Soil Science Society

The German Soil Science Society (DBG) is a non-commercial association with about 2,000 members interested in soil scientific questions.

The task of the German Soil Science Society is to promote soil science and its relation to neighbouring disciplines through:

concerted scientific work, professional stimulation and education, exchange of ideas and information in the field of soil science;
promotion of the education of young scientists;
public relation activities to inform people about soils, their capacities and required protection as well as the educational value of soil science;
maintenance and fosterage of relations between scientific societies of Soil Science and neighbouring disciplines in and outside Germany, especially the International Union of Soil Science (IUSS).

The German Soil Science Society organises periodical conferences (see "Kalender") including scientific excursions as well as targeted symposia and workshops of the commissions and working groups.

The society releases the "Berichte der DBG" as an online bulletin, the "Nachrichten der DBG" as an information bulletin, the "Mitteilungen der Bodenkundlichen Gesellschaft" as a non-reviewed publication and the peer-reviewed international "Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science".

Furthermore, the DBG awards the Fritz Scheffer Award to young scientists for scientific excellence.

Admittance

Every person with a professional interest in Soil Science can become a member.

To become a member, it is required to send an informal application to the office in Oldenburg.

Membership fee

According to the rules of the Society the membership fee for members in Germany are collected by an automatic debit transfer in March for the current year. The bank statement might be used as a receipt for funding.

Every member is obliged to participate in the automatic debit transfer system and to sign the required approval.

Excluded from this obligation are those members who live in other countries where an automatic debit system doesn't exist. In these cases, the annual membership fee has to be transferred by 1st January for the following year to the DBG account. New members joining the Society during the accounting year will be charged for the current year after receiving their acceptance of membership.

All additional fees, which are charged to the Society due to missing, wrong or delayed information of a member concerning the current mailing address and/or bank details (e.g. additional mailing costs for printed matter of retransfers of money) have to be paid by the member.

Annual membership fee	EUR	63.00
Annual fee for promoters	EUR	150.00

The membership fee includes the delivery of the "Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science", the "Mitteilungen der Deutschen Bodenkundlichen Gesellschaft" as well as the "Nachrichten der DBG".

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Board

Board and extended Board
of the Deutschen Bodenkundlichen Gesellschaft

President: karl-heinz [dot] fegertu-dresden [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Feger) Vice-president:

amelunguni-bonn [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Wulf Amelung)

Daniela [dot] Sauergeo [dot] uni-goettingen [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Daniela Sauer)

kandeleruni-hohenheim [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Ellen Kandeler)

Executive manager: cahlgwdg [dot] de (Dr. Christian Ahl)

Members of the extended board:

Former President: guggenbergerifbk [dot] uni-hannover [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Georg Guggenberger)

I. Soil Physics and Soil Hydrology Chair:
Vice-chair: kroeneruni-landau [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Eva Kröner)

steffen [dot] schlueterufz [dot] de (Dr. Steffen Schlüter)

II. Soil Chemistry Chair:
Vice-chair: jan [dot] siemensumwelt [dot] uni-giessen [dot] de (Prof. Dr.Jan Siemens)

eva [dot] lehndorffuni-bayreuth [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Eva Lehndorff)

III. Soil Biology and Soil Ecology Chair:
Vice-chair: christian [dot] polluni-hohenheim [dot] de (Dr. Christian Poll)

anja [dot] miltnerufz [dot] de (Dr. Anja Miltner )

IV. Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition Chair:
Vice-chair: florian [dot] stangebgr [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Florian.Stange)

nendelzalf [dot] de (Dr. Claas Nendel)

V. Soil Genetics, Classification and Mapping Chair:
Vice-chair:

peter [dot] kuehnuni-tuebingen [dot] de (Dr. Peter Kühn)

bauriegelgmail [dot] com (Dr. Albrecht Bauriegel)

VI. Soil Protection and Soil Technology Chair:
Vice-chair: andreas [dot] lehmannuni-hohenheim [dot] de (Dr. Andreas Lehmann)

freeseb-tu [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Dirk Freese)

VII. Soil Mineralogy Chair:
Vice-chair: c [dot] mikuttamineralogie [dot] uni-hannover [dot] de (Prof. Dr.Christian Mikutta)

klaus [dot] kaiserlandw [dot] uni-halle [dot] de (Dr. Klaus Kaiser)

