Adolf Küntzel (chemist)

Adolf Küntzel (born December 4, 1898 in Breslau ; † February 20, 1988 ) was a German chemist and professor for gerbereichemie.

Life

Adolf Küntzel was born in Breslau at the end of 1898 as the son of pastor Felix Küntzel (born in Brieg in 1850) and his wife Louise Scholz. After graduating from high school, he studied biology and chemistry in Bonn and Marburg and botany and zoology in Breslau and Marburg from 1919. As early as December 1, 1922, he moved to the Institute for Gerbereichemie at the TH Darmstadt as assistant to Edmund Stiasny . A few months later, in January 1923, he received his doctorate in Marburg .

Küntzel supported the director of the institute, Stiasny, in setting up the institute for geranium chemistry, which was only founded in April 1920 and which was set up with funds from industry acquired by the association of friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt . A new building, built according to plans by Heinrich Walbe , was built in 1922/23 on Schlossgartenstrasse. An experimental tannery was also built next door. The new institute was very successful and attracted numerous students and doctoral candidates from all over Europe to Darmstadt. From 1920 to 1933 the institute produced over 100 publications.

In 1929 Küntzel completed his habilitation with the habilitation thesis "Investigations on the swelling of gelatine in aqueous solutions of acids, bases and salts and their mixtures". He then became a private lecturer in geranium chemistry and colloid chemistry .

In 1933, Küntzel campaigned for Stiasny to remain at the TH Darmstadt, who had requested his early release in April 1933. However, the efforts remain unsuccessful.

Küntzel then provisionally headed the institute. Although not a member of the NSDAP or one of its branches, he was appointed as a recognized expert in geranium chemistry in April 1936 and made an extraordinary professorship for gerbereichemie and colloid chemistry and head of the institute.

In the Association of German Chemists, he worked in the sub-committee for leather replacement from 1936. He continued the standard work of his mentor Stiasny and brought out several editions of the Gerbereichemische paperback first published in 1929.

Küntzel was one of the Darmstadt professors who were not affected by denazification. He was able to continue his scientific work without major interruptions. After the Second World War he founded the magazine Leder.

From 1961 to 1963 he was Dean of the Faculty of Chemistry, Biology, Geology and Mineralogy at the TH Darmstadt. 1964/65 he was rector of the university. On March 31, 1967, he was retired.

Adolf Küntzel died in 1988 at the age of almost 90. He was married to Erika Berg since 1924.

Honors

• 1964: Honorary member of the Association of Austrian Leather Technicians (VÖLT).
• 1965: Stiasny Medal of the Association for Tannery Chemistry and Technology (VGCT).

Publications

• Investigations into the swelling of gelatine in aqueous solutions of acids, bases and salts and their mixtures, habilitation thesis, Darmstadt 1929.
• The Institute for Tanning Chemistry. In: One Hundred Years of Technical University Darmstadt. The Technical University of Darmstadt 1836–1936, Darmstadt 1936, pp. 179–183.
• Gerbereichemisches Taschenbuch, 6th edition 1955, Dresden

literature

• Melanie Hanel: Normality under exceptional conditions. The TH Darmstadt under National Socialism , Darmstadt 2013.
• One hundred years of Darmstadt University of Technology. The Technical University of Darmstadt 1836-1936 , Darmstadt 1936.
• August Ludwig Degener, Walter Habel: Who is who? Das deutsche Who's Who, Volume 16 ,, Arani, Berlin, 1970 ISBN 3-7605-2007-3 , pp. 709, 710.
• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt , Darmstadt 1977, p. 118.
• Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau , Volume 41, Wissenschaftliche Verlagsgesellschaft, Stuttgart, 1988, p. 214.
• Helmut Maier: Chemist in the “Third Reich” , Weinheim 2015.