Eilhardt Alfred Mitscherlich

Mitscherlich, Eilhardt Alfred

 

Born Aug. 29, 1874, in Berlin; died Feb. 3, 1956, in Paulinenaue, near Nauen. German agrochemist and plant physiologist (German Democratic Republic [GDR]). Member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (1947), the Academy of Agricultural Sciences of the GDR (1951), and many foreign academies.

Mitscherlich was a professor at the University of Konigsberg (from 1906) and at Humboldt University of Berlin (from 1950). Between 1949 and 1956 he was the director of the Institute for Increasing Crop Yields of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin (Paulinenaue).

Mitscherlich’s work dealt with soil science (hygroscopicity of soils, determination of the temperature of irrigated soil as an index of the humus content) and plant physiology (determination of fertilizer requirements, formulation of the law of effectiveness of growth factors). He wrote works concerned with increasing plant yields and developed a method of growing plants in vessels (Mitscherlich vessel). A recipient of the National Prize of the GDR in 1949, Mitscherlich was awarded the Order for Service to the Fatherland in 1954.

WORKS

Ein Leitfaden zur Anwendung der kiinstlichen Dungemittel, 2nd ed. Berlin, 1931.
Der Einfluss klimatischer Factoren auf die Höhe des Pflanzenertrages: Vortrag …. Halle, 1933. (Schriften der Königsberger Gelherten Gesellschaft: Natunvissenschaftliche Klasse, fasc. 6, pp. 183–98.)
Pflanzenphysiologische Bodenkunde. Berlin, 1948. (Deutsche Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin, Vortrdge und Schriften, fasc. 28.)