Heinrich Bertsch

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Heinrich Bertsch

Heinrich Gottlob Bertsch (born January 11, 1897 in Rosenfeld / Württ. † March 19, 1981 in Berlin ) was a German chemist . He is considered to be the inventor of the world's first fully synthetic detergent .

Life

Fewa detergent box

The son of an elementary school teacher attended secondary school in Ludwigsburg , where he passed his Abitur in 1916. After serving in the First World War, he studied chemical technology at the Technical University of Stuttgart from 1919 and completed his studies with a diploma in 1921 and a doctorate in engineering in 1922. After his first employment in Stuttgart and Dresden, he took up a position as a chemist on August 1, 1924 at H. Th. Böhme AG in Chemnitz and initially researched in the field of textile auxiliaries . In 1927 he received power of attorney and was appointed chief chemist.

In 1932 Bertsch invented Fewa, the first mild detergent and at the same time the first fully synthetic detergent in the world. The great success of Fewa led to the entry of the Henkel Group at Böhme in 1935 and the establishment of Böhme-Fettchemie, of which Bertsch was a member of the management board, before moving to the management board of Henkel in October 1941. There he was appointed head of the Central German group of works by Henkel to the next Bohemian fat chemistry and the Persil -Werk in Genthin and the German hydrogenation plants in Rodleben belonged.

After the war, Bertsch remained the only leading Henkel manager in the Soviet occupation zone (SBZ) and joined the KPD . He took over the management of Böhme-Fettchemie and in 1946 also the entire chemical industry in Saxony, which was nationalized after the referendum in Saxony. At the beginning of 1949 he was promoted to head of the main chemistry administration of the German Economic Commission of the Soviet occupation zone , from 1950 in the same function at the Minister for Industry of the GDR .

Also in 1950, Bertsch was initially appointed as a part-time professor of chemical technology at the Humboldt University in Berlin . In 1953 he was admitted to the German Academy of Sciences (DAW) and was full-time director at the Academy Institute for Organic Chemistry from 1954 until his retirement in 1963. In 1958 he also became director of the newly founded Institute for Fat Chemistry, was editor of the Chemisches Zentralblatt from 1958 to 1969 and director of the Institute for Documentation from 1958 to 1961. From 1957 to 1963 he was also the secretary of the chemistry, geology and biology class at the DAW.

Bertsch received several awards in the GDR for his services, including a. with the national prize of the GDR 2nd class (1953) and the Patriotic Order of Merit in silver (1959).

literature

personal data
SURNAME Bertsch, Heinrich
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bertsch, Heinrich Gottlob
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH January 11, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Rosenfeld , Baden-Wuerttemberg
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1981
Place of death Berlin