DFG President from 1964 to 1973
Julius Speer was born in Thalheim, near Tübingen, on 3 December 1905 and studied forestry sciences at Tübingen, Freiburg/Br., and Munich. After receiving his diploma in forestry sciences (1928), he went into service with the Württemberg State Forestry Administration. He gained his doctorate at the University of Freiburg in 1929, took on a lectureship there in 1934, became a professor in 1935 and finally Full Professor of Forest Management in 1942. From 1952 to becoming emeritus professor, he held the Chair of Forest Policy and Forest Management at the University of Munich. He died on 8 July 1984 at the age of 78.
Bavarian Order of Merit (Bayerischer Verdienstorden) (1963), Commandeur de l'ordre national du mérite (1967), Corresponding member of the Swedish Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences in Stockholm, Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Munich (1971), Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz mit Stern) (1973), Commandeur de l'ordre Palme Académique (1973), member of the Italian Academy of Forest Science in Florence (1978); Speer was also an honorary member of numerous forestry societies and organisations.
University of Syracuse, New York (1965)
Research on forest and wood management in the European Community, market-economy problems of forest management, taxing woods and forests, forest cost accounting