History of the institute

In the time period from 1945 to about 1968, the profile of the institute was decisively characterized by the work of Prof Dr Karl Abetz (see Detten 2001). Research and teaching concentrated on forest management planning, forestry business administration and forestry administration.

With the appointment of Prof Dr Gerhard Speidel, clear shifts were seen in the research and teaching profile:

• The research and teaching field of remote sensing – so far a part of the department of forest management planning – was, in keeping with the growing importance of the subject, organizationally outsourced (1969 official founding of the department by Prof Dr Gerd Hildebrand).
• The weighting of research and teaching in forest management planning and forestry business administraion shifted. Speidel interpreted forest management as a part of  forestry business administration, which henceforth became the central focus of research and teaching in a neoclassic interpretation and oriented to the research program of Gutenberg (cf Oestern 1994).
   

With the appointment of Prof Dr Gerhard Oesten in 1998, the shift in focus of the research and teaching profile in the direction of forest economics continued.
 

Scientific profile

Focal points of current research are:

1. Management of forestry operations and society
2. Sustainable management of operations
3. Change in institutions in the forestry and environmental sectors
4. International environmental governance

From 1995 to 1998, Prof Oesten was speaker of the DFG Graduate School of “Socio-Economics of Forest Use in the Tropics and Subtropics.”
 

Development of teaching

Following the Second World War and through the mid-70s, teaching was aimed almost totally toward the occupational profile of the forester in the upper levels of the state forestry services.

Due to changes in the employment market and rising numbers of students, lectures were systematically changed and the offerings expanded.

With the German Studies Reform of 1994, a fully new orientation of teaching took place, both in terms of content (gaining a stronger relationship to a wider variety of different professions) and also in terms of didactic approach (turning away from a classic lecture style, new forms of interdisciplinary lectures, exercises, internships, seminars and excursions).
 

List of professors employed at the institute:

Institute director and teacher for forest management planning and forest business administration:

1935 – 1964 Professor Dr Karl Abetz (born 1896, died 1964)
1966 – 1985 Professor Dr Gerhard Speidel (born 1929, died 1992)
1985 – 1989 Professor Dr Gerhard Hildebrandt (born 1923, chief-in-charge)
1989 – today Professor Dr Gerhard Oesten (born 1947)

C3 professors for remote sensing (dept FELIS):

1969 – 1989 Professor Dr Gerd Hildebrandt (born 1923)
1994 – today Professor Dr Barbara Koch