braunschweig Biographical Lexicon , in which the life and work of remarkable personalities from the 19th and 20th centuries from the Braunschweig region are described. On his 100th birthday in 1997, the Lower Saxony State Forest Administration and the ANW honored Willy Wobst's vision and achievement with a memorial stone in the land area , near the ruins of Stauffenburg , Seesen ( 51 ° 49 ′ 16.6 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 34.2 ″  O ), the inscription reads:

"FORESTER DR. WILLY WOBST / 10.10.1897–9.5.1978 / HEADED THE FORESTRY OFFICE STAUFFENBURG FROM 1943–1962. AGAINST MANY / RESISTANCE AS A FORESTRY MANAGER IN SAXONY / 1931–1943, HE PROVIDED FOR A CHANGE IN THE CLASSIC FORESTRY. WITH Few of the same minded people, he founded the “ARBEITSGEMEIN- / SCHAFT NATURGEMÄßE FOREST MANAGEMENT (ANW)” in 1950. AS ITS CHAIRMAN / HE FIGHTED FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECOLOGICALLY INTACT, ECONOMICALLY EFFICIENT / EFFICIENT, RICHER IN SPECIES, OF DIFFERENT AGE, PERMANENTLY DEPOSITIVE / MIXED FORESTS TO BE USED. HERE IN THE FOREST AROUND THE RUINS OF STAUFFEN- / BURG HE BEGAN TO REALIZE THESE IDEAS. ONLY AFTER HIS / DEATH, THE ADVANTAGES OF SUCH FOREST CONSTRUCTION WERE OBVIOUSLY ACCEPTED AND NATURAL / COMPLETE FOREST MANAGEMENT AS A NEW FORESTRY GUIDELINE. / ON HIS 100TH BIRTHDAY THE LOWER SAXONY STATE / FOREST ADMINISTRATION AND THE APPLICANT AWARENESS AND PERFORMANCE OF / DR. WILLY WOBST WITH THIS MEMORIAL. "

Since 1950 Dr. Wobst-Straße in the forest west of the Staufenburg named after Willy Wobst ( 51 ° 48 ′ 36.8 ″  N , 10 ° 9 ′ 28.9 ″  E ).

Natural forest management - the idea is spreading

Supported by the increasing environmental awareness of broader sections of the population, the number of members of the ANW grew by leaps and bounds in the 80s. Regional groups, as registered associations and a federal board had to be formed. A separate magazine, The Permanent Forest , was published. In the same period, the economic successes were clearly recognizable in the “land part” and other example farms with the ecological advantages. In the 1990s, this led to the goals and methods of the ANW being largely adopted by German forestry. An example of this is the "Program for Long-Term Ecological Forest Development", in short: "LÖWE Program", designed by Hans-Jürgen Otto in 1991 for the Lower Saxony state forests, whose principles are largely identical to those of the ANW.

The reconstruction of the forest in the Stauffenburg Forestry Office started by Willy Wobst has been continuously continued by his successors Walter Unterberger (1962–1966), his son, Hermann Wobst (1966–2000), Walter Hennecke (2000–2005) and Henning Geske (since 2006) been. Hermann Wobst also held leading positions at ANW for a long time (Chairman of the Lower Saxony State Group, 1987–2003; 2nd Federal Chairman 1989–1997) and one of the founding members of “PRO SILVA”, an umbrella organization founded in Slovenia in 1989, which has since been a “natural multifunctional forest management ”propagated in Europe.

In 2008 the “land part” was recognized as a Europe-wide “Pro Silva example company”.

Awards

Fonts

  • Site investigations as part of forest management. Dissertation. TH Dresden 1932,
  • Problems of the theory of growth and earnings. In: The German forester. 25, 1943, pp. 27-28.
  • Silviculture - a mindless craft? In: Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift. (AFZ). 3, 1948, p. 17.
  • The crisis in silviculture. In: AFZ. 4, 1949, p. 12.
  • Schwäbisch Hall 1950. In: AFZ. 5, 1950, pp. 26-27.
  • About natural forest management. In: Forest and Wood. 6, 1951, p. 8.
  • To clarify the principles of natural forest management. In: The forest and wood host. (FoHo), 9, 1954, p. 13.
  • Natural regeneration and its addition to local mixed stands. In: FoHo. 17, 1962, p. 5.
  • Natural forest management in the Stauffenburg Forestry Office. In: AFZ. 17, 1962, p. 47.
  • The shaping forces of the penumbra. In: AFZ. 25, 1970, p. 21.
  • 25 years of ANW. In: AFZ. 30, 1975, p. 17.
  • with Hermann Wobst: Results from three wood inventory inventories in the rural part of Lower Saxony. Forestry Office Stauffenburg. In: AFZ. 30, 1975, p. 17.

literature

Web links

Commons : Willy Wobst  - Collection of Images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the ANW - Chairwoman of the ANW Germany. (No longer available online.) At: www.anw-deutschland.de , archived from the original on June 19, 2015 ; Retrieved June 18, 2015 .
  2. ↑ a b c Dietrich Graf: A Blanckmeistersteig on the Biensgraben in the Niederlohmen forest. In: Sächsische Schweiz Initiative, issue 16. 1999, accessed on May 19, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Wolfgang Knigge: Obituary. In: Forest Archive. No. 7. 1978, p. 138.
  4. ↑ a b c Wolfgang Knigge: Obituary. In: Forest Archive. No. 7. 1978.
  5. ↑ Willy Wobst, Hermann Wobst: Results from three wood inventory inventories in the rural part of the Lower Saxony Forestry Office Stauffenburg. In: AFZ. 30/17, 1975.
  6. ^ A b Eduard Schmidt: How successful has the permanent forest concept been so far: a historical analysis . In: Switzerland. Z. Forstwes. 160 (2009), pp. 144–151, accessed on July 17, 2015.
  7. ↑ a b Foundation of the »Working Group on Natural Forest Management«. In: Allgemeine Forstzeitschrift. No. 8/1950.
  8. ↑ Dr. Karl Dannecker (1883–1972) ( Memento from July 26, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) , www.anw-baden-wuerttemberg.de , accessed on July 23, 2015.
  9. ↑ Willy Wobst: To clarify the principles of natural forest management , Der Forst- und Holzwirt 9/13, 1954.
  10. ^ LÖWE - Long-term ecological forest development ( Memento from July 11, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Lower Saxony State Forests, accessed on July 17, 2015.
  11. ↑ History of Foundation of ProSilva Europe 1989 , ProSilva EUROPE, accessed on July 17, 2015.
  12. ↑ Example forest "Landteil" in the Stauffenburg Revier of the Lower Saxony Forestry Office Seesen , Prosilva Europe, accessed on July 17, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Wobst, Willy
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wobst, Rudolph Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German forester, civil servant and author
DATE OF BIRTH October 10, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Mahlitzsch (Roßwein)
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1978
Place of death Bad Gandersheim