Civil engineer Fritz Schumacher on his 80th birthday

Fritz Schumacher, the long-time lecturer in crop technology at the German training center for tropical farmers in Witzenhausen, turned 80 on September 24, 1969. Born in Lützingen near Waldbröl in the Oberbergisches Land region, he came into contact with crop technology at an early age. At the age of 10, he regularly had to look after the slope irrigation systems of his grandfather's farm on weekends in spring and fall. The inclination towards cultivation technology, which later became his profession and purpose in life, may have been developed during this time. An agricultural apprenticeship and two semesters of agricultural school preceded the cultural engineering studies at today's State Construction School for Structural Engineering, Civil Engineering and Water Management in Siegen. In 1909, he joined what was then the Prussian. Meliorationsbauverwaltung. At the cultural construction offices in Bonn, Lublinitz, Oppeln and Celle, as well as through his affiliation with a special technical department during the First World War, he acquired the practical tools for his later work as a lecturer in cultural engineering at the German Colonial School in Witzenhausen. On June 15, 1921, he was appointed to this German training institute for tropical farmers. He has been a member of the teaching staff of this institution and its successor institutions until today, with an interruption from 1938 to 1956. In the teaching staff, he was the one who emphasized the value and necessity of practical, especially practical-technical training for tropical farmers and never tired in this. With his numerous students, who were active all over the world, he maintained a close comradeship and a lively correspondence beyond his studies. They admire him not only as a teacher, but also as a fatherly friend who is always there to give advice and help. From 1924 to 1933, he worked in an honorary capacity as the managing director of the Witzenhausen Agricultural District Association, and in 1955 he founded the Witzenhausen District Irrigation Association, of which he is still the managing director today; in addition, he has been involved in an advisory capacity in numerous water management and agricultural engineering projects in the immediate and wider vicinity of Witzenhausen. From 1921 to 1922, for example, he chaired the Association of German Cultural Engineers and, in this capacity, successfully petitioned for the reform of studies at German schools of cultural engineering. Schumacher studied the current problems of cultural engineering on trips abroad, which took him to Spain, southern France, Egypt, Sudan and the USA, among other places. Thus, in the 80-year-old cultural engineer we now have before us an expert who has mastered the field of cultural engineering in the tropics and subtropics, which is so important today, like few others besides him. Today, he is particularly interested in cultural technology issues in the context of development aid. Thus, his lectures and practical instructions in the field of cultural technology are an integral part of the preparation of German agricultural experts and development aid workers of GAWI and DED. When asked about the effects of his advanced age, he says: "Growing old is a grace and I am grateful for it.

[from: The Tropical Farmer 1969 , pages 218-219]