Ernst Julius Cohen

Ernst Julius Cohen (born March 7, 1869 in Amsterdam , † March 6, 1944 in Auschwitz ) was a Dutch chemist .

Life

Ernst Julius came from a German family of Jewish faith who was naturalized in the Netherlands. He was born as the son of the chemical plant director Jacob (Jacques) Cohen (born March 24, 1833 in Düsseldorf; † February 24, 1881 in Amsterdam) and his wife Nanny Rosenthal (born May 10, 1835 in Hanover; † February 3, 1915 in Amsterdam) born. He attended primary school in his hometown, attended grammar school in Amsterdam from 1886 and studied chemistry at the University of Amsterdam from 1888 . Here he became the model student of Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff . During his student days he met Henri Moissan in Paris and spent three months at the Agricultural Research Institute in Breda . On November 8, 1893 he received his doctorate with the thesis Het bepalen van transitionspunten lange electrischen weg en de electromotorische kracht bij scheikundige omzetting (German: The determination of transition points along electrical paths and the electromotive force in chemical examinations ) as a doctor of natural sciences.

He then became an assistant to van't Hoff, and after his departure to Berlin from Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom and in 1896 lecturer in physical chemistry there. In 1899 he worked for some time with Svante Arrhenius in Stockholm. On October 24, 1901, he was appointed associate professor for physical chemistry at the Amsterdam University, which he did on December 9 of the same year with the introductory speech Uitersten op het der algemeene of physical chemistry (German: Extreme in the field of general and physical chemistry ). The following year, on June 23, 1902, he received an appointment as professor of chemistry at the University of Utrecht , which position he took on on October 1 of the same year with the inaugural speech Rumor in casa . In Utrecht he also took part in the organizational tasks of the university and was rector of the alma mater in the academy year 1915/18 . In 1939 he retired. During the time of the German occupation of the Netherlands, Cohen was interned in several concentration camps, including the Westerbork transit camp .

Act

EJ Cohen
(Professor Utrecht 1902-1939)

Cohen mainly worked on the allotropy of metals, especially tin (causes of tin plague ). In addition, he dealt with polymorphism, photochemistry, electrochemistry (chemistry of galvanic cells and piezoelectricity ), corrosion and the history of science (including about Herman Boerhaave ). In 1907 he wrote a book about the history of laughing gas and a biography of van t'Hoff.

In 1913 he became a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences , in 1924 he was accepted as a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences , was a Fellow of the Royal Society from 1926 , in 1925 a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen , in 1923 an honorary member of the Chemical Society in London , 1925 honorary member of the Royal Institution in London, 1926 honorary member of the Romanian Chemical Association in Bucharest, 1926 honorary member of the American Chemical Society and honorary member of the German Chemical Society in Berlin. He served as the first chairman of the Dutch Chemical Association and chairman of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). Cohen was in 1925 honorary doctor of the technical college in Karlsruhe , 1923 the University of Cambridge and 1926 the University of Philadelphia . He received the gold medal of the Bataafs Genootschap voor Proefondervindelijke Wijsbegeerte in Rotterdam and was appointed Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion in 1923 .

family

Cohen was married three times. His first marriage was on December 21, 1893 in Amsterdam with Louise Gompertz (born June 28, 1874 in Amsterdam; † August 31, 1920 in Utrecht), the daughter of Bernard Leon Gompertz (born October 9, 1848 in Amsterdam; † 2 February 1916 ibid) and his wife Emma Sophia Catherina Josephus Jitta (born January 22, 1853 in Amsterdam, † January 4, 1941 in The Hague). From the marriage comes the son Adrian Jacob Bernard Cohen (born July 10, 1895 in Amsterdam) and the daughter Emma Johanna Cohen (born September 10, 1896 in Amsterdam, † December 2, 2000 in Utrecht), who met on July 10, 1917 married in Utrecht with Hendrik Willem Verloop (born June 21, 1886 in Utrecht, † April 1, 1946 in Utrecht). After the death of his first wife, he got together with Sophia Catharina Johanna Voute (born February 25, 1872 in Amsterdam) in Utrecht on April 3, 1922, the daughter of Hendrik Jan Voute (born June 8, 1837 in Amsterdam; † October 14, 1900 in Wiesbaden) and his wife Isabella Susanna Berg (born March 1, 1844 in Amsterdam, † January 13, 1917 in Brussels) his second marriage. The marriage remained childless. After his divorce from his second wife on July 4, 1929, he married Wilhelma Abramina Titia de Meester (born November 13, 1899 in Rotterdam; † December 30, 1989 in Doorn), the third marriage on December 12, 1929 in Utrecht, the daughter by the naval officer Theodoor Herman de Meester (born March 15, 1857 in Lent; † June 1, 1946 in Bussum) and his wife Ottolina Maria Strick van Linschoten (born February 23, 1861 in Amersfoort; † November 20, 1899 in Rotterdam). The marriage also remained childless.

