Science and Practice in German Agriculture: Justus Von Liebig, Hermann Von Liebig, and the Agricultural Experiment Stations

Abstract

Since 1840, when Justus von Liebig published his most influential book, Chemistry and Its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology, he has justifiably held a reputation as one of the nineteenth century’s most significant agricultural chemists. In recent years, historians have placed Liebig in a context which emphasizes not only the importance of his chemical discoveries, but also the impact of those ideas on the economics and societies of the German states and other nations.1 However, an issue that was very important to Liebig’s contemporaries should not be overlooked: his position as a leader in both the science of chemistry and its applications to agriculture. Certainly no one had more influence in the nineteenth century than Liebig in encouraging scientific investigations of German agriculture. The German agricultural experiment stations, in particular, have often been seen as institutional proof that Liebig’s ideas were successfully applied to German farming.2 The world’s first state‐supported agricultural experiment station was founded near Leipzig in 1851; by the time of Liebig’s death in 1873, nearly twenty-five similar stations had been established in the German area. Throughout the latter half of the nineteenth century, German experiment stations earned an international reputation. Important discoveries in plant pathology, animal nutrition, and soil microbiology can be traced to research at the German agricultural experiment stations. For all of this, experiment station