Ernst Berl

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Ernst Berl (born July 7, 1877 in Freudenthal (then Austrian Silesia ), † February 16, 1946 in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania ) was an Austrian chemist and professor of technical and macromolecular chemistry.

life and work

Ernst Berl was born in 1877 as the son of the industrialist Max Berl and his wife Agnes. Hein was born in Freudenthal, Silesia. He spent his school days at home in Silesia. At the age of 17 he began his studies at the Technical University of Vienna in 1894 , which he graduated in 1898 as an engineer-chemist. After completing his military service, he enrolled at the University of Zurich in 1899 , where he received his doctorate in 1904 as an academic student of Alfred Werner .

He began a career in the university sector, first as an assistant to Werner, later as a private lecturer, where he gave lectures on chemical technology. The move to industry followed, and later he worked for the Austrian Ministry of War. During the First World War he worked on explosives and chemical weapons.

In 1919 he followed a call to the Technical University of Darmstadt , where he taught as a full professor of technical chemistry and electrochemistry . Berl succeeded the institute's founder, Otto Dieffenbach , who retired on March 31, 1918. The institute experienced a rapid boom under Berl's leadership, which u. a. could be read from the number of diploma and doctoral theses. Berl's research topics were unusually broad: rayon and related areas, adsorbents and adsorption processes, combustion and oxidation in the engine, fuel chemistry (coal and petroleum), sulfuric acid, flotation, catalysis, inorganic problems, corrosion, analytical methods in the laboratory. A wealth of publications and patents have resulted from this. A compilation of chemical-technical examination methods , the Berl lung, found great international acceptance.

Ernst Berl was a highly valued personality at the TH Darmstadt. In 1921 he became dean of the chemistry, electrochemistry, tanning chemistry and pharmacy department. He held this office for three years. In 1926, succeeding Otto Berndt , he became chairman of the Association of Friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt . He held this office until 1930.

After the National Socialists came to power in 1933, Berl was supposed to leave the TH for "racial reasons". He then submitted an application for retirement in April 1933. At the express request of his numerous students, he ran the institute's business for another month and took exams. Numerous students of Berl tried with the Hessian government that Berl could remain in office. In contrast, the colleagues Lothar Wöhler and Kurt Jonas advocated a removal from Berl. In July 1933, Ernst Berl left the college and accepted a position at the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania .

The focus of his research was on chemical-technical processes, such as the lead chamber process and adsorption technology. As early as the 1940s, he was concerned with the chemistry of cellulose and the production of liquid fuels from biomass .

The TU Darmstadt named the Institute for Technical and Macromolecular Chemistry after Ernst Berl. Furthermore, a certain type of filling body , the Berl saddle, is named after him.

Ernst Berl had been married to Margarete Karplus since 1912.

literature

  • Melanie Hanel: Normality under exceptional conditions. The TH Darmstadt under National Socialism. Darmstadt 2014, ISBN 978-3-534-26640-1 .
  • Christa Wolf, Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt. Darmstadt 1977, p. 22.
  • Ernst Berl. In: Karin Orth : Expulsion from the science system. Commemorative book for the committee members of the DFG who were expelled under National Socialism (= contributions to the history of the German Research Foundation. 7). Steiner, Stuttgart 2018, ISBN 978-3-515-11953-5 , pp. 298-309.
  • Valentin Wehefritz: pioneer of chemical technology. Prof. Dr. phil. Ernst Berl (= University in Exile. 7) Dortmund 2010.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Klemm:  Berl, Ernst. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4 , p. 93 f. ( Digitized version ).
  2. ↑ M. Iser: Ernst Berl (7. VII. 1877–16. II. 1946) . In: Helvetica Chimica Acta . tape 29 , no. 5 , 1946, pp. 957-973 , doi : 10.1002 / hlca.19460290501 .
  3. ↑ Short biography at displaced scholars .
personal data
SURNAME Berl, Ernst
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian chemist
DATE OF BIRTH July 7, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Freudenthal (then Austrian Silesia )
DATE OF DEATH February 16, 1946
Place of death Pittsburgh