Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research

Today's Max Planck Institute for Coal Research with its original name in the Fries building in Mülheim . Main building and director's villa, right.

The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research was from 1912 to 1948, a German research institution for the development of coal -Sekundärstoffen. The society was one of the institutions for basic research of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science, founded in 1911, and was renamed the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in 1948 as part of the consolidation of industry-related research institutions . The original task was to research electricity generation using thermocouples . The Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research, located in Mülheim an der Ruhr , was the first institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society outside Berlin-Dahlem .

During its existence, the institute was exposed to three different epochs, both politically and economically: Wilhelminism , the Weimar Republic and the time of National Socialism . Although developments of national interest were also carried out here, politics and economic power never influenced the development of the house because, thanks to the personalities of its directors, it knew how to maintain its independence in a scientific niche. It had the legal form of a foundation under private law.

history

founding

The facility opened on July 27, 1914, two years after it was founded and one day before the start of the First World War . The starting point was the complex task of generating electricity from coal directly, which has not yet been solved. The initiator was Hugo Stinnes , who did not want to commission the Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerk (RWE) for this. He considered a joint task of all those involved in the Ruhr mining industry to be more effective. Stinnes was even able to convince August Thyssen , who was in competition with him with his gas business, to participate financially in the institute.

Financing was secured with a new model from the Rhenish-Westphalian coal and steel industry. For Hugo Stinnes it was clear that the construction of the property including the technical equipment had to be given so that the work in it could be financed. Funders for it could be found. According to him, you don't need accumulated assets, but guaranteed annual contributions for the current budget. This model was a success. Later there was even an opportunity to build up reserves.

Stinnes also succeeded in winning Emil Fischer , the first German Nobel Prize winner for chemistry , for this project, who was regarded as the gray eminence of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society. A lecture by Fischer to industry representatives, representatives of the city of Mülheim, representatives of the KWI and the Prussian Ministry of Culture about possible tasks of the institute, in particular direct coal-fired power generation, is still regarded today as much noticed and groundbreaking.

At that time, Mülheim an der Ruhr was the first location of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society outside of Berlin. The proponents of the new society already mentioned wanted this facility, which can be compared to a “practiced business promotion”, in the immediate vicinity of their production facilities in order to be able to participate in the direction of the work in the institute and deal with its results. In addition to a garrison town, Mülheim was already the location of a university-like research facility in the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial region.

Funding was provided by the Leonhard Stinnes Foundation . Johann Hermann Leonhard's wife , Margarete Stinnes , died in October 1911. This freed up the foundation capital, which was estimated to be between four and five million marks. The rather broad interpretation of the foundation's goals by the executor, the long-time mayor of Mülheim, Paul Lembke , allowed the use of “support and training ... young people ... in the mining industry” as part of “charitable and good causes”. Even before 1905, the couple had made generous donations to the Mülheim ophthalmic hospital as well as for the playground on the Kahlenberg. Because of such a research institute of industrial side, no big risk was present for the use of a start-up funding, but Lembke - even for reasons of prestige - required for just grown into a metropolis city urgently such devices, the company came into the still the administrative district of Dusseldorf associated coalfield town of Muelheim. Emil Fischer estimated the costs at this early planning phase at 600,000 marks plus 80,000 marks per year for maintenance. The "new model" of financing mentioned above intended to collect significant donations of at least 20,000 marks from well-known personalities and thus continuously accumulate interest income . In addition, fixed annual contributions of at least 1,000 marks were estimated, which should also help to cover costs. State contributions were planned as the third pillar of funding. A few decades earlier, the mathematician Felix Klein , who was born in Düsseldorf and who ordered the construction of the necessary commercial buildings for his Georg-August University in Göttingen , and the pay of the professors on the state, had already put forward similar concepts . The actual costs including interior decoration amounted to 700,356.77 marks. The cost of acquiring the land was just under 218,500 marks. The Leonhard Stinnes Foundation therefore spent almost 919,000 marks on the completion.

The first director of the facility was Franz Fischer , who worked under Emil Fischer and was professor of electrochemistry at the Technical University in Charlottenburg. He remained in office until his retirement in 1943. He was replaced by Karl Ziegler , who ensured continuity for another 25 years.

The creation of such a facility in this part of Mülheim, which was still sparsely populated at the time, led to an improvement in numerous infrastructure facilities: gas and electricity had been available here since 1914, letter delivery was raised to the inner-city level at four times a day, and numerous streets were given asphalt pavement.

building

Long side of the building with laboratory and library porch

The city of Mülheim provided the four acres (one hectare ) property on the Kahlenberg south of the city center, which was then only built on with a few villas . Karl Helbing (1877–1964), the alderman and head of the Mülheim Building Department, was appointed as the architect . Helbing had already contributed numerous buildings to the city such as some schools, the Raffelberg saltwater pool and the city pool, the slaughterhouse and the city savings bank. The decision to circumvent Ernst Eberhard von Ihne , the Royal and Privy Building Councilor, who was previously responsible for all construction work of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society , snubbed Emperor Friedrich III .

From the beginning, the institute was planned as three independent structures connected by covered corridors, the main laboratory, the so-called "factory building" and the director's villa. By far the largest building was the two-story main laboratory, to which three single-story porches and a gallery were attached on the ground floor. This house had a large cellar for storing chemicals, operating a workshop and other technical facilities such as an in-house forge and a precision mechanic's workshop. The servants' apartment was also here. The slight hillside location made it possible to go outside at ground level on one side of the basement in front of the workshops, which also made it possible to work outdoors. On the main floor near the main entrance the administration, library, office and consulting room as well as the access to the laboratories were arranged. The library was established because Mülheim did not have a similar scientific institution. An anonymous donation of 30,000  RM made the initial equipment possible.

