Botanist, microbiologist, natural philosopher and cultural philosopher
Raoul Heinrich Francé (May 20, 1874, in Vienna, Austria – October 3, 1943, in Budapest, Hungary) was an Austro-Hungarian botanist, microbiologist as well as a natural and cultural philosopher and popularizer of science. His botanical author abbreviation is "Francé".
Biography
Poppy and Pepperpot (biomimetics) image from Die Pflanze als Erfinder, 1920
Francé (birth name: Rudolf Heinrich Franze[1]) was born on 20 May 1874 in Altlerchenfeld (Vienna) and studied as a self-taught very early in analytical chemistry and "Mikrotechnik" (microscopy).
At 16 he was the youngest member of the Royal Hungarian scientific society, as its deputy magazine editor, he worked from 1893 to 1898.
From 1897 Francé studied biology for eight semesters and became a student under the Hungarian protozoa scientist (Protozoenforscher) Geza Entz.
During this time he undertook fourteen botanical expeditions.
In 1898 he was appointed Deputy Head of the Institute of Plant Protection of Agricultural Academy in Hungarian-Altenburg.
Here he published his first natural philosophical work.
Thereupon Francé received in 1902 the invitation to come to Munich.
In 1906 he founded the "Deutsche Mikrologische Gesellschaft" (German micrological Company) and its institution over which he presided as director.
He was editor of this company and co-founder of the journal Mikrokosmos (1907).
He was editor of other periodicals, such as Jahrbuch für Mikroskopiker and Mikrologische Bibliothek.
In 1906 Francé initiated the eight-volume monumental work Das Leben der Pflanze ("The Life of Plants"), whose first four volumes (1906–1910) are from his own pen.
The publishing company advertised this book as "Pflanzen-Brehm" ("Plant-Brehm", after the famous book "Brehms Tierleben").
In 1922, he published a popular version of the scientific evidence on the soil biota in a booklet "Das Leben im Ackerboden" (Life in the soil).
Throughout his busy life he wrote 60 books and a variety of popular science articles and writings.
In the "Walter Seifert Verlag" he was the editor of the journal Telos – Halbmonatsschrift für Arbeit und Erfolg) ("Telos – Fortnightly Magazine for Work and Success"). As a renowned graphic artist Francé developed the technique of "feather stitch" (Federstich), which is rooted in the copper engraving (Kupferstich).
Stages of his life are Dinkelsbühl, Wroclaw, Salzburg, Munich and Dubrovnik-Ragusa. In his life he wrote many books in which he anticipated many modern ecological ideas. Francé died of leukemia in 1943 in Budapest.[2] He is buried together with his wife in Oberalm, Austria.
Plant intelligence
Francé's Germs of Mind in Plants, a book on plant intelligence was translated by A. M Simons.[3] The book revolted against mechanistic botany and argued that plants are like humans because they have a sense life and purpose. Francé was not satisfied with the position held by neuropsychology but he did not claim that plants can feel pain or have a soul.[3] It was negatively reviewed as a philosophical, not a scientific work.[4]
Organic farming is based in part on the findings by Francé, which were published in his books "Das Edaphon" (wikt:edaphon, any animal or plant found in soil), 1913, and "Das Leben im Ackerboden", 1922, (Life in the soil) and a series of articles in the journal Mikrokosmos made available for a broad public. But this scientific source is usually concealed.
His wife Annie Francé-Harrar, a well-known biologist and author, worked with him for many years and continued parts of his scientific work after his death.[6][7]
Today Francé is rediscovered as the founder of "Biotechnik" (Now called "Bionics"). His books Das Edaphon and Das Leben im Ackerboden were again published as reprints since 1959.[8]
Many of his then and now progressive ideas only gained their assessment at the end of the 20th century.
Die Kultur von morgen. Ein Buch der Erkenntnis und der Gesundung. Dresden 1922
Ewiger Wald. Ein Buch für Wanderer. Leipzig 1922
Süd-Bayern. Berlin 1922
Das wirkliche Naturbild. Dresden 1923
Der unbekannte Mensch. Stuttgart und Heilbronn 1923
Die Entdeckung der Heimat. Stuttgart 1923
Die Welt als Erleben. Grundriß einer objektiven Philosophie. (Grundlagen einer objektiven Philosophie VI). Dresden 1923
Plasmatik. Die Wissenschaft der Zukunft. Stuttgart und Heilbronn 1923
Das Buch des Lebens. Ein Weltbild der Gegenwart. Berlin 1924
Die Seele der Pflanze. Berlin 1924
Grundriß einer vergleichenden Biologie. (Grundlagen einer objektiven Philosophie I). Leipzig 1924
Richtiges Leben. Ein Buch für jedermann. Leipzig 1924
Telos, die Gesetze des Schaffens. Dresden 1924
Das Land der Sehnsucht. Berlin 1925
Der Dauerwald. 1925
Der Ursprung des Menschen. Stuttgart und Heilbronn 1926
Bios - Die Gesetze der Welt. Taschenbuchausgabe Leipzig: Kröner 1926
Der Weg zu mir. Der Lebenserinnerungen erster Teil. Leipzig 1927
Phoebus. München 1927
Vom deutschen Walde. Berlin 1927
Der Organismus. München 1928
Naturgesetze der Heimat. Wien und Leipzig 1928
Urwald. Stuttgart 1928
Welt, Erde und Menschheit. Berlin 1928
Die Waage des Lebens. Eine Bilanz der Kultur. Leipzig 1929
So musst du leben! Eine Anleitung zum richtigen Leben. Dresden 1929
Das Leben vor der Sintflut. Berlin 1930
Korallenwelt. Der siebente Erdteil. Stuttgart 1930
Lebender Braunkohlenwald. Eine Reise durch die heutige Urwelt. Stuttgart 1932
Naturbilder. Wien 1932
Braunkohle - Sonnenkraft. Berlin 1934
Von der Arbeit zum Erfolg. Ein Schlüssel zum besseren Leben. Dresden 1934
Sehnsucht nach dem Süden. Gemeinsam mit Annie Francé-Harrar. Leipzig 1938
Luft als Rohstoff. 1939
Lebenswunder der Tierwelt. Eine Tierkunde für Jedermann. Berlin 1940
Leben und Wunder des deutschen Waldes. Berlin 1943
New editions
Die Entdeckung der Heimat. Reprint (1923). Mit einer Einführung von Gerhard Tenschert. Asendorf 1982
Das Leben im Boden. Das Edaphon. Reprint (Das Edaphon 1913 and Das Leben im Ackerboden 1922). Einführung von René Roth, Ontario/Kanada, Edition Siebeneicher, Deukalion Verlag 1995
Andreas Daum, Wissenschaftspopularisierung im 19. Jahrhundert: Bürgerliche Kultur, naturwissenschaftliche Bildung und die deutsche Öffentlichkeit, 1848–1914. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1998, ISBN3-486-56337-8, end. edition 2002, including a short biography.
René Romain Roth: Raoul Heinrich Francé And The Doctrine Of Life. 2000. Biography. [7]
Stephen Sokoloff: Raoul Francé's Heritage - A Nightmare for Specialists. 1993. [8]
Oliver Botar: Raoul Heinrich France and Early 20th Century Central European Biocentrism. 2010 [9]
Klaus Henkel: "Die Renaissance des Raoul Heinrich Francé." Mikrokosmos, 86 (1): 3-16, 1997
Werner Nachtigall: "Der Bildungswert der Kleinwelt. Was bedeuten R. H. Francés „Gedanken über mikroskopische Studien“ für unsere Zeit?" Mikrokosmos, 86 (6): 321–328, 1997
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