Advances in Biochemical Engineering/
Biotechnology,Vol. 69
Managing Editor: Th. Scheper
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2000
History of Biotechnology in Austria
M. Roehr
Institut für Biochemische Technologie und Mikrobiologie, Technische Universität Wien,
Getreidemarkt 9/172, 1040 Vienna,Austria
E-mail:
Austria has contributed significantly to the progress of the biotechnologies in the past and is
actively engaged in doing so today. This review describes the early history of biotechnology
in Austria, beginning with the Vienna process of baker’s yeast manufacture in 1846, up to the
achievements of the 20th century, e.g. the submerged vinegar process, penicillin V, immune
biotechnology, biomass as a renewable source of fermentation products (power alcohol,
biogas, organic acids etc.), biopulping,biopolymers, biocatalysis, mammalian cell technology,
nanotechnology of bacterial surface layers, and environmental biotechnology.
Keywords.
Early history of biotechnology in Austria,Vienna process for baker’s yeast produc-
tion, Submerged vinegar fermentation, Penicillin V, Cell culture, Human plasma and immune
biotechnology, Biopulping and lignocellulose conversion, Bioprocess technology, Environ-
mental biotechnology, Genetic engineering
1Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
2 The Vienna Process for Producing Baker’s Yeast . . . . . . . . . . . 127
3 Technical Mycology, a Novel Field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
4 Improvements in Distillery Practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5 The Advent of Plant Cell Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
6 New Phytotechnology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
7 An Important Role in Citric Acid Fermentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
8 Further Improvements in Yeast Production . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
9Ergot Alkaloids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
10 The Submerged Vinegar Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134

as wine making, brewing, distilling and the production of vinegar, were also
practiced for many centuries.
In 1815, the Vienna Polytechnic Institute (Fig. 1), now the Vienna University
of Technology, was founded. From the very beginning biotechnological subjects
were taught. The founder and first director of the Vienna Polytechnic Institute,
Johann Josef Ritter von Prechtl (1778–1854),was the author of a renowned text-
book of chemistry with special reference to chemical technology (1813) and,
126
M. Roehr
together with Altmütter and Karmarsch, was the editor of a 24-volume “Tech-
nological Encyclopedia or Alphabetical Handbook of Technology, Technical
Chemistry and Mechanical Engineering”(1830ff). Teaching and research at this
institute contributed considerably to the progress of Austrian industry at this
time.
2
The Vienna Process for Producing Baker’s Yeast
An early example of Austria’s historical role in biotechnology was the develop-
ment of this process to produce baker’s yeast. Until the 19th century, bakers
obtained dough-leavening yeast mainly from local breweries which produced
beer by the so-called top fermentation, where the yeast was recovered by
skimming off the foam and separating the yeast mass by settling and sieving.
When brewers changed to the more efficient bottom or lager fermentation, the
resulting bottom yeast was inferior in quality and in quantity of supply. For
example, in Vienna, the capital of the Austrian Empire, more than two hundred
bakers seriously complained about this shortage. Distillers, although producing
alcohol by a similar process using top yeast,were unable to suffice the increasing
demand.Therefore,in 1847,the Federation of Industry of Lower Austria decided
to offer a reward of 1000 gulden together with a medal worth 50 ducats to the
person who could produce an amount of 22.4 kg of yeast plus 40.74 L of alcohol
from 193.8 kg of grain (values calculated from measures of that time). A further

Franz Lafar (1865–1943), the founder of Technical Mycology
Fermentation Research in Copenhagen and in Berlin, Austria also decided to
establish a special university institute. This institute was founded at the Vienna
Technical Institute in 1897 and still exists as the Institute of Biochemical
Technology and Microbiology at the Vienna University of Technology. Its first
director and professor was Franz Lafar (1865–1943) from Vienna (Fig. 2).
Lafar had worked at the Agricultural Institute of Hohenheim and as a lecturer
at the Stuttgart Technical Institute.He had gained considerable reputation as the
author of the two-volume “Handbook of Technical Mycology” in 1896 (English
translation, 1898; Russian translation, 1903). This was followed by a five-volume
second edition (1904–1914) which became a standard source of a novel disci-
pline, Technical Mycology, a designation that he himself coined. Soon after,
Technical Mycology was also taught at the Graz Technical Institute [2].
4
Improvements in Distillery Practice
Besides his fame as one of the pioneers of the new field, Lafar also earned
acclaim for the improvements he made in distillery practice. Distillers originally
produced alcohol by purely empirical methods, using grain or potatoes as raw
materials and the natural yeast flora within the distillery.Later,yeast was collect-
ed from the first batches of a production and used to seed successive batches,
and this was carried out throughout the production campaign. Accordingly,
severe contaminations were encountered. Through the work of the Berlin
Institute (Delbrueck), pure culture yeast (“Kunsthefe”) became available and it
was especially recommended that this “artificial” yeast be propagated under
conditions of “natural pure culture”, i.e. adapted to the conditions of the
substrates being processed in the respective distilleries.
In order to counteract contamination, mainly from butyric acid bacteria, it
was common practice to maintain a spontaneous lactic acid fermentation,which
was introduced by the natural bacterial flora of the mash and the environment,
and it was hoped that this would remain active throughout the season. In 1893,

