Wolfgang Wilmanns (agronomist)

Wolfgang Otto Wilmanns (born September 27, 1893 in Bonn , † April 23, 1968 in Munich ) was a German agricultural scientist . His main research areas were agricultural management , grassland management and forage production .

Live and act

Wolfgang Wilmanns, son of the Germanist Wilhelm Wilmanns , studied agriculture in Bonn-Poppelsdorf since 1921 and received his doctorate there in 1924 with the dissertation on vegetable sales in Germany . He then worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Farm Management in Bonn. In 1927, only 33 years old, he was appointed to the chair for agricultural management at the University of Jena . Here he worked for seven years and, among other things, dealt with questions of agricultural statistics and agricultural geography . The work Die Thüringische Landwirtschaft , published in 1933 together with other employees, is one of the most important publications during this creative period. Since 1937 he was a member of the NSDAP .

In 1934, Wilmanns took over the chair for agricultural management at the University of Leipzig as the successor to Friedrich Falke , the father of the scientific grassland movement in Germany . Here he dealt intensively with questions of grassland management . From Leipzig he undertook two extensive research trips , in 1936 to China and Japan , in 1938 to the USA and Canada . In his work, Die Landwirtschaft Chinas , published in 1938, he described in detail the agricultural production conditions in this Asian country at the time. From 1938 Wilmanns was chairman of the Reichsarbeitsgemeinschaft Agrarpolitik und Betrieblehre . In 1943 he was elected rector of the University of Leipzig . He continued to hold this office briefly after the end of World War II, but had to give it up in 1945. Under pressure from circumstances, he and his family fled to Lower Saxony in 1947.

After the escape, Wilmanns initially worked as an expert in Göttingen . From then on he dealt almost exclusively with questions of forage production . From 1949 to 1958 he headed the Hessian teaching and research institute for grassland farming and forage production. This institution was initially located in Wehrda near Hünfeld . Between 1952 and 1954 the company moved to the Eichhof domain (Bad Hersfeld) . Its expansion into a modern research institute is one of Wilmann's most important organizational achievements. Of his publications from this time, the atlas published in 1952 on the forage areas in Hesse should be emphasized. Wilmanns has taught as an honorary professor at the University of Giessen since 1951 .

Wilmann's daughter Hergart (1928–2007) was an Eastern European researcher and sociologist, his daughter Juliane (1945–2008) was a medical historian.

Main publications

• Vegetable sales in Germany . Diss. Agr. Agricultural University Bonn-Poppelsdorf 1924. 96 p. M. Tab. U. Fig., Typescript.
• Production and sales relationships in German vegetable and fruit growing . Edited by W. Wilmanns. Committee to examine the production and sales conditions of the German economy. Negotiations and reports Vol. 9. Verlag Mittler Berlin 1929.
• 100 years of club life and educational striving for agriculture in Thuringia. Festschrift for the centenary d. agricultural association Zwätze - Jena in connection with the Landwirtschaftl. Institute of the University of Jena . With Otto Ennker, edited by W. Wilmanns. Weimar [1930].
• Thuringian agriculture. Basics of production, agriculture and livestock farming in pictures, words and numbers along with statistical parts: Land use and livestock husbandry in the municipalities, seed farming districts and counties, with over 80 maps and drawings . Edited by W. Wilmanns with the assistance of R. Gärtner and E. Klapp. Jena 1933.
• Agriculture of China . Reports on Agriculture. New series, special issue vol. 133. Paul Parey Berlin 1938.
• The pulling forces of German agriculture. Stocking and energy management conditions . In: Der Forschungsdienst Vol. 12, 1941, pp. 241–261.
• The forage areas in Hessian farms . In: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 94, 1952, pp. 146–165.
• Hessian forage area atlas . Graphic adaptation by W. Görlach. Publisher: State teaching and research institute for grassland farming and forage production, Wehrda 1952.

literature

• Professor Dr. Wilmanns 65 years old . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft vol. 73, 1958, p. 1050 (with picture).
• E. Klapp: Prof. Dr. W. Wilmanns on the 65th birthday . In: Das Grünland Vol. 7, 1958, pp. 57–58 (with picture).
• Wellmann: Wolfgang Wilmanns died . In: Mitteilungen der Deutschen Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft vol. 83, 1968, p. 915.

Web links

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Wilmanns in the catalog of the German National Library
• Wolfgang Wilmanns (agronomist) in the professorial catalog of the University of Leipzig
• Hergart Willmanns: Flowers in Concrete: Reading 1 - Childhood (Memories of the Daughter)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Harry Waibel : Servants of many masters. Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main et al. 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 371.