Ferdinand Heine (junior)

He was educated at the Halberstadt cathedral high school and took an interest in birds from his father.

He studied ornithology at Heidelberg briefly but was conscripted into the Prussian army in 1863 and took part in the Battle of Königgrätz.

He then obtained an education in agriculture at Mansfeld before taking up the management of his father's estate from 1871.

After the Franco-German War he began to breed potato varieties and producing their seeds for cultivation.

He was inspired by the work of Pierre Louis François Levéque de Vilmorin.