VIII. Soil in Education and Society Chair:
Vice-chair: nikolapatzel [dot] info (Dr. Nikola Patzel)

stefan [dot] norrakit [dot] edu (Prof. Dr. Stefan Norra)

Deputy of the Bundesverbandes Boden e.V. (BVB): jens [dot] utermannmulnv [dot] nrw [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Jens Utermann)

History

The German Soil Science Society (DBG) was founded on 24th February 1926 in Berlin as a section of the International Soil Science Society (ISSS). Until the 2nd World War the congresses / conferences were affected by scientists from Berlin like O. Lemmermann, F.W. Schucht and P. Giesecke, supported by A.E. Mitscherlich (Königsberg) and P. Ehrenberg (Breslau). These scientists have contributed together with E. Blanck (Göttingen), Editor of the Handbuch der Bodenkunde (Handbook of Soil Science), G.A. Krauss (München) and H. Stremme (Danzig) to the international reputation of our scientific society.
Highlights during these days were the creation of the soil maps of Germany and Europe, the contribution to the German Soil Appraisal (Reichsbodenschätzung), the pot experiments to estimate the nutrient demand of field crops and the characterisation of fundamental soil properties, e.g. colloids.
After the re-foundation as an independent society on 7th December1949 in Wiesbaden, the German Soil Science Society was influenced during the first 2 decades mainly by its long-lasting president F. Scheffer. With the support of corresponding members like G. Barbier and P. Duchaufour (France), M. Gracanin (Jugoslavia), R. Tavernier (Belgium), A. van Baren (The Netherlands) and later by L. Wiklander (Sweden), R. Dudal (Belgium-FAO) and D. Yaalon (Israel) the German Soil Science Society re-established its international reputation quickly.

The continuously increasing annual conferences, the large number of scientific activities of the commissions, working groups and working committees and many excursions led to an intensive exchange of experiences and a rapid scientific progress. A highlight was the conference of the International Soil Science Society (IUSS) in 1986 in Hamburg. Additionally, international conferences were organised by the commissions like 1958 in Hamburg, 1966 in Braunschweig-Völkenrode, 1971 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim and 1981 in Berlin. Especially remarkable was the last common conference of the East- and West-German Soil Science Society in 1961 in Vienna and the first one after the re-unification in 1991 in Bayreuth.

During that time the main focus was on questions concerning soil development, soil geography and soil suitability. Later, soil ecology, biology and fertililty were dominating topics. Since the 1980s the aspects of soil conservation gained more and more in importance. This expressed itself in a working group which was directly linked to the executive board, later it was manifested in the foundation of the 8th commission of the DBG and finally in the outsourcing of the Bundesverband Boden e.V. (Federal Soil Association).

The number of members increased quickly from about 150 in 1950 over more than 800 in 1975 to 2.450 in 2003, whereas the Society was always characterised by a high proportion of young members. About 10 % of our members are from or working in foreign countries.

There are many close co-operations with other institutions in the field of Soil Science in Germany and foreign countries. The high reputation of the German Soil Science was fostered through the collaboration as commission chairs of the IUSS by Flaig, Schwertmann, Hartge, Schlichting, Ottow, Horn, Stahr and Burghardt and documented through the IUSS honorary membership of W. Kubiena (Hamburg), F. Scheffer (Göttingen), W. Flaig (Braunschweig), E. Mückenhausen (Bonn), P. Schachtschabel and K.-H. Hartge (both from Hannover ).

The meetings take place every two years at various locations in Germany. Vienna has also hosted the DBG twice, and the meetings were held there in 1961 and 2011 in cooperation with the Austrian Soil Research Society.
The DBG Conference 2019 was organized in Bern together with the Soil Research Society of Switzerland.

All conference presiedents and venues since 1950 can be found here.

