Helmut Becker (8 March 1927 – 19 July 1990) was a German

viticulturist Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine, ...

and was chief of the

Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute The Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute was founded in 1872 and is located in the town of Geisenheim, in Germany's Rheingau region. In 1876 Swiss-born professor Hermann Müller joined the institute, where he developed his namesake grape variety ...

.Andrew G Reynolds, ''Grapevine Breeding Programs for the Wine Industry: Traditional and Molecular Techniques'' Elsevier, 2015, , p. 92 ff He received his doctorate from the University of Mainz; the topic of his thesis was the biology of phylloxera. As a successor of

Heinrich Birk Heinrich Birk (1898 – 1973) was a German viticulturist. He was head of the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute, in Geisenheim, in Germany's Rheingau region. Heinrich Birk studied philosophy at the University of Giessen after his initial graduatio ...

, he viewed

viticulture Viticulture (, "vine-growing"), viniculture (, "wine-growing"), or winegrowing is the cultivation and harvesting of grapes. It is a branch of the science of horticulture. While the native territory of ''Vitis vinifera'', the common grape vine ...

from a global perspective and promoted the globalization of a quality wine industry. Dr. Becker collaborated with numerous scientists around the world and encouraged the importation of important

clones Clone or Clones or Cloning or Cloned or The Clone may refer to: Places * Clones, County Fermanagh, Ireland * Clones, County Monaghan, a town in Ireland * Clones railway station, Ireland Biology * Clone (B-cell), a lymphocyte clone, the massiv ...

and varieties in New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Japan and other countries. He did early important work in Neustadt/Weinstrasse during the 1950s and 1960s in the European

phylloxera Grape phylloxera is an insect pest of grapevines worldwide, originally native to eastern North America. Grape phylloxera (''Daktulosphaira vitifoliae'' (Fitch 1855) belongs to the family Phylloxeridae, within the order Hemiptera, bugs); orig ...

eradication program. Some of the grape varieties bred by Helmut Becker at the Research Institute Geisenheim : File:Saphira-08-8.JPG,

Saphira This is a list of key characters in ''The Inheritance Cycle'', a fantasy adventure series by Christopher Paolini. The series contains several hundred characters, while the following list contains only the most frequently mentioned. Many of the na ...

File:Rondo-07-1.JPG,

Rondo The rondo or rondeau is a musical form that contains a principal theme (music), theme (sometimes called the "refrain") which alternates with one or more contrasting themes (generally called "episodes", but also referred to as "digressions" or "c ...

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Ehrenbreitsteiner Ehrenbreitsteiner is a white wine grape Variety (botany), variety of German wine, German origin. It was created by Helmut Becker at the Geisenheim Grape Breeding Institute in 1964, by crossing the varieties Ehrenfelser and Reichensteiner.

See also

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Further reading