Works (selection)

Het bepalen van transition point slowly electric way en de electromotorische kracht bij scheikundige omzetting . 1893
Experimental study on the dissociation of dissolved bodies in alcohol-water mixtures . 1897
Allotropies . 1904
The laughing gas. A chemical-cultural-historical study . 1907
Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff. His life and work . 1912
Herman Boerhaave en zijne beteekenis voor de chemie . 1918
Piezochemistry of Condensed Systems . 1919
Pasteur's échec in het "Institut" . 1923
Vijftig jaren uit de geschiedenis eener theory (1874–1924). Hare grondleggers . 1924
Het leven van Joseph Achille Le Bel . 1924
Physicochemical Metamorphosis and some Problems in Piezochemistry . 1926
Uit het land van Benjamin Franklin . 1928

literature

Ernst Cohen: Well, driekwart eeuw. Levensherinneringen . Ed. Frits Broeyer & Leen Dorsman. Utrecht, Matrijs, 2013. ISBN 978-90-5345-468-8
HAM Snelders: Cohen, Ernest Julius (1869-1944) . In: Biographical Woordenboek van Nederland. The Hague, 1979, vol. 1, (Dutch)
HR Kruyt: Levens report E. J Cohen. In: Jaarboek, 1949–1950, Amsterdam, pp. 265–274 ( Online PDF , Dutch)
N. Japikse, H. Brugmans: Persoonlijkheden in het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden in woord en beeld. van Holkema & Warendorf NV, Amsterdam, 1938, p. 309 ( online , Dutch)

Web links

Commons : Ernst Julius Cohen - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Life data, publications and academic family tree of Ernst J. Cohen at academictree.org
Cohen in the Catalogus Professorum Academiae Rheno-Traiectinae
Cohen in the professorial catalog of the University of Amsterdam
Cohen entry at the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW)

Individual evidence

↑ according to the death entry at the registry office in Utrecht ( online , accessed July 16, 2016). Inquiry message: Answer: The archive (Utrechts Archief) gives wrong information. From the book Na driekwart eeuw. Dr. Ernst Cohen (2013), p.414: “In zijn aan hem herdenkingsartikel in het Chemisch Weekblad of 22 December 1945 Kruyt he geen twijfel over bestaan dat professor Cohen in May 1944 in Auschwitz om het leven kwam. (Noot 310) Het is daarom Eigenlijk heel bewonderlijk dat he verklaren in biographical articles about Cohen een others versie met een overlijden op 16 mei 1945 in kamp Bergen Belsen ingang vond. (311) Maar achteraf valt dit goed te. Op 29 November 1945 reported the Militair Gezag namelijk aan zijn familie, dat EJ Cohen in Bergen-Belsen what happened. (312) Men had hem verward met een overigens veel jongere Ernst Julius Cohen, who inderdaad in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen omkwam, bleek later. Gevraagd om toetsing deelde de afdeling Oorlogsnazorg van het Nederlandse Rode Kruis op 4 januari 2010 mee, that he had a persoonsverwisseling had plaats in kamp Westerbork registered as vangene in barak 70. A few days later, op 3 maart 1944, will be deported after Auschwitz. De trein kwam on the night of 5 op 6 maart 1944 at Auschwitz aan. “[Cohen is gassed directly after the first selection. Primo Levi: "la notte li inghiottí, puramente e semplicementen".] Shortened, in English: the Dutch Military Authorities had mistaken a younger person with the same name for Ernst Julius Cohen, and had supplied both Cohen's family and the civil authorities in Utrecht the (wrong) death place and date. The correct death place and date are: Auschwitz, 6 March 1944.
↑ cf. WP Jorissen: COHEN (Jacques) . In: Petrus Johannes Blok , Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen (Ed.): Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek . Part 4. N. Israel, Amsterdam 1974, Sp. 443 (Dutch, knaw.nl / dbnl.org - first edition: AW Sijthoff, Leiden 1918, reprint unchanged).
^ Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Ernst J. Cohen at academictree.org, accessed on January 28, 2018.
^ Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Ernst Julius Cohen. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed September 9, 2015 (Russian).

personal data
SURNAME	Cohen, Ernst Julius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Dutch chemist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 7, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH	Amsterdam
DATE OF DEATH	March 6, 1944
Place of death	Auschwitz

[1] rding to the death entry at the registry office in Utrecht ( online , accessed July 16, 2016). Inquiry message: Answer: The archive (Utrechts Archief) gives wrong information. From the book Na driekwart eeuw. Dr. Ernst Cohen (2013), p.414: “In zijn aan hem herdenkingsartikel in het Chemisch Weekblad of 22 December 1945 Kruyt he geen twijfel over bestaan dat professor Cohen in May 1944 in Auschwitz om het leven kwam. (Noot 310) Het is daarom Eigenlijk heel bewonderlijk dat he verklaren in biographical articles about Cohen een others versie met een overlijden op 16 mei 1945 in kamp Bergen Belsen ingang vond. (311) Maar achteraf valt dit goed te. Op 29 November 1945 reported the Militair Gezag namelijk aan zijn familie, dat EJ Cohen in Bergen-Belsen what happened. (312) Men had hem verward met een overigens veel jongere Ernst Julius Cohen, who inderdaad in 1945 in Bergen-Belsen omkwam, bleek later. Gevraagd om toetsing deelde de afdeling Oorlogsnazorg van het Nederlandse Rode Kruis op 4 januari 2010 mee, that he had a persoonsverwisseling had plaats in kamp Westerbork registered as vangene in barak 70. A few days later, op 3 maart 1944, will be deported after Auschwitz. De trein kwam on the night of 5 op 6 maart 1944 at Auschwitz aan. “[Cohen is gassed directly after the first selection. Primo Levi: "la notte li inghiottí, puramente e semplicementen".] Shortened, in English: the Dutch Military Authorities had mistaken a younger person with the same name for Ernst Julius Cohen, and had supplied both Cohen's family and the civil authorities in Utrecht the (wrong) death place and date. The correct death place and date are: Auschwitz, 6 March 1944.

[2] . WP Jorissen: COHEN (Jacques) . In: Petrus Johannes Blok , Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen (Ed.): Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek . Part 4. N. Israel, Amsterdam 1974, Sp. 443 (Dutch, knaw.nl / dbnl.org - first edition: AW Sijthoff, Leiden 1918, reprint unchanged).

[3] Biographical data, publications and academic family tree of Ernst J. Cohen at academictree.org, accessed on January 28, 2018.

[4] Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences since 1724. Ernst Julius Cohen. Russian Academy of Sciences, accessed September 9, 2015 (Russian).