Karl Freudenberg (chemist)

Karl Johann Freudenberg (born January 29, 1886 in Weinheim , † April 3, 1983 in Heidelberg ) was a German chemist . From 1926 to 1956 he was Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Institute of the University of Heidelberg and from 1947 to 1969 Director of the Research Institute in the Organic Chemical Institute of the University.

Live and act

Karl Freudenberg was the third child of the wealthy Weinheim factory owner Hermann Ernst Freudenberg (1856–1923) and his wife Helene, nee. Siegert, and grew up with nine siblings. He attended elementary school and secondary school in Weinheim and from 1902 to 1904 the Goethe grammar school in Frankfurt am Main.

In 1904 he began studying natural sciences with a major in chemistry in Bonn. After an interruption by the military service, he sat from 1907 the study of organic chemistry at the University of Berlin and was continued in 1910 Emil Fischer PhD .

Freudenberg then worked as an assistant in Berlin and Kiel , where he became a private lecturer in 1914 . He participated in the war from 1914 to 1918; most recently he worked at the "Heeres-Gasschule" Berlin. His professional career took him to Munich in 1920 as a private lecturer, as an associate professor in Freiburg im Breisgau and in 1922 as a full professor and director of the chemical institute at the Technical University of Karlsruhe . In 1926 he took the same position at the University of Heidelberg , where he became dean of the mathematics and natural sciences faculty in 1929/1930 .

The law of optical displacement , a stereochemical rule for determining the configuration, comes from Freudenberg . He also researched the structure of cellulose and its principle of polymerization . Other focal points of his research activities related to the substances lignin and starch . In 1938 he organized the “ Four Year Plan Research Institute” for wood and polysaccharides . It allowed Freudenberg to continue some of his work and also to " help several people, including non-Aryan people , under this roof."

In 1926 he was accepted as a full member of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences . From 1943 to 1949 he was secretary of this academy. In 1940 he was elected a member of the Leopoldina .

In 1946 Freudenberg was accused of having been an active helper of the National Socialist regime. He was detained for several days by a denazification court acquitted and the court of the American occupation authorities.

From 1953 to 1974 he was a member of the Swedish Academy of Sciences in the proposals for the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry. He achieved great merits through his commitment to the new building of his institute. After his retirement , he continued to manage the wood institute.

Honors

• Admission as a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences (1935)
• Corresponding member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (1936)
• Admission as a foreign member to the Finnish Academy of Sciences (1943)
• Admission to the Swedish Academy of Sciences (1951)
• Admission to the Royal Society (1963)
• Honorary member of the Leopoldina (1965)
• Large Cross of Merit with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany (1966)
• In 1986 the Freudenberg Group donated the Karl Freudenberg Prize to promote young scientists in Baden-Württemberg .

literature

• Karl J. Freudenberg: Looking back on a long life - memoirs of the chemist Karl Johann Freudenberg 1886–1983. Kurpfälzischer Verlag, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-924566-08-9 .
• Rolf Huisgen : Karl Freudenberg January 29, 1886– April 3, 1983. In: Bavarian Academy of Sciences , Yearbook 1984, Munich 1984, pp. 246–249.

Web links

• Literature by and about Karl Freudenberg in the catalog of the German National Library
• Information provided by the chemical historian Alexander Kipnis
• Karl Freudenberg Prize

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Life data, publications and academic family tree of Karl Freudenberg at academictree.org, accessed on February 6, 2018.
2. ^ Information from the chemical historian Alexander Kipnis (accessed on February 14, 2010)
3. ^ Members of the HAdW since it was founded in 1909. Karl Freudenberg. Heidelberg Academy of Sciences, accessed on July 10, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Holger Krahnke: The members of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen 1751-2001 (= Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Philological-Historical Class. Volume 3, Vol. 246 = Treatises of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen, Mathematical-Physical Class. Episode 3, vol. 50). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2001, ISBN 3-525-82516-1 , p. 85.
5. ^ Karl Freudenberg obituary at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences (PDF file)
6. ↑ Newsletter of the German Science and Technology, organ of the Reich Research Council (Hrsg.): Research and progress . Staff news. German science and abroad. tape 19, 23/24 , 1943, pp. 252 .