Raoul Heinrich Francé

Raoul Heinrich Francé (born May 20, 1874 in Vienna, Austria; died October 3, 1943 in Budapest, Hungary) was an Austro-Hungarian botanist, microbiologist, natural and cultural philosopher. His botanical author abbreviation is "Francé".

Life

Poppy and Pepperpot (biomimetics) image from Die Pflanze als Erfinder, 1920

Raoul Heinrich Francé (birth name: Rudolf Heinrich Franze[1]) was born on 20 May 1874 in Altlerchenfeld (Vienna) and studied as a self-taught very early in analytical chemistry and "Mikrotechnik" (microscopy). At 16 he was the youngest member of the Royal Hungarian scientific society, as its deputy magazine editor, he worked from 1893 to 1898. From 1897 Francé studied medicine for eight semesters and became a student under the Hungarian protozoa scientist (Protozoenforscher) Geza Entz. During this time he undertook fourteen botanical expeditions. In 1898 he was appointed Deputy Head of the Institute of Plant Protection of Agricultural Academy in Hungarian-Altenburg. Here he published his first natural philosophical work. Thereupon Francé received in 1902 the invitation to come to Munich. In 1906 he founded the "Deutsche Mikrologische Gesellschaft" (German micrological Company) and its institution over which he presided as director. He was editor of this company and co-founder of the journal Mikrokosmos (1907). He was editor of other periodicals, such as Jahrbuch für Mikroskopiker and Mikrologische Bibliothek.

In 1906 Francé initiated the eight-volume monumental work "The Life of Plants", whose first four volumes (1906-1910) are from his own pen. The publishing company advertised this book as "Pflanzen-Brehm" ("Plant-Brehm", after the famous book "Brehms Tierleben").

In 1922, he published a popular version of the scientific evidence on the soil biota in a booklet "Das Leben im Ackerboden" (Life in the soil).

Throughout his busy life he wrote 60 books and a variety of popular science articles and writings. In the "Walter Seifert Verlag" he was the editor of the journal "Telos - fortnightly magazine for work and success" (Telos – Halbmonatsschrift für Arbeit und Erfolg). As a renowned graphic artist Francé developed the technique of "feather stitch" (Federstich), which is rooted in the copper engraving (Kupferstich).

Stages of his life are Dinkelsbühl, Wroclaw, Salzburg, Munich and Dubrovnik-Ragusa. In his life he wrote many books in which he anticipated many modern ecological ideas. Francé died of leukemia in 1943 in Budapest. He is buried together with his wife in Oberalm, Austria.

Legacy

Organic farming is based in part on the findings by Francé, which were published in his books "Das Edaphon" , 1913, and "Das Leben im Ackerboden", 1922, (Life in the soil) and a series of articles in the journal Mikrokosmos made available for a broad public. But this scientific source is usually concealed.

His wife Annie Francé-Harrar Annie Francé-Harrar, a well-known biologist and author, worked many years with him and continued after his death in 1943 parts of his scientific work.

Today Raoul H. Francé is rediscovered as the founder of "Biotechnik" (Now called "Bionics"). Many of his then and now progressive ideas only gained its assessment at the end of the 20th century.

In Munich and Dinkelsbühl a street bears his name.

Books

Protozoa from Die Pflanze als Erfinder, 1920

Literature

See also

References

  1. ↑ René von Romain Roth (in German), Raoul H. Francé And The Doctrine Of Life
  2. ↑ IPNI.  Francé.
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