Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer

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Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, May 1928 in Munich

Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer (born January 13, 1899 in Breslau , † May 15, 1957 in Göttingen ) was a German chemist .

life and work

As the son of Karl Bonhoeffer and Paula von Hase , Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer grew up in a middle-class family, together with a total of seven siblings, including his brothers Klaus and Dietrich Bonhoeffer . After the father accepted a call to the Charité , the family moved to Berlin-Grunewald , where he attended the humanistic Grunewald grammar school. After graduating from school, he was called up as a volunteer for military service in 1917.

Bonhoeffer studied in Tübingen and Berlin from 1918. In 1922 he received his doctorate in Berlin under Walther Nernst . From 1923 to 1930 he was assistant to Fritz Haber at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical and Electrochemistry in Berlin-Dahlem. During this time he published a number of papers on spectroscopic, photochemical and kinetic topics. In 1927 the habilitation took place without submitting a formal habilitation thesis. After his habilitation in 1927, he became an associate professor at the University of Berlin.

In 1929 he and Paul Harteck discovered the hydrogen modifications ortho and parahydrogen and came up with the publication Arnold Eucken a few days earlier.

In 1930 Bonhoeffer became a full professor for physical chemistry at the University of Frankfurt . In 1934 he was appointed professor for physical chemistry at the University of Leipzig . In 1938 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina Scholars' Academy .

In 1947 he became professor of physical chemistry at the University of Berlin , at the same time director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Advancement of Science in Berlin-Dahlem (today Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society ) . In 1949 he was appointed director of the Institute for Physical Chemistry of the Max Planck Society in Göttingen.

The Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Göttingen, which emerged from the latter in 1971, bears the honorary name of "Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer Institute".

The science historian Ute Deichmann sees in Bonhoeffer, who was never a member of the NSDAP and who gave some “half-Jewish” scientists job opportunities in his institute, the example of a scientist who, although critical of National Socialism , adapts to the prevailing conditions without contradiction (“ You have to howl with the wolves ”).

The Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry , named after Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, presents his curriculum vitae on several pages. This also includes a part in which the resistance of the Bonhoeffer family during the Nazi era is discussed.

He had four children with his wife, Grete von Dohnanyi, sister of Hans von Dohnanyi . Another brother-in-law was Max Delbrück .

literature

  • Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Harteck: Experiments on para and ortho hydrogen ; in: Meeting reports of the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Phys.-Math. Class 1929 ; Berlin 1929; Pp. 103-108
  • Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Harteck: The properties of parahydrogen ; in: Journal for Electrochemistry and Applied Physical Chemistry , 35 (1929), pp. 621-623, doi : 10.1002 / bbpc.192900041
  • Karl-Friedrich Bonhoeffer, Paul Harteck: Further experiments with parahydrogen ; in: Die Naturwissenschaften , 17 (1929), pp. 321–322
  • Ute Deichmann: Escape, join in, forget - chemists and biochemists in the Nazi era . Wiley-VCH, 2001

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ulrich Schindewolf: In memory of Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer (1899–1957) . In: Bunsen-Magazin , 2002, pp. 139–146.
  2. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer at academictree.org, accessed on January 7, 2018.
  3. ↑ Karl Friedrich Bonhoeffer: Application of the quantum theory to photochemical sensitizations. In: Journal of Physics. 13, 1923, pp. 94-105, doi : 10.1007 / BF01328206 .
  4. ↑ KF Bonhoeffer, P. Harteck: Experiments on para and ortho hydrogen. In: The natural sciences. 17, 1929, pp. 182-182, doi : 10.1007 / BF01506559 .
personal data
SURNAME Bonhoeffer, Karl-Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH January 13, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Wroclaw
DATE OF DEATH May 15, 1957
Place of death Goettingen