that it was even possible to propagate isolated plant cells. Although his experi-
ments were of limited success, his merit as the founder of this discipline has
been fully acknowledged during this century (see, e.g. Krikorian and Bequam,
1969) [6] and quite recently, in 1998, this fact was celebrated in an international
symposium.
By choosing more suitable plant material, root tips, and better nutrient
media, excellent results were achieved – first by Gautheret in 1934. Since then,
plant cell culture has become a fruitful discipline within biotechnology, with
manifold economic potential. This includes the production of various products
of secondary metabolism as well as e.g. transgenic crops.
Obviously, the photosynthetic potential of plants with respect to the produc-
tion of biomass as a renewable resource in sustainable production cycles
has found actual attention and has been defined in many recent national and
international research programs. A special variant of such endeavors has been
formulated as “New Phytotechnology” by the Austrian group of Othmar Ruthner
and coworkers [7] and this will be dealt with in the following section.
6
New Phytotechnology
The basic idea may be defined as attempts to utilize light (solar) energy in a
controlled artificial environment by establishing some kind of plant factory
enabling continuous production of any kind of plant independent of site
and season. This may be realized on a large (industrial) scale by a three-dimen-
sional driven conveyor system in a closed environment illuminated by a fixed
light-lattice. The environmental conditions in such systems (Fig. 3) may be
optimized according to the specific requirements of the crop to be produced.
Continuous industrial plant production may serve not only to provide fresh
vegetables, green fodder, and various plant material for pharmaceutical pur-
poses (e.g. Digitalis lanata), but also for the propagation of seedlings or shoots
for mass cultivation,e.g. for short rotation forestry to produce renewable energy
resources.

was invented [10], a method still in use in industries using less pure raw mate-
rials, and which has been studied intensively for decades by several research
groups (for reviews see e.g.[11,12]).Today,Austria is one of the most prominent
producers of citric acid in the world.
8
Further Improvements in Yeast Production
About one hundred years after the invention of the Viennese process for baker’s
yeast production, several improvements to this art were again made in Vienna.
W. Vogelbusch, a process engineer and owner of a consulting firm working
with Hefefabriken Mautner Markhof, invented several rotating aeration devices
to replace the conventional static aerators in baker’s yeast production [13, 14].
It had been known since the basic investigations of Pasteur that oxygen sup-
presses fermentation (Pasteur effect), and this had given rise to the so-called
“Zulauf” processes as a new technology of yeast manufacture, comprising low
feed rates of the carbon source together with high aeration rates.
The new rotating aerators of Vogelbusch,especially the so-called “dispergator”
(Fig. 4a, b) provided higher oxygen transfer rates, thus saving air and enabling
higher feed rates of the carbon sources resulting in higher productivities. These
feed rates, in turn, were usually adjusted according to empirical schedules owing
to the logarithmic law of yeast growth. An attempt was made to keep the con-
132
M. Roehr
Fig. 4a, b.
a Vogelbusch dispergator (courtesy
of Aktiengesellschaft Kühnle, Kopp and
Kausch, Frankenthal, Germany); b Vogelbusch
dispergator with cooling device and baffles
(courtesy of Vogelbusch GmbH,Vienna)
a
b

cells on the filter. Adhering salt solution could be removed by quickly spraying
with water in a subsequent zone of the filter thus avoiding rehydration of the
cells [16–18].With this invention, dry substance values exceeding 30% could be
achieved, which facilitated subsequent adjustment of particular dry substance
values and enabled yeast to be provided with improved shelf-life.
Together with a process of combined yeast and ethanol production, the so-
called KOMAX process, in which the propagation of yeast is performed in a way
that a definable amount of yeast from the ethanol producing stage can be used
as seed-yeast for the successive baker’s yeast stage, the inventions mentioned
above constitute most of the advanced technology of yeast manufacture today
which, at least in part, is applied in many countries.
9
Ergot Alkaloids
Brief mention should be made of Austria’s part in the history of producing these
substances. Through the centuries, ergot alkaloids were the causative agents of
History of Biotechnology in Austria
133
severe epidemic diseases, ergotism. Typical manifestations were convulsive and
gangrenous ergotism, and these were handed down under various names due to
their striking actions, e.g. ignis sacer (holy fire) or plaga ignis or pestilens ille
morbus, etc. (cf. [19]). It appears that the beneficial actions of ergot alkaloids,
namely to enhance muscle contractions, esp. to provoke uterus contractions
during childbirth, were utilized even before the details of ergotism were known.
Ergot alkaloids are formed by all known (about 50) species of the fungus
Claviceps and, to a lesser extent, also by some other fungi, e.g. Aspergillus and
Penicillium. Claviceps infects mainly grasses, of which rye and other cereals
appear as typical examples being responsible for the former epidemic outbreaks
of ergotism mentioned above. For medical uses the sclerotia of the fungus were
collected from these cereals, especially in rye fields, and processed in small
pharmaceutical establishments. The first clinically used compound, ergotamin,

bottom. In the old Schuezenbach process, vinegar was produced in one step and
withdrawn at the bottom. In the more modern generator process with higher
134
M. Roehr