Max Hollrung

Max Udo Hollrung (25 October 1858 in Hosterwitz, Dresden – 5 May 1937 in Halle (Saale)) was a German botanist, and an early specialist in phytopathology. He was the first university teacher in Germany to be appointed to teach on the subject of plant diseases and plant protection at a university.

Life and work

Hollrung was the son of a master mason. He studied natural sciences, in particular, chemistry, acquiring his doctorate from the University of Leipzig in 1882. After a three-year assistantship at the Agriculture-Chemical Experimental Station in Halle (Saale), he participated in a research expedition to New Guinea from 1886 to 1888. At his return, Julius Kühn transferred him to the Agricultural Institute of the University of Halle, to work in the newly established Research Center for Nematode Control. From 1898 Hollrung was head of the experimental station for crop protection of the Chamber of Agriculture of the province of Saxony in Halle / Saale. From 1898, he was head of the Plant Health Experimental Station of the Chamber of the Province of Saxony, in Halle. In 1905, he edited "Lektorat für Pflanzenkrankheiten" ("Diseases of plants") at the University of Halle, and worked there until 1930.

He promoted the development of plant pathology, notably through his "Handbook of Chemicals for the Control of Plant Diseases" (first edition 1898) and his "Annual Reports on Innovations and Benefits in the Field of Plant Diseases" (1898–1913). Hollrung was head of the first research center in the field of crop protection and the first full-time university teacher for this field in Germany. As a researcher, he played a significant role in the examination of copper salts as a plant protection product, in the study of diseases of grapevine and potato. Throughout his life he looked for ways to practise preventive crop protection, especially with arable and organic farming. Many of his attempts to develop biological plant protection measures were acknowledged only after his death.

Honours Some species named for him (Arecaceae) Calyptrocalyx hollrungii (Becc.) Dowe & M.D.Ferrero (Dryopteridaceae) Chlamydogramme hollrungii (Kuhn) Holttum (Euphorbiaceae) Mallotus hollrungianus K.Schum. (now a synonym of Melanolepis multiglandulosa (Reinw. ex Blume) Rchb. & Zoll.)