Leopold Wolf (chemist)

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Leopold Wolf (1959)

Leopold Wolf (born November 23, 1896 in Niederlungwitz , † November 6, 1974 in Leipzig ) was a German chemist and professor of inorganic chemistry at the University of Leipzig .

Life

Leopold Wolf was born in Niederlungwitz, West Saxony, as the son of master dyer Oswald Hugo Wolf . His father's job had a lasting influence on the young Leopold Wolf's interest in the natural sciences, especially chemistry. It has been reported that Wolf's student experiment with diazonium compounds - precursors for azo dyes - led to an unexpected detonation. Then his father advised him not to turn to organic chemistry . As a student at the secondary school in Glauchau , Wolf passed his matriculation examination in 1915. The outbreak of the First World War prevented the immediate start of studies. Instead, Wolf was involved in the fighting as a non-commissioned officer from 1915 to 1918. Not until 1920 did he return home after being taken prisoner by France. In the same year he began studying chemistry at the University of Leipzig , then went to Munich (lectures with Richard Willstätter , Otto Hönigschmidt, Wilhelm Prandtl and Arnold Sommerfeld), but soon returned to the familiar Leipzig (lectures with Carl Paal , Max Le Blanc and Otto Heinrich Wiener) back. His doctoral thesis (topics: "The nature of nitric acid " and "Contributions to ester saponification") he completed in the working group of Arthur Hantzsch at the University of Leipzig. On June 25, 1925 he was promoted to Dr. phil. PhD . Wolf remained as assistant to Arthur Hantzsch. Apparently due to the retirement of Hantzsch in 1927, Wolf moved to the chemical technology department (head: Berthold Rassow ) of the Leipzig chemical laboratory in 1930 . There he dealt with applied electrochemistry . In 1935/1936, Wolf took over as a substitute for the head of the inorganic department of the chemical laboratory of the State University of Koethen / Anhalt, where he held lectures on inorganic as well as colloid and electrochemistry. He completed his habilitation in 1937 at the University of Leipzig with "Contributions to the electrolytic deposition of chromium from chromic acid solutions" and "On the passivity of iron, cobalt and nickel." On February 5, 1938 he became a lecturer and in January 1945 an associate professor for chemistry appointed at the University of Leipzig. Wolf was instinctively hostile to the National Socialist ideology.

The devastation of the war initially made scientific work impossible after the end of the Second World War . In June 1945 the American military government deported Leopold Wolf against his will via St. Goarshausen / Rhineland and Rettersheim to the Usingen district ( Hesse ). Wolf managed to escape and returned to Leipzig on October 2, 1945. It was up to the few backward professors - including Wolf - to revitalize teaching and research at the University of Leipzig. In October 1946 he became head of the chemical laboratory at the University of Leipzig. In recognition of the services he acquired, Wolf was appointed full professor for chemical technology in 1948 , and with the establishment of the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Leipzig, he was appointed director of this institute and on January 1, 1951, full professor for inorganic chemistry . At the same time he took over the management of the chemistry department. He retired in 1961.

25 academic students of Leopold Wolf worked as professors at various university and academy institutions, including Ehrenfried Butter, Heinz Holzapfel, Eberhard Hoyer, Horst Hennig , Gerhard Werner ( Karl Marx University Leipzig ), Erhard Uhlemann ( Pädagogische Hochschule Potsdam ), Eva- Maria Kirmse Rudolf Hering ( Güstrow University of Education ), Egon Uhlig, Ernst-Gottfried Jäger ( Friedrich Schiller University Jena ), Günter Schott, Hans Berge ( University of Rostock ), Klaus Wetzel ( Academy of Sciences of the GDR ), Hartmut Bärnighausen ( University Karlsruhe ), Kurt Dehnicke ( Philipps University Marburg ), Lothar Beyer ( HTWK Leipzig, University Leipzig), Hartmut Franz ( University Witten-Herdecke ), Hermann Scheler (TH Dresden), Klaus Wehner (Electrochemical Combine Bitterfeld), Gottfried Kempe (TH Leuna-Merseburg), Günther Kretzschmann (IHS Zittau), Christof Tröltzsch ( University of Greifswald ), Wolfgang Matzel (Academy of Agricultural Science ten of the GDR, Leipzig), Tang Min Yü (Lanzhou University, China).

In his first marriage, Wolf was married to Meta Wolf (née Heinke, † 1952) and, since 1956, her second marriage to Charlotte Wolf (née Grunert).

Research areas

Wolf can be described as the father of rare earth research in Germany. He is considered the founder of the first industrial rare earth separation using ion exchange chromatography , at least in Germany. His academic student, Herfried Richter, then successfully further developed industrial rare earth separation in the Piesteritz nitrogen works . Inspired by the research results on rare earths, Wolf also devoted himself to complex chemistry in solutions and especially to the complexes of β- diketones and similar ligands .

Publications and patents

Leopold Wolf's research has resulted in over 50 publications in specialist journals and 15 patents . Eberhard Hoyer and Horst Hennig have compiled a list of publications .

Honors

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Eberhard Hoyer, Horst Hennig: Leopold Wolf (November 23, 1896– November 6, 1974) in the 1973–1974 yearbook of the Saxon Academy of Sciences in Leipzig , Akademie-Verlag Berlin , 1976, pp. 283–289 .
  2. ↑ a b c Eberhard Hoyer, Horst Hennig: Leopold Wolf (1896–1974) in Merited University Lecturer at the Karl Marx University , Leipzig 1983, Volume 4, pp. 82–88, (editors: H. Hennig, A. Uhlmann, H. Wussing).
personal data
SURNAME Wolf, Leopold
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist, professor of inorganic chemistry
DATE OF BIRTH November 23, 1896
PLACE OF BIRTH Niederlungwitz
DATE OF DEATH November 6, 1974
Place of death Berlin