Gustav Maass
Encyclopedia
In 1848 he became an assistant to agriculturalist Hermann von Nathusius
Hermann von Nathusius
Hermann Engelhard von Nathusius was a German animal breeder.Born in Magdeburg to industrialist Johann Gottlob Nathusius, Hermann von Nathusius studied the natural sciences. He took over Schloss Hundisburg from his father and turned it to agriculture, particularly cattle breeding...
(1809-1879), and shortly afterwards spent twelve years in the military as an artilleryman in the 3rd Brandenburg Artillery Brigade, a Brigadeschule instructor at Magdeburg
Magdeburg
Magdeburg , is the largest city and the capital city of the Bundesland of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Magdeburg is situated on the Elbe River and was one of the most important medieval cities of Europe....
and as an assistant to the brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
staff in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. In 1862 he became a manager in the Magdeburgischen Land-Feuer-Societät in Altenhausen
Altenhausen
Altenhausen is a municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany....
, a position he maintained until his death in 1901.
In 1866 Maass was co-founder of the Walbeck
Walbeck, Börde
Walbeck is a village and a former municipality in the Börde district in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Since 1 January 2010, it is part of the town Oebisfelde-Weferlingen....
"Aller Association", and was its chairman from 1874 to 1896. Within this association he performed extensive studies of flora in areas surrounding the Ohre
Ohre
The Ohře is a 316 km long river in Germany and the Czech Republic , left tributary of the Elbe. The basin area of the river has a size of 6,255 km², of which 5,614 km² are in the Czech Republic and 641 km² in Germany...
and Aller
Aller
The Aller is a river, long, in the states of Saxony-Anhalt and Lower Saxony in Germany. It is a right-hand, and hence eastern, tributary of the River Weser and is also its largest tributary. Its last form the Lower Aller federal waterway...
Rivers. With Paul Ascherson
Paul Friedrich August Ascherson
Paul Friedrich August Ascherson was a German botanist. His author citation is Asch., although Aschers. has been used in the past....
(1834-1913) and Ludwig Schneider (1809-1889), he took part in extended botanical excursions. Results from these field studies were incorporated into Schneider's book Flora von Magdeburg.
Maass is credited with discovering several new species of blackberry
Blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by any of several species in the Rubus genus of the Rosaceae family. The fruit is not a true berry; botanically it is termed an aggregate fruit, composed of small drupelets. The plants typically have biennial canes and perennial roots. Blackberries and...
, and provided assistance to Wilhelm Olbers Focke
Wilhelm Olbers Focke
Wilhelm Olbers Focke was a medical doctor and botanist who in 1881 published a significant work on plant breeding entitled Die Pflanzen-Mischlinge, Ein Beitrag zur Biologie der Gewächse which briefly mentioned Gregor Mendel's discoveries on hybridization...
(1834-1922) with the latter's 1877 treatise Synopsis Ruborum Germaniae. Also, the botanical species Rubus
Rubus
Rubus is a large genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of these plants have woody stems with prickles like roses; spines, bristles, and gland-tipped hairs are...
maassii was named in Maass' honor.