SORAUER, PAUL KARL MORITZ

SORAUER, PAUL KARL MORITZ (1839–1916), German plant pathologist. Sorauer was born in Breslau, the son of a cabinet maker, and after studying horticulture went to Berlin for further training in plant physiology. In 1872 he was appointed director of an experimental station for plant physiology at Proskau. He was given the rank of professor in 1892, but was obliged to relinquish his post the following year because of a long-standing eye ailment. He moved to Berlin and lectured for a time at the Humboldt Academy. At the age of 63 he was made a Privatdozent at the University of Berlin. Sorauer was the author of many publications on plant diseases, which bear the stamp of his unique amalgam of practical knowledge and physiological science. He was the founder of the Zeitschrift fuer Pflanzenkrankheiten, established in 1891. A major work was his Handbuch der Pflanzenkrankheiten, first published in 1874, which went through three editions. Sorauer was an influential teacher, and trained a large number of European plant pathologists. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Zeitschrift fuer Pflanzenkrankheiten, 26 (1916), 6–17. (Mordecai L. Gabriel)