Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ladislaus Kopetz

Ladislaus Michael Kopetz was born the son of a k. u. k. Pioneer officer. After graduating from high school in 1920, he began studying agriculture at the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (Dipl.-Ing. 1924; Dr. Bdkltr. 1928), where he joined the Nordgau Vienna student fraternity in the same year. After graduating, he worked as an assistant at the Institute for Plant Breeding under Prof. Erich Tschermak-Seysenegg from 1924 to 1929.

From 1929, Ladislaus Kopetz headed the vegetable cultivation department at the Federal Institute for Plant Cultivation and Seed Testing in Vienna. During this time, he was able to demonstrate fundamental correlations between day length and plant growth in experimental studies. In 1937, he habilitated at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in plant cultivation with a special focus on vegetable cultivation and in the same year took over the management of the newly founded Teaching and Research Institute for Horticulture in Vienna.

In 1938, Ladislaus Kopetz's venia legendi (teaching license) was revoked for political reasons, and in 1939 he was transferred to Eisgrub (Lundenburg district, South Moravia; part of the "Reichsgau Niederdonau" [Lower Austria] from 1938 to 1945) as head of department at the Experimental and Research Institute for Horticulture, where he remained until the end of the Second World War. During this time, he published handouts for self-sufficiency in the food situation caused by the war.

In 1945, Ladislaus Kopetz received his venia legendi back and was appointed head of the Institute of Agricultural Crop Production and Plant Breeding at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in 1946, as well as an associate professor of this subject. He was appointed full professor in 1950. During this time, he dealt with questions of fertilization in cereal cultivation, potato cultivation and field irrigation and published numerous books and studies on the subject.