Kurt Schwabe

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kurt Schwabe (born May 29, 1905 in Reichenbach (Vogtland) , † December 4, 1983 in Meinsberg ) was a German chemist and is considered a pioneer of electrochemical sensor technology .

Life

Kurt Schwabe Institute in Meinsberg

After attending school from 1912 to 1924 at the Realgymnasium Reichenbach , he studied chemistry in Dresden until 1927 . In 1927, he got under Erich Müller the diploma for his work awarded "About catalytic cleavage and anodic oxidation of formic acid" and in 1928 with the paper "On the capacity of the platinum metals hydrogen" doctorate . In his own words, this quick conclusion was only achieved with personal commitment and resignation.

"While others were playing soccer, I sat over my studies."

- Schwabe 1969 in conversation with his graduate students

In 1933 he completed his habilitation with the thesis “On the anodic behavior of metals in saturated solutions of their salts”. Because of his refusal to join the National Socialist Lecturer Association, he was expelled from the Technical University of Dresden and took up a job as an industrial chemist in the Kriebstein paper mill. After signing the confession of the German professors to Adolf Hitler in November 1933 , he became a private lecturer at the TH Dresden. In 1939 he became an associate professor for chemical technology at the TH Dresden. In 1940 he joined the NSDAP .

In 1944 he founded the “Research Institute for Chemical Technology” (since 1990 “Kurt Schwabe Institute”) in Meinsberg and was its director until his death. In 1949 Schwabe was appointed professor at the Dresden University of Technology (later TU Dresden ) and director of the "Institute for Electrochemistry and Physical Chemistry" at the university. In 1953 he became a member of the German Academy of Sciences. In 1956 he was elected a member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina . From 1959 to 1969 Kurt Schwabe was director of the "Institute for Radiochemistry" at the Central Institute for Nuclear Research (ZfK) in Rossendorf and from 1961 to 1965 Rector of the Technical University of Dresden. In 1965 he became president of the Saxon Academy of Sciences , an office that he held until 1980. The Professor Schwabe Prize of the TU Dresden was donated by him.

Gravestone in Meinsberg

From 1965 to 1971 Schwabe was also director of the "Central Office for Corrosion Protection Dresden" founded by him (since 1990 "Institute for Corrosion Protection Dresden GmbH"). As an emeritus from 1970 to 1983 he worked at the Meinsberg Research Institute, which he previously headed as director. In 1971 Schwabe was appointed Vice President of the Academy of Sciences of the GDR and in 1980 he was Vice President of the International Society of Electrochemistry until his death .

Research on fuel cells was a topic of his work as early as the 1960s.

Kurt Drescher , Christian Weißmantel , Gerhard Kreysa were among his students .

Awards and honors

The Saxon Academy of Sciences has been awarding the Kurt Schwabe Prize since 1983 "to honor outstanding scientific or technical achievements and high merits in the preservation of nature and its resources".

Publications

  • Advances in pH measurement technology. 4th edition. pH measurement technology . Theodor Steinkopff publishing house, Dresden / Leipzig 1976.
  • Polarography and chemical constitution of organic compounds . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1957.
  • pH primer. 4th, improved & extended Edition. VEB German publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1962.
  • as editor: Corrosion protection problems . VEB German publishing house for basic industry, Leipzig 1969.
  • with H.-W. Chamber: Introduction to Statistical Thermodynamics . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1971.
  • Physical chemistry. Volume 1 . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1973.
  • Physical chemistry. Volume 2: Electrochemistry . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1975.
  • Physical chemistry. Volume 3: Collection of exercises . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1974.
  • pH measurement . (= Scientific paperbacks, chemistry series. Volume 247). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1980.
  • with H.-W. Chamber: Introduction to the thermodynamics of irreversible processes . (= Scientific paperbacks, chemistry series. Volume 295). Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1984.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Reichenbach in Vogtland: Prof. Dr. Dr. Kurt Schwabe .
  2. ^ Harry Waibel : Servants of many gentlemen: Former Nazi functionaries in the Soviet Zone / GDR. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-63542-1 , p. 308.
  3. ↑ Berliner Zeitung . April 29, 1953.
  4. ^ Member entry by Kurt Schwabe at the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina , accessed on June 23, 2016.
  5. ↑ Sponsors and donors in the past and present, On the history of the society of friends and sponsors of the Technical University of Dresden eV 1998. (PDF; 5.1 MB).
  6. ↑ EU funds fuel cell development with a million euro package. on: heise.de , October 16, 2008.
  7. ↑ Doctoral files 229/35 in the Chemnitz University Archives, doctorate for Dr. Ing.Eh on October 10, 1963 by the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
  8. ↑ Kurt Schwabe Prize ( Memento of the original from August 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at the Saxon Academy of Sciences (saw-leipzig.de); Retrieved October 24, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.saw-leipzig.de


personal data
SURNAME Schwabe, Kurt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH May 29, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Reichenbach in Vogtland , Saxony, Germany
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 1983
Place of death Berlin , Germany