To J. Waggle
I saw your open question on this Bee-List. I think I know a person who made
a great contribution: Ludwig Armbruster. He was a priest but also a
scholar. In 1919 he published a book "Bienenzüchtungskunde" (the art of bee
breeding in genetic sense). This book is only known in German-speaking
countries. This book is the first one about genetics in husbandry and
applied to honey bees according to the three genetic laws of Gregor Mendel,
discovered around 1865 en re-discovered in 1900. This book tells about the
application of these laws.
Armbruster was also the founder of mating stations for honey bees in the
most south-western part of Germany around 1919. His book was based upon the
experience with these mating stations. Later on he became a professor in
beekeeping in Berlin. In 1933/34 he was fired because of his pro-Jewish
connections (as happend to lots of his colleagues). After WWII he was not
rehabilitated unto a couple of years ago.
For Brother Adam (the "founder" of the famous buckfast bee) from the
Buckfast Abbey in South-West England the book written by Armbruster was a
real eye-opener. He started in 1919/20 a period of 70 years of beebreeding
- and with great succes.
The reason that Armbruster and his book are really unknown in the
English-speaking world is very simple: the language barrier. In those times
scientific articles and books were published in the own language (often
English or German) and people with that language often were not able to
speak or read the other language.
with best regards,
Ko de Witt, The Netherlands.

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