Günther Rienäcker

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Günther Friedrich Wilhelm Rienäcker (born May 13, 1904 in Bremen , † June 13, 1989 in Berlin ) was a German chemist . He became known for his scientific work on heterogeneous catalysts and their mode of action. In addition, he was rector of the University of Rostock , general secretary of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin and SED and FDGB functionary.

biography

Family and education

Rienäcker was the son of a teacher in Bremen and grew up there. After graduating from high school, he studied chemistry at the University of Munich from 1922 to 1926 . There he received his doctorate in 1926. phil. He then worked from 1926 to 1936 as an assistant at the Institute for Physical Chemistry and at the Chemical Institute at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau , where he completed his habilitation in 1936 .

Rienäcker had three children: Anne Rienäcker (* 1951), a doctor of medicine , married. Wilke , the musicologist Gerd Rienäcker and the doctorate in physics Jürgen Rienäcker (* 1936), whose son, the computer scientist Uwe Rienäcker , is married to the artist Sandra Rienäcker .

Career as a scientist

After brief lecturing in Freiburg, Rienäcker was appointed as a scheduled associate professor for inorganic chemistry and technology at the University of Göttingen . From 1942 to 1954 he was a full professor for inorganic chemistry and headed the Chemical Institute at the University of Rostock . There he became dean of the Philosophical Faculty in 1945 . After the University of Rostock reopened in February 1946, he was rector until 1948 and had a decisive influence on the rebuilding after the end of National Socialism.

In 1952 he founded the Institute for Catalysis Research in Rostock with Wolfgang Langenbeck , where he was director until 1959. In 1954 Rienäcker, who had become internationally known for his work on heterogeneous catalysis, accepted a professorship in inorganic chemistry at the Humboldt University in Berlin . There he headed the First Chemical Institute and later the Institute for Inorganic Catalysis Research. In 1953 he became a full member of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin , and from 1957 to 1963 he was Secretary General of this institution. From 1966 he was a foreign member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR . In 1969 Günther Rienäcker retired .

From its re-establishment in 1946 until his death, he was chief editor of the journal for inorganic and general chemistry .

politics

Rienäcker joined the SPD in 1945 and has been a member of the SED since the forced unification of the SPD and KPD in the Soviet occupation zone in 1946 . In 1946 he became a city councilor in Rostock and a member of the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania . In 1949/1950 he was a member of the Provisional People's Chamber of the GDR . From 1953 to 1959 he was chairman of the central board of the science union and from 1955 to 1959 a member of the FDGB federal board. From 1958 to 1963 he was a member of the Central Committee of the SED . 1971/1972 he was President of the Committee for UNESCO Work in the GDR.

Awards in the GDR

Publications (selection)

  • About catalysis and catalysts. Bremen contributions to natural science, vol. 7, no.2; Writings of Wittheit zu Bremen, G. Geist Verlag series, Bremen 1943.
  • Hermann Staudinger , Günther Rienäcker: Tables for general and inorganic chemistry. Braun Verlag, Karlsruhe, 3rd edition 1944, 4th edition 1946, 5th edition 1947.
  • The democratic mission of the university. Speech at the reopening of the University of Rostock on February 25, 1946. Small series of publications by the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Cultural Association, H. 1. Verlag democratic renewal, Schwerin 1946.
  • Contributions to the knowledge of the mode of action of catalysts and mixed catalysts. Treatises of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, class for chemistry, geology and biology, born in 1955, No. 3. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1956.
  • Via supported catalysts. Meeting reports of the German Academy of Sciences in Berlin, class for chemistry, geology and biology, born in 1964, No. 3. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1964.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Neues Deutschland , October 3, 1984, p. 4
personal data
SURNAME Rienäcker, Günther
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Rienäcker, Günther Friedrich Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist and SED functionary, MdV
DATE OF BIRTH May 13, 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Bremen
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1989
Place of death Berlin