Lothar Wöhler

Lothar Wöhler (born October 27, 1870 in Bernburg , † July 5, 1952 in Backnang ) was a German chemist and professor of chemistry.

Life

Lothar Wöhler was born in 1870 as the son of the businessman Heinrich Friedrich Wöhler and his wife Luise nee. Arnold was born in the district town of Bernburg in Saxony-Anhalt. After graduating, he completed a commercial apprenticeship. After a short career, he studied chemistry at the University of Heidelberg from spring 1893 to the end of 1896 . Here he was promoted to Dr. rer. nat. PhD . His doctoral supervisor and supervisor was Viktor Meyer . The dissertation with the title "About the behavior of argon" was published in Heidelberg in 1897. After completing his doctorate, he moved to the TH Karlsruhe. Here he also met Fritz Haber , with whom he was on friendly terms for a long time. In February 1902 he received his habilitation in Karlsruhe. His habilitation thesis from 1901 was entitled "The pseudocatalytic oxygen activation of platinum". Then he was a private lecturer and assistant at the TH Karlsruhe. In August 1905 he was appointed associate professor in Karlsruhe. Wöhler headed the inorganic department of the institute under Carl Engler .

Wöhler was active in the field of explosives chemistry. His discovery of lead azide as an initial explosive was patented in 1907.

In April 1911 he took up a full professorship for chemistry at the TH Darmstadt . He thus succeeded Wilhelm Staedel , who had worked at the TH Darmstadt since 1895. Linked to this was the function of director of the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry for Wöhler. Wöhler also made a name for himself by publishing textbooks for his subject. His best-known textbook was entitled "Short textbook of inorganic chemistry with a sketch of organic chemistry as an appendix", which appeared in several editions. Lothar Wöhler worked in the Kaiser Wilhelm Society for the Science of Warfare during the First World War. At the suggestion of Fritz Haber, he has been dealing with raw material-saving explosives and powders since the spring of 1917. At the founding meeting of the Association of Friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt on June 29, 1918, which took place in the lecture hall of the Chemical Institute in Hochschulstrasse, Wöhler, as dean of the chemistry department, gave the lecture entitled “The use of liquid air in war: lecture with experiments and photographs ”. In festive words, Wöhler presented to the celebratory assembly the powerful tools chemistry had meanwhile developed for waging war. The inhuman side effects of this type of warfare were not discussed at all in this lecture. From 1916 to 1919 Wöhler was dean of the chemistry department, from 1919 to 1921 dean of the chemistry, electrochemistry and pharmacy department of the TH Darmstadt. He held this office again in the academic year 1927/28. In 1930/31 he was rector of the university.

In his inaugural speech on November 1, 1930, Wöhler, in contrast to the previous practice at such academic events at the TH Darmstadt, discussed the political framework of his time. Wöhler was an advocate of an "apolitical university". In his opinion, the high academic level could only be maintained if any “politicization” of the university could be avoided. His speech also contained a subtle criticism of the politicization of students that had become evident in the late 1920s.

In the spring of 1933 Lothar Wöhler made a name for himself again. After the Law to Restore the Professional Civil Service was passed, some a. Professors Ernst Berl and Edmund Stiasny asked for retirement in April 1933. However, numerous of his assistants and students at the TH Darmstadt spoke out against the removal of the very popular Berl. In contrast to most of the colleagues, who behaved more passively, colleagues Lothar Wöhler and Karl Jonas vehemently advocated removing Berl. Wöhler and Jonas caused the rectorate under August Thum to stop Berl's further work at the TH. This behavior by Wöhler led to counter-actions among the chemistry students and the demand that he should also be dismissed. At the end of May Lothar Wöhler applied for retirement for health reasons, which he was granted on June 16, 1933.

Lothar Wöhler died in 1952 at the age of almost 82. He was born in 1908 with Erna Wöhler. Kretzschmar married. A daughter, Platina Wöhler de Gainza, emerged from this marriage.

Publications

• Observations on the behavior of argon , Heidelberg 1897 (dissertation).
• The pseudocatalytic oxygen activation of platinum , Karlsruhe: Braun 1901 (habilitation).
• together with Carl Engler: Inorganische Chemie , Berlin a. a .: Teubner 1913.
• Short textbook of inorganic chemistry with a sketch of organic chemistry as an appendix , Leipzig: Hirzel 1914.
• The use of liquid air in war: Lecture with experiments and photo, held at the founding meeting. the E [rnst-] L [udwigs-] H [ochschul-] G esellschaft] zu Darmstadt on June 29, 1918 , Darmstadt: Association of Friends of the Technical University of Darmstadt 1918.
• About Paltinarsenid . In: Wilhelm Geibel (ed.): Festschrift for the 70th birthday of Dr. phil. Dr. ing. eh Wilhelm Heraeus , Hanau: GM Albertis Hofbuchhandlung Bruno Clauss 1930, pp. 164–178.

literature

• Melanie Hanel: Normality under exceptional conditions. The TH Darmstadt under National Socialism , Darmstadt 2014.
• One hundred years of Darmstadt University of Technology. The Technical University of Darmstadt 1836-1936 , Darmstadt 1936.
• Christa Wolf and Marianne Viefhaus: Directory of professors at TH Darmstadt , Darmstadt 1977, p. 232.
• Helmut Maier: Chemist in the “Third Reich” , Weinheim 2015.
• Margit Szöllösi-Janze: Fritz Haber 1868-1934. A biography , Munich.
• Lothar Wöhler. In: Karin Orth: Expulsion from the science system. Commemorative book for the committee members of the DFG expelled under National Socialism, Stuttgart: Steiner 2018 (Contributions to the History of the German Research Foundation; 7), pp. 325–333. ISBN 978-3-515-11953-5