A presentation of the planning, including a model by Lord Mayor Lembke, to the company's board of trustees on February 24, 1913, was received with little sympathy: Henry von Böttinger , chairman of the Elberfelder Farbenfabriken supervisory board since 1907 , criticized the insufficient width of the master bedroom and living room in the director's villa. According to his ideas, this should be at least five meters. More fundamental criticism came from Emil Fischer, who criticized the north-south orientation of the main building, which would lead to heavily fluctuating lighting and temperature differences during the day. Even more fundamentally, they regretted the unrepresentative overall appearance of the complex. In Fischer's opinion, the insufficient number of only 24 chimneys, which was considered insufficient for the ventilation of the laboratories, was questioned. Several change requests were included in the planning. The ventilation was electrically operated right from the start and was partly supplemented by the decorative vases and figures on the laboratory porches.

Research priorities

Right at the beginning, the work was made difficult because many employees had been called up for military service. After three to four months most of them were able to go back to work because their research into the production of nitrogen compounds for agriculture was classified as vital to the war effort. Later during the First World War, research into sulfuric acid production and the production of liquid fuels and lubricants was added.

The actual purpose of the institute, research into coal-fired power generation , was only resumed after the war and only half-heartedly because other tasks now came into focus. Work on gas synthesis in order to obtain liquid hydrocarbons in the process now appeared interesting . Previously, only literature studies had been carried out due to understaffing. After the lost war, this technology was seen as part of a struggle for military and economic independence, on the one hand, because the Versailles Treaty severely restricted imports of chemicals and, on the other hand, because it enabled the Ruhr coal mining to be better utilized.

From 1925 until the end of the Second World War, the institute mainly dealt with the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis , which was developed by Fischer and department head Hans Tropsch and their research manager Otto Roelen . For this purpose, a semi-industrial test facility was built in the institute that came very close to actual production. The competition at Leuna had to be countered with their Bergius Pier high-pressure hydrogenation process, but it was only the National Socialist economic autarky that led to small industrial production outside the institute. The general license for this was acquired in 1934 by Ruhrchemie AG, founded in 1926 , which was in competition with the Leuna plant operated by BASF using the Haber-Bosch process .

Another work was the examination of the lignin theory and in it the influence of microorganisms that Franz Fischer and Hans Schrader had developed. In response to a corresponding job posting in the “Zentralblatt für Bakteriologie”, Prof. Rudolf Lieske (1886–1950) from the Biological Institute in Heidelberg, who began his work at the end of October 1927, could be won. After completing this work, the department devoted itself to the “Biological Refinement of Fuels”, as Fischer called it. This included, for example, luminous gas detoxification with sewage sludge, which, however, turned out to be insignificant due to the length of the process.

This biological department only existed from 1927 to 1934. On November 1, 1929, its head Rudolf Lieske, together with Franz Fischer, managed to apply for a patent on the process for the biological conversion of carbon oxide into methane . The explanatory memorandum stated that "carbon oxide or gas mixtures containing carbon oxide are exposed to the action of Gram-positive, spore-free bacteria in the presence of hydrogen". In another application-related research, ammonia-saturated lignite, so-called ammonia, was able to increase the yield of plants by up to one hundred percent, both in the laboratory and in field trials by the in-house nursery. However, a patent application was unsuccessful, also because the results were doubted by specialist colleagues. Increased pressure to save and this failure led to the closure of the department at the end of 1934.

literature

• Manfred Rasch : History of the Kaiser Wilhelms Institute for Coal Research 1913–1943. Weinheim 1989.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Manfred Rasch, Vera Schmidt, Gerald D. Feldman (eds.): August Thyssen and Hugo Stinnes: an exchange of letters 1898–1922. Volume 10 of the series of publications on the journal for corporate history, Verlag CH Beck 2003, p. 70, ISBN 978-3-406-49637-0
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m} Manfred Rasch: History of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research 1913–1943 . Max Planck Institute for Coal Research, VCH Weinheim, 1989
3. ^ History of the Max Planck Institute
4. ^ Manfred Rasch : Coal research and electrochemical power generation. From the research history of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr. In: History of Technology. Association of German Engineers 1991, Volume 58, pp. 127–150
5. ^ August Thyssen and Hugo Stinnes: an exchange of letters 1898–1922. Eds. Manfred Rasch, Vera Schmidt, Gerald D. Feldman. Verlag CHBeck 2003, ISBN 978-3-406-49637-0 , p. 70
6. ^ Manfred Rasch: Prehistory and foundation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research. In: Max Planck Institute for Coal Research: Catalysis on the Kahlenberg. 100 years of the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research. Essen 2015, pp. 9–26
7. ^ Emil Fischer : The tasks of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for coal research. In: Stahl und Eisen , Volume 32. 1912, pp. 1898-1903
8. ↑ Manfred Rasch: Karl Ziegler and the low-pressure polyethylene. In: Ferrum. News from the iron library . Issue 89, 2017, p. 67
9. ^ Hans Georg Mäckel: Georg Rudolf Lieske . In: Reports of the German Botanical Society , Volume 76, Issue 11, January 1963, pp. 163-169

Coordinates: 51 ° 25 ′ 0 ″  N , 6 ° 53 ′ 7 ″  E