Franz A. Wirtz

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Franz Artur Wirtz (born November 14, 1932 in Aachen ; † July 22, 2017 in Stolberg (Rhineland) ) was a German chemist and long-standing executive director of Grünenthal GmbH .

Life

Franz Wirtz, the son of the perfumer Artur Wirtz (1902–1940) from the Stolberg entrepreneurial family Wirtz and Hilde, née Janus (1907–1997), studied chemistry in Munich , Bonn and at RWTH Aachen University after finishing school . In 1955 he became a member of the Corps Franconia Munich . In 1960 he was with his dissertation: Investigations in the field of 5- to 6-membered 1,3-dinitrogen heterocycles: Under esp. Berücks. d. Exchange e. CO group through e. SO_1tn2 group in or on such ring systems for Dr. rer. nat. PhD.

Soon afterwards he joined the family business Grünenthal GmbH founded by his uncle Hermann Wirtz , of which he was managing partner from 1962. This entry took place in an economically difficult time, in which the company hit the headlines with the release of the over-the-counter preparation Contergan in 1957 , as it turned out that the use of this product in pregnant women caused damage to the fetuses and the children were born with multiple malformations as a result. These incidents then triggered the so-called Contergan scandal , which, after years of legal disputes, ended in 1970 with a settlement and Hermann Wirtz withdrew from the management. Thereupon Franz A. Wirtz, together with his cousin and son of Hermann Wirtz, Michael Wirtz , was taken over to the executive board, of which Michael Wirtz was head. In the years that followed, Franz A. Wirtz played a key role in steering the company back into calmer waters, expanding the product range in line with the times, and in numerous countries and other countries. a through several subsidiaries.

After retiring from the board due to age reasons in 2000, he was one of the founders of the new biopharmaceutical company Paion in Aachen that same year . In this new company, Wirtz was initially elected as chairman and from 2004 until his departure in 2007 as deputy chairman of the supervisory board. In addition, he had been a member of the supervisory board of the biotechnology company Qiagen since 1989 .

In addition to his official professional obligations, Franz A. Wirtz was treasurer of the Federal Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry from 1982 to 1992 , took over the chairmanship of the Tumor Center Aachen and was one of the founders of LifeTec Aachen-Jülich eV, which promoted the expansion of "Life Sciences" in the euregional The Aachen-Jülich scientific and economic region.

In 2001 the university made him an honorary citizen for his services to the cooperation with RWTH Aachen University.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Obituary and obituary for Franz A. Wirtz ( Memento of the original from July 28, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , on aachen-gedenken.de from July 28, 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.aachen-gedenken.de
  2. ↑ Franz A. Wirtz. In: the scales. Journal of Grünenthal GmbH, Aachen 35, 1996, 2, pp. 47 and 89.
  3. ↑ Kösener Corpslisten 1996, 38 , 1181
  4. ↑ Franz A. Wirtz. In: the scales. Journal of Grünenthal GmbH, Aachen 35, 1996, 2, p. 89.
  5. ↑ PAION AG Announces Change to the Supervisory Board , press release from evaluategroup.com.
  6. ↑ Qiagen company report - p. 53 (PDF; 531 kB).
  7. ↑ Franz A. Wirtz. In: the scales. Journal of Grünenthal GmbH, Aachen 35, 1996, 2, p. 89.
  8. ↑ Honorary Citizens of RWTH Aachen University .
personal data
SURNAME Wirtz, Franz A.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wirtz, Franz Artur (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and entrepreneur in the pharmaceutical industry
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Aachen
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 2017
Place of death Stolberg (Rhineland)