Name Erwin Baur | Role Botanist | |
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Died December 2, 1933, Berlin, Germany | ||
Grabst tte dr erwin baur deutscher arzt botaniker genetiker u z chtungsforscher
Erwin Baur (16 April 1875, Ichenheim, Grand Duchy of Baden – 2 December 1933) was a German geneticist and botanist. Baur worked primarily on plant genetics. He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Breeding Research (since 1938 Erwin Baur-Institute). Baur is considered to be the father of plant virology. He discovered the inheritance of plastids.
In 1908 Baur demonstrated a lethal gene in the Antirrhinum plant. In 1909 working on the chloroplast genes in Pelarganium (geraniums) he showed that they violated four of Mendel's five laws. Baur stated that
- plastids are carriers of hereditary factors which are able to mutate.
- in variegated plants, random sorting out of plastids is taking place.
- the genetic results indicate a biparental inheritance of plastids by egg cells and sperm cells in pelargonium.
Since the 1930s and the work of Otto Renner, plastid inheritance became a widely accepted genetic theory.
In 1921 and 1932 Baur co-authored with Fritz Lenz and Eugen Fischer two volumes that became the book Human Heredity, which was a major influence on the racial theories of Adolf Hitler. The work served a chief inspiration for biological support in Hitler's "Mein Kampf".