Obituary: Helmut Gottwald

Excerpt

Helmut Gottwald was born in Cosel/Upper Silesia on 5 November 1918 and died in Reinbek near Hamburg on 7 October 2008 after a prolonged illness, shortly before celebrating his 90th birthday, and 25 years after retiring from official duties. Surviving World War II, Helmut Gottwald first worked as an apprenticed carpenter from 1945 to 1947 and then studied at the University of Hamburg. From 1951 to 1955 he taught at a vocational school in Hamburg before he joined the staff of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products (now Johann Heinrich von Thünen—Institute, vTI) in 1957 and started his remarkable career as a scientist in the field of systematic and applied wood anatomy with emphasis on wood properties and utilization. One year later he succeeded Eberhard Schmidt as head of the wood anatomy department. Besides the daily routine work in wood identification, Helmut Gottwald’s main scientific interest focused on applied wood science, systematic studies of important woody plant families, and the expansion of the Hamburg wood collection. Under his responsibility, the collection developed into an internationally recognised, highly valuable scientific collection with 18,000 specimens backed by some 40,000 microscopic slides. Numerous publications and technical leaflets about the most important trade timbers as well as innumerable expert opinions document his activities. He also developed a keen interest in the anatomy and identification of fossil woods, a topic he never really found the time to follow until his retirement in 1983.

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