Locations and attendance

The International Grassland Congress first met in Germany from 20–31 May 1927. The principal participants were 16 scientists from Austria, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, who assembled in Bremen and made a study tour through north west Germany, visiting Emden, Berlin and Dortmund before taking the train to Leipzig. Here, there were two days of scientific discussion at the zoo, revisited subsequently as the site of the 50th anniversary XIII Congress in 1977. The Congress, under the presidency of Prof. A. Falke of Leipzig, had a further study tour through grassland production sites in Saxony before dissolving at Dresden.

The second Congress, which met under the presidency of Dr A. Elofson of Upsala in Sweden and Denmark in 1930, was larger, 58 participants from 13 countries (including Canada). The third Congress, in Switzerland in 1933 with Prof. A. Volkart of Zurich as president, had scientists from Turkey and South Africa present but it was not until the IV Congress in 1937 at Aberystwyth, UK, that the meeting could claim a global constituency. There were some 365 participants from 37 countries; all 11 regions of the world as defined by the 1977 International Grassland Congress Constitution were represented, with the exception of the Middle East (Figure 8.1).