Working Groups

Working Groups Chair

Soils in Schleswig-Holstein

h [dot] fleigesoils [dot] uni-kiel [dot] de (Dr. Heiner C. Fleige)

German Soil Assessment and Soil Evaluation

bernhard [dot] keilofd [dot] hessen [dot] de (Dr. Bernhard Keil)

Soil Systematics

milbertgd [dot] nrw [dot] de (Dr. G. Milbert)

Digital Soil Mapping thorsten [dot] behrensuni-tuebingen [dot] de (Dr. Thorsten Behrens)

History of Soil Science

hblumesoils [dot] uni-kiel [dot] de (Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. P. Blume)

Humus Forms

s [dot] wachendorfuni-kassel [dot] de (Dr. Ch. Wachendorf)

Isotopes in Soil Science

heinz [dot] flessavti [dot] bund [dot] de (Prof. Dr. H. Flessa)

Paleopedology

birgit [dot] terhorstuni-wuerzburg [dot] de (Prof. Dr. B. Terhorst)

Urban Soils

s [dot] hoekeahu [dot] de (Dr. Silke Höke )

Forest Soils

prietzelwzw [dot] tum [dot] de (Prof. Dr. J. Prietzel)

Ground Gases

stephan [dot] glatzeluni-rostock [dot] de (Prof. Dr. S. Glatzel)

Working groups are established to work intensively on current questions, specific sections of single commissions or intersectoral questions. They are assigned directly to single or several commissions.

Commissions

To represent the different branches of Soil Science the following commissions are established:

Soil Physics and Soil Hydrology Soil Chemistry Soil Biology and Soil Ecology Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition Soil Genetics, Soil Systematics, Soil Informations Soil Protection and Soil Technology Soil Mineralogy Soil in Education and Society

The commissions are the backbone of the scientific activities of the German Soil Science Society in the different branches of Soil Science. They should foster the specific research of the branches through the joint research of the members. All members of the German Soil Science Society (DBG) may join each commission by a letter of intention to the chairman of the commission or by their active participation in commission events.

Cooperations

The German Soil Science Society maintains and fosters scientific cooperation with the following organisations:

German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste (DWA) Dachverband wissenschaftlicher Gesellschaften der Agrar-, Forst-, Ernährungs-, Veterinär und Umweltforschung e.V. ISRIC World Soil Information International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) GeoUnion Alfred-Wegener-Stiftung Bodenwelten Bundesverband Boden e.V. Swiss Soil Science Society Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) Polish Soil Science Society Austrian Soil Science Society Association of Forest Site Ecology and Geobotany (AFSV) German-Austrian-Swiss Clay Group (DTTG) Bundesgütegemeinschaft Kompost e.V. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geowissenschaften (DGG) Aktionsplattform Bodenschutz (ABo) Gesellschaft für Ökologie Gesellschaft für Pflanzenbauwissenschaften e.V. Staatliche Geologische Dienste in Deutschland

Rules

This page is only available in German:

please see the German page "Satzung".

Awards of the Society

The German Soil Science Society awards the following prizes:

Honorary members and corresponding members of the DBG

Honorary Members Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c.mult. Hans-Joachim Fiedler (appointedt 1993) Prof. Dr. Günter Roeschmann (appointed 1989) Prof. Dr. Hans Sticher (appointed 1999) Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. Hans-Peter Blume (appointedt 2003) Prof. Dr. Immo Lieberoth (appointed 2007) Dr. h.c. Ir. Hendrik de Bakker (appointedt 2009)
(deceased on 5.12.2018) Prof. Dr. habil. Monika Frielinghaus (appointed 2009) Dr. Peter Hugenroth (appointed 2013) Ao. Univ.-Prof. Dipl.-Ing. nat.techn. Dr.Otmar Nestroy (appointed 2013) Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Zech (appointed 2015) Prof. Prof. h.c. Dr. Dr. h.c. Karl Stahr (appointed 2017) Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Hannes Flühler (appointed 2017) Prof. Prof. h.c. mult. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Rainer Horn (appointed 2019) Prof. Dr. Tamas Harrach (appointed 2019)

Corresponding Members Dr. Jan A.K. Boerma, The netherlands Prof. Dr. H. Kirchmann. Sweden Prof. Dr. Alojzy Kowalkowski, Poland (deceased on Jan. 2020) Prof. Dr. Radu Lacatusu, Rumänien Prof. Dr. Hassan Meshref, Ägypten Prof. Dr. Yan Nemecek, Tschechien (deceased on 2018) Prof. Dr. T. Urushadze, Georgien Prof. Dr. R. Lal, Ohio

Archive of the Annual Meetings

The DBG Website

The DBG Website

Soil Science Society

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