Wolfram Achtnich

Wolfram Achtnich

Wolfram Achtnich (born June 11, 1923 in Dresden ; † February 29, 2008 in Steinenbronn ) was a German crop scientist . His main teaching and research area was irrigated agriculture in the tropics and subtropics .

Life path

Wolfram Achtnich, the son of a teacher, attended the Rudolf Steiner School in Dresden and passed the school leaving examination in 1942. This was followed by three years of military service in the Navy as a lieutenant at sea. In 1945, Achtnich began an agricultural apprenticeship. From 1947 he studied agriculture at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel and at the Hohenheim Agricultural University . After graduating as a qualified farmer (1950), he worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Plant Cultivation and Plant Breeding in Hohenheim. Under the direction of Walther Brouwer , he received his doctorate there in 1953 with a dissertation on nutrient uptake and yield in barley and oats.

In 1955, Achtnich left university and became head of the agricultural department of Perrot-Regnerbau in Calw (Baden-Württemberg). From 1965 to 1968 he was managing director of the German Society for Irrigation Management based in Frankfurt (Main) . However, he did not lose his connection to the university. As a lecturer in the field of agriculture in the tropics and subtropics, he held part-time lectures from 1958 to 1962 at the Justus Liebig University in Giessen and from 1963 at the Hohenheim Agricultural University.

From 1968, Achtnich was again working full-time in the university service. As an academic adviser, he worked until 1979 as a department head and specialist representative for the field of crop production in the tropics and subtropics at the Hohenheim Agricultural University, which had been promoted to university since 1967. In 1979 he completed his habilitation and was appointed professor. In 1981, Achtnich accepted an appointment at the Georg-August University in Göttingen . As successor to Sigmund Rehm , he took over the professorship for tropical and subtropical crop production. In 1988 he retired.

Research and Teaching

The main focus of Achtnich's scientific activities were questions of land development and soil fertility in the tropics and subtropics . He was particularly interested in the complex interactions in the “soil-water-plant” system. Influenced by his doctoral supervisor Walther Brouwer , who dealt intensively with field irrigation of agricultural crops, but above all through study and research stays in tropical countries, irrigated agriculture soon became the central teaching and research area for Achtnich . With his main work “ Irrigated Agriculture. Agrotechnical Basics of Irrigation Management ”, with which he completed his habilitation in 1979 at the University of Hohenheim, he created the first comprehensive German-language manual on irrigation agriculture - to this day a standard work of scientific agricultural literature.

In addition to his diverse activities as a consultant and expert on projects for the food and agriculture organization FAO and other international organizations, Achtnich has also been involved in several German specialist organizations in a responsible position. He is one of the intellectual fathers of the "German Society for Irrigation Management" founded in 1965. From 1965 until it was transferred to the "German Association for Water Management and Cultural Building" in 1979, he was the managing director of this specialist society. From 1966 to 1986, as editor and then as co-editor, he had a lasting influence on its publication organ, the “Zeitschrift für Irrigation Management”.

Achtnich has published around 80 articles in specialist journals and handbooks on the results of his teaching, research and expert work. From 1983 to 1989 he drew together with Hans Lamprecht as editor of the “Göttingen Contributions to Agriculture and Forestry in the Tropics and Subtropics” (Vol. 1–49). Under Achtnich's aegis, numerous scholarship holders from tropical countries did their doctorate at the University of Göttingen.

Publications (selection)

• Studies on nutrient uptake and yield in barley and oats . Diss. Agricultural University of Hohenheim 1953. - Excerpt from: Zeitschrift für Acker- und Pflanzenbau Vol. 99, 1955, pp. 273–293.
• Cooperation between science and industry using the example of the irrigation industry . In: Der Tropenlandwirt, Supplement No. 4, 1974, pp. 107-116.
• Will the oasis dieback continue? Attempt to make a forecast . In: Zeitschrift für Irrigation Management, Vol. 10, 1975, pp. 99–110.
• Irrigated farming. Agrotechnical basics of irrigation management . Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1980. 621 pages.
• Improving grazing in the arid regions of Africa . In: Göttingen Contributions to Agriculture and Forestry in the Tropics and Subtropics H. 12, 1986, pp. 57–85.
• Irrigated agriculture in the tropics and subtropics (with H. gaps). In: Handbook of Agriculture and Food in the Developing Countries, 2nd edition, Vol. 3, Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1988, pp. 285–342.
• Pseudocereals, date palm, spices, medicinal plants . In: Handbook of Agriculture and Food in the Developing Countries, 2nd ed., Vol. 4, Verlag Eugen Ulmer Stuttgart 1989, pp. 86-93, 376-389, 479-520 u. 521-540.

literature

• A portrait of the scientist - Wolfram Achtnich . In: Göttinger Tageblatt of December 28, 1981 (with picture).
• Peter Wolff: Professor Wolfram Achtnich has retired . In: Zeitschrift für Irrigation Management Vol. 23, 1988, pp. 165-167 (with picture).
• Professor Dr. Wolfram Achtnich . In: Passed. Life paths of former Waldorf students. Nineteen conversations recorded by Monika Schöpf-Beige. Verlag Freie Geistesleben Stuttgart 1998, pp. 108–115 (with picture).

Web links

• Literature by and about Wolfram Achtnich in the catalog of the German National Library