Franz Körte

Hereby he was influenced by the intellectual movement, which the first writings and teachings of Albrecht Thaer had initiated in the circles of the German agriculturists.

From 1803 to 1804 he devoted himself to the study of natural sciences, particularly botany and chemistry, and under guidance of the botanist Kurt Polycarp Joachim Sprengel familiarized himself with other capacities.

[1] After he finished his studies in Halle in 1804, the circumstances led him to return in the agricultural practice and to accept a position as husbandry conductor on the estates of Baron von Dressler in Bavaria, but not for long.

[1] In the same period Theodor Konrad von Kretschmann, minister of Francis, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld, had asked Körte to take on the organisation of an agricultural/economical teaching institute in Marloffstein in association with the local economy professor Michael Alexander Lips (1779–1838), the Adjunct Director of the Faculty of Philosophy in Erlangen.

Not discouraged by such failure Körte in 1811 habilitated, and in the same year was appointed lecturer at the University of Würzburg and technical assistant in currency measurements.

[1] After in 1814 the professorship of Natural Sciences at the Agricultural Academy in Möglin had become vacant, by the death of Professor Georg Ernst Wilhelm Crome, Albrecht Daniel Thaer invited Korte to apply.

He spend the winter semester 1814/15 giving private lecturers in natural science, and started the research that would lead to the 1818 publication Was ist Humus, wie und auf welche Weise wirkt derselbe als ernährendes Mittel für die Pflanzen?

By Easter 1815 Körte was installed at the Agricultural Academy in Möglin in Crome's position,[7][8] awarded with the title of "Royal Prussian Professor".

This article incorporates public domain material from: Carl Leisewitz (1882), "Körte, Heinrich Friedrich Franz", Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB) (in German) 16, Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot, pp.