Carl Dietrich Harries

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Carl Dietrich Harries

Carl Dietrich Harries (born August 5, 1866 in Luckenwalde ; † November 3, 1923 in Berlin ) was a German chemist who mainly researched rubber and ozone .

Life

Carl Harries began in 1886 with the study of zoology at Jena, then studied chemistry in Munich and Berlin and was in 1890 when Ferdinand Tiemann to work some new derivatives of salicylaldehyde About doctorate . From 1892 he worked as an assistant for August Wilhelm von Hofmann and Emil Fischer at the Humboldt University in Berlin . After his habilitation in 1897, he also became a private lecturer there . Harries held the title of professor from 1900 and headed a department in Emil Fischer's institute. From 1904 to 1916 Harries taught at Kiel University as the successor to Ludwig Claisen and wrote numerous publications on ozonolysis during this time . An important and detailed work by him appeared in Liebig's Annalen der Chemie in 1905 .

Marriage to Hertha von Siemens

In 1899 he married Hertha von Siemens (1870–1939), the youngest daughter of Werner von Siemens and his second wife Antonie geb. Siemens. Because of her natural science talent, she had received a special permit to study with the eminent Berlin chemist Emil Fischer , when she met Carl Dietrich Harries as his assistant. Hertha Harries got involved in the social needs of the Siemens workforce, arranged for children's homes, welfare foundations and recreational facilities to be set up and, above all, took on the support and training of poor young people. In 1909 she founded the Hertha von Siemens Foundation, which was supposed to enable company employees to stay in a recreation facility for a small fee. For this purpose she donated her father's holiday home, the "Ettershaus" in Bad Harzburg , which was opened in 1910 with a new building as the first rest home of the Siemens company. In 1916 she was a co-founder of the “Association for Welfare Efforts”, which dealt with the administration of Siemens homes and social counseling for women workers.

In their free time, Harries and his wife enjoyed sailing, which is why they bought the yacht Meteor III from Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1910 , with which they also took part in the Kieler Woche after it was renamed Nordstern .

First world war and death

Grave of Carl Dietrich Harries in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf

Dissatisfied with his academic life, which had denied him a sought-after position at renowned universities, Carl Dietrich Harries became research coordinator and member of the supervisory board at Siemens & Halske during the First World War (1916) . In November 1923 he died as a result of a cancer operation. He was buried in the Siemens family's hereditary burial place in the south-west cemetery in Stahnsdorf . His wife continued her social activities in the company and, before her death in 1939, passed them on to Johanna von Siemens (1894–1984), a daughter-in-law of her brother Arnold von Siemens . In Berlin- Siemensstadt , Harries-Strasse is named after Carl Dietrich and Hertha Harries.

plant

The main research areas of Harries were the industrially important chemistry of polymers and rubber as well as the studies of ozonolysis . Since 1891, Harries has carried out attempts to break down rubber with the aim of structural elucidation with nitrogen oxides and nitrous acid . However, the use of ozone, which attaches to double bonds and, after hydrolysis , produces carboxylic acids , aldehydes and ketones (1903) , brought initial successes . For ozonolysis he was able to show the general applicability of the reaction of ozone with unsaturated organic compounds for analysis and for various syntheses. For example, he proved Kekulé's benzene formula through the formation of the triozonide . A process for the extraction of fatty acids from brown coal can also be traced back to Harries. Because of his significant work, the term Harries ozonolysis is sometimes used. Harries has also described the analogous conversion with so-called oxozone (also "hyperozone"), which attaches itself to alkenes with four oxygen atoms . It is possible that he succeeded in making the first representation of tetrasoxygen (O 4 ). An important contribution to chemical methods is the vacuum distillation developed jointly by Harries and Emil Fischer in 1902 .

Awards and honors

In 1909 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina .

In 1912 the Association of German Chemists awarded him the Liebig Memorial Medal for his services . The German Rubber Society has been awarding a medal named after him since 1933.

Fonts

  • Werner Siemens and his position in chemistry. In: Natural Sciences. 4th year / no. 50, Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 1916, ISSN  0028-1042 , p. 788.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Carl Dietrich Harries at academictree.org, accessed on February 8, 2018.
  2. ^ Mordecai B. Rubin: The History of Ozone Part III. CD Harries and the Introduction of Ozone into Organic Chemistry. In: Helvetica chimica acta. 86, No. 4, 2003, pp. 930-940 ( PDF ).
  3. ↑ C. Harries: About the action of ozone on organic compounds. In: Justus Liebig's Annals of Chemistry. 343, No. 2-3, 1905, pp. 311-344, doi : 10.1002 / jlac.19053430209 .
  4. ↑ Short biography of Hertha Harries on the Siemens Corporate Archives website .
  5. ^ Member entry by Carl Harries at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on November 23, 2015.
personal data
SURNAME Harries, Carl Dietrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH August 5, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Luckenwalde
DATE OF DEATH November 3, 1923
Place of death Berlin