Pioneering Hermann Müller-Thurgau: research activities and impact on Swiss and global horticulture – selected examples

Hermann Müller-Thurgau lived in an era when society began to apply scientific findings to improve livelihoods systematically.
His successes and those of his successors, whom he inspired, remain noticeable today and are of great economic significance.
Müller-Thurgau was born in Switzerland in 1850 and died in 1927. With his scientific work in the fields of applied botany, plant breeding, phytopathology, food microbiology, and food technology, first in Germany and then in Switzerland, he laid the foundations for numerous groundbreaking innovations that significantly contributed to the development of horticulture in Switzerland and, in some cases, worldwide.
He left the first traces of his successful scientific and impactful work at the Prussian Institute for Horticulture and Viticulture in Geisenheim, Germany, as head of the institute, particularly when making the crosses that resulted in a new grapevine cultivar later known under the name of ‘Müller-Thurgau’. It remains the most widely cultivated white wine-related modern grapevine cultivar worldwide.
Later, after being appointed as the first director of the Swiss Experimental Station and School for Fruit-Growing, Viticulture, and Horticulture in Wädenswil, further successes followed, including advancements in phytopathology, microbiology, and the production and preservation of fruit juices, both fermented and non-alcoholic.
His special ability to quickly recognize the scientific basis of a problem and to solve it with simple, practical experiments, while maintaining an inclusive view of the solution needed, created a spirit of research that his successors continued to cultivate.
This led to numerous achievements that have had a lasting impact on everyday life.
Such an impact-oriented research spirit, aimed at furthering horticulture and improving livelihoods, is more important and necessary today than ever.
It paves the way for the urgent transformation of food systems to sustainably address the substantial challenges of food production and environmental management.
These findings are underpinned and documented by selected examples.

EHC2024: International Symposium on the History of Horticulture in Europe

L. Bertschinger, A. Furrer, U. Hilber, E. Möhl, M. Pezzatti, M. Wiederkehr

grape (Vitis vinifera L.), Riesling, Silvaner, malolactic fermentation, yeast strains, non-alcoholic wine, preservation of fruit juices, apple scab (Venturia inaequalis), Rotbrenner (Pseudopezicula tracheiphila), fruit-growing, viticulture

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1438.19