Hermann Settegast

Hermann Settegast (1819 to 1908) was a German agricultural scientist and a leading authority on animal breeding. Born at Königsberg, he trained for nine years on East Prussian estates, studied natural sciences in Berlin and agriculture at Hohenheim, and from 1847 to 1856 managed the royal domain of Proskau in Silesia while teaching at its agricultural academy. In 1857 he became director of the new agricultural academy at Waldau near Königsberg, where he worked mainly on animal breeding, and from 1863 he directed the Proskau academy until its dissolution in 1881, defending against Justus von Liebig the view that agriculture could be taught successfully at agricultural academies and not only at universities. His 1868 book Die Thierzucht reached five editions by 1888 and places him among the leading animal breeding scientists of the nineteenth century. From 1881 to 1889 he was professor of animal breeding and farm management at the new agricultural college in Berlin, and in 1873 he was elected to the Leopoldina.