Rudolf Mansfeld (17 January 1901,

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

– 1960) was a German

botanist Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and agricultural scientist. For more than twenty years, he served as a

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

at the Botanical Garden and Botanical Museum in Berlin-Dahlem, where he specialized in the study of

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family (biology), family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Orchids are cosmopolitan distribution, cosmopolitan plants that ...

(orchids) and

Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae (), the spurge family, is a large family of flowering plants. In English, they are also commonly called euphorbias, which is also the name of Euphorbia, the type genus of the family. Most spurges, such as ''Euphorbia paralias'', ar ...

(spurges). After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, by way of a request from agriculturalist Hans Stubbe (1902–1989), he accepted a position as a laboratory technician at the Gatersleben Institute. In 1949, he succeeded Werner Rothmaler (1908–1962) as departmental director. During his last ten years at Gatersleben, he was in charge of the department of

systematics Systematics is the study of the diversification of living forms, both past and present, and the relationships among living things through time. Relationships are visualized as evolutionary trees (synonyms: phylogenetic trees, phylogenies). Phy ...

.Genres, Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen
Schriftenreihe der Zentralstelle für Agrardokumentation und -information Informationszentrum Biologische Vielfalt (IBV)

Works

As an agricultural scientist, he developed principles for the classification of cultivated plants, and also provided a scientific basis towards the establishment and preservation of large collections of cultivated plants ( gene banks). He is remembered for the

encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...

, ''Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlicher und gärtnerischer Kulturpflanzen (ohne Zierpflanzen)'', later translated into English and published as "Mansfeld's Encyclopedia of Agricultural and Horticultural Crops". Other noted writings by Mansfeld include: * ''Figuren-Atlas zu den Orchideenflora der südamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten'', 1929 (with Rudolf Schlechter) - Atlas of orchids from the South American

Cordillera A cordillera is a chain or network of mountain ranges, such as those in the west coast of the Americas. The term is borrowed from Spanish, where the word comes from , a diminutive of ('rope'). The term is most commonly used in physical geogra ...

. * ''Figuren-Atlas zu den Orchidaceen von Deutsch-Neu-Guinea'', 1929 (with Rudolf Schlechter) - Atlas of orchids from

German New Guinea German New Guinea () consisted of the northeastern part of the island of New Guinea and several nearby island groups, and was part of the German colonial empire. The mainland part of the territory, called , became a German protectorate in 188 ...

. * ''Die Technik der wissenschaftlichen Pflanzenbenennung; Einführung in die Internationalen Regeln der botanischen Nomenklatur'', 1949 - The technique of scientific plant names; introduction to the International Rules of

Botanical Nomenclature Botanical nomenclature is the formal, scientific naming of plants. It is related to, but distinct from taxonomy (biology), taxonomy. Plant taxonomy is concerned with grouping and classifying plants; Botany, botanical nomenclature then provides na ...

. * ''Vorläufiges Verzeichnis landwirtschaftlich oder gärtnerisch kultivierter Pflanzenarten'', 1959 - Provisional list of agricultural/

horticultural Horticulture (from ) is the art and science of growing fruits, vegetables, flowers, trees, shrubs and ornamental plants. Horticulture is commonly associated with the more professional and technical aspects of plant cultivation on a smaller and mo ...

cultivated plant species.WorldCat Identities
(publications)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mansfeld, Rudolf 1901 births 1960 deaths Scientists from Berlin 20th-century German botanists 20th-century German agronomists