Adolph Hansen

Karl Adolph Hansen (1851 in Hamburg – 1920 in Giessen) was a German botanist. He graduated in 1887 at the University of Würzburg on a thesis entitled "Geschichte der Assimilation und Chlorophyllfunktion" (supervised by Julius Sachs). He was professor of botany at the Justus Liebig-Universität Gießen 1891-1920. He had very broad academic interests, including history and archaeology. However, he always worked alone, supervised very few doctoral students (4 in 39 years), and stood outside the development of experimental physiological botany among his contemporaries.[1][2] Hansen wrote scholarly works on Goethe's Metamorphosis of Plants and had a fierce dispute over this hypothesis with Houston Stewart Chamberlain.[3]

The wind controversy with Eugenius Warming

In 1901, Hansen wrote a treatise of the dune vegetation of the East Frisian Islands,[4] in which he proposed salt as the main plant-distributing factor. He thereby neglected previous work by Warming[5] and Raunkiær[6] contending the importance of the wind. Eugenius Warming strongly criticised Hansen's work[7] and Hansen returned by criticising Warming's Lehrbuch der ökologischen Pflanzengeographie,[8] to which Warming gave another polemic reply.[9]

Selected scientific works

References

  1. Küster, E. (1921) Adolph Hansen. Berichte der deutschen Botanischen Gesellschaft 38: 67-77.
  2. Ankel, W.E. Zur (1957) Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Biologie in Gießen. in: Universitätsjubiläum / Ludwigs-Universität, Justus-Liebig-Hochschule 1607-1957
  3. Geus, Armin: Die Kontroverse zwischen dem Botaniker Karl Adolph Hansen (1851-1920) und Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855-1927) über Goethes Metamorphosenlehre. Medizinhistorisches Journal 28 (1993) 165-172.
  4. Hansen, Ad. (1901) Die Vegetation der Ostfriesischen Inseln: Ein Beitrag zur Pflanzengeographie besonders zur Kenntnis der Wirkung des Windes auf die Pflanzenwelt. Darmstadt: 1901.
  5. Warming, E. (1891) Botaniske Exkursioner. 2. De psammophile Formationer i Danmark. Videnskabelige Meddelelser fra den Naturhistoriske Forening i Kjöbenhavn, 1891: 153-202.
  6. Raunkiær, C. (1889) Notes on the vegetation of the North-Frisian Islands and a contribution to an eventual flora of these islands. Botanisk Tidsskrift 17: 179-196.
  7. Warming, E. (1902) Der Wind als pflanzengeographischer Factor. Englers Botanische Jahrbücher, vol. 31, p. 555-586.
  8. Adolph Hansen (1902?) Abwehr und Berichtigung. Englers Botanische Jahrbücher, vol. 32 Beiblatt, p. 1-24.
  9. Warming, E. (1902?) Die Windfrage: fortgesetzte Anmerkungen zu Prof. Ad. Hansen's Publicationen über den Wind. Englers Botanische Jahrbücher, vol. 32 Beiblatt, p. 25-36.
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