Annie Francé-Harrar (1886–1971)

Annie Francé-Harrar, born in Germany, became an Austrian writer and scientist who developed the scientific basis for composting with her second husband, Raoul Heinrich Francé. During her lifetime, she wrote 47 books, 5,000 articles in the German press, and gave more than 500 lectures and courses, including radio broadcasts.

Her first printed work appeared in 1911. In 1916, she met Raoul H. Francé, director of the Biological Institute in Munich, and became his assistant; they married in 1923 and settled in Salzburg. They fled to Budapest during World War II. At the end of the war, Francé-Harrar began the construction of a breeding station for the transformation of urban waste in Budapest and developed the first bioreactor for composting.

In 1947 she returned to Austria. Following the publication of her book Die letzte Chance – Für eine Zukunft ohne Not (The Last Chance, 1950), she helped the government of Mexico set up a large organization to fight erosion and soil degradation. She was still actively working in the World Union for Protection of Life and other organizations. when she died in 1971 after a short illness.