Dr. Rüdiger Graß

In Witzenhausen, I had formative encounters with Prof. Dr. Engelhard Boehncke, who taught organic animal husbandry, and Prof. Dr. Konrad Scheffer, who taught conventional crop production. Both impressed me, as they pointed out that it was more important to feel connected to the overall agricultural system, to recognize interrelationships and to question systems than just to learn detailed knowledge. They themselves raised many interesting and far-reaching questions, which often led to exciting technical discussions, whereby the lecturers responded very well to the students' impulses. I majored in crop production in my main degree course, as there were many exciting questions in this subject area that I wanted to explore in greater depth. During my diploma period, the consecutive study model with Diploma I and II was introduced, so I decided to continue my studies in Diploma II. After a summer on an alpine pasture in Switzerland, where I was able to intensively pursue my interest in animals despite my focus on plant cultivation, I built on my Diploma II with a doctorate under Konrad Scheffer, which I completed in 2003. This involved the development of innovative crop production systems for organic and conventional agriculture in the cultivation of fodder and energy crops. These concepts quickly met with great interest in practice and I began to give many lectures outside the university during my doctorate. I also became involved in teaching at an early stage. I enjoyed both very much. It was a smooth transition from my studies into the working world.

What I particularly enjoyed in my working environment was the great freedom to work independently, to question problems and to develop new solutions and ideas through discourse. This resulted in exciting, practical projects and collaborations with a wide range of partners from research and practice, such as the project "The rediscovery of the winter pea" together with Dr. Christian Schüler and Prof. Dr. Jürgen Heß, which laid the foundation for the widespread cultivation of winter peas in Germany today. Such direct implementations from his own scientific work confirmed the usefulness of practice-oriented research.

There were many opportunities to take up other job opportunities, especially as there were few permanent prospects as a research assistant at the university, but no other job, nor any other university, promised such an interesting variety of research with active field work, teaching and knowledge transfer in such a diverse environment, so that one fixed-term employment contract followed the next after the doctorate. Fortunately, there was initially sufficient research funding for the chosen topics. With Prof. Dr. Michael Wachendorf, there was also a successor to Prof. Scheffer, who retired in 2005, with whom I was able to continue and further develop my research work in the field of grassland science and renewable resources. Here, too, diversity and independent freedom in research and teaching continue to determine my work to this day, and the appointment of a half-time permanent position in 2013 has made it easier for me to remain at the university in Witzenhausen.

With all its changes over time, Witzenhausen University, with its diversity and its efforts to take up future-oriented topics in the systemic approach of organic farming and to develop solutions - also for the whole of agriculture - is the right place for me and I have never regretted staying here, even if that was never my original plan.