Hermann Finger

Hermann Finger (born August 1, 1864 in Alzey , † September 4, 1940 in Darmstadt ) was a German chemist .

Life

Hermann Finger was born in 1864 as the son of Jakob Finger (1825–1904), who later became Minister of State and Head of Government in the Grand Duchy of Hesse, in the small town of Alzey in Rhineland-Hesse. From the age of 6 he attended the pre-school of the Realgymnasium in Alzey. Since his father moved to Darmstadt in 1872, Hermann Finger first attended a private school and was accepted into the Grand Ducal Ludwigsgymnasium in autumn 1876 . At Easter 1883 he passed the Matura exam.

Finger studied chemistry at the University of Leipzig from autumn 1883 . He was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD. His supervisor was Anton Weddige (1843–1932). The title of the dissertation was "About Benzazimide". After completing his doctorate, he moved to the University of Giessen as an assistant at the Chemical Institute in 1891 . There he completed his habilitation on May 28, 1894 with a thesis "On derivatives of o-amidobenzamids and o-amidobenzhydazides". His habilitation took place with Alexander Naumann (1837–1922), who at that time was professor of chemistry at the University of Giessen. After three years as a private lecturer, he was appointed associate professor for organic chemistry at the Technical University of Darmstadt in August 1897 .

The year before that, he and his wife Louise née Weiffenbach married in Giessen. The marriage produced three daughters. The family lived in Darmstadt in their own house in the Paulusviertel, on Rückertstrasse. 21. On June 16, 1908, Finger became a full professor for organic chemistry at the TH Darmstadt.

In the years 1910–1913 and 1925–1927, Finger was dean. From September 1, 1917 to August 31, 1918 he was rector of the university. Along with Otto Berndt, Finger is considered to be a co-founder of the Association of Friends of the TH Darmstadt (Ernst-Ludwigs-Hochschulgesellschaft), which was founded in June 1918 before the end of the First World War in the presence of Ernst Ludwig (Hessen-Darmstadt, Grand Duke) .

From the academic year 1911/12 to 1922/23, Finger was the chairman of the Academic Committee for Physical Exercise and, in this role, contributed to the expansion of the range of sports on offer for students at the Technical University of Darmstadt and to appropriate activities to raise state and private funds for the construction of the university stadium the Niederramstädter Straße unfolds.

In the fall of 1929, Finger retired at the age of 65. He died on September 4, 1940 in Darmstadt, a few months after his long-time friend and colleague Otto Berndt .

Honors

• Centenary medal
• Landwehr service award II class
• 1912: Award of the Knight's Cross 1st Class of the Order of Merit of Philip the Magnanimous
• 1926: Honorary member of the Association of Friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt .

literature

• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt, Darmstadt 1977, p. 49.
• Government paper in Hessen, different years
• Hessian State Archives Darmstadt, Darmstadt City Archives.