Theodor Jakobus Aden

Theodor Jakobus Aden (born May 16, 1903 in Stiekelkamperfehn , † November 20, 1977 in Leer ) was a German chemist.

Life

Theodor Jakobus Aden was a son of the ship owner and captain Menne Jacobs Aden and his wife Gesine Janssen, née de Vries, who also came from a captain's family. He spent his childhood with eight siblings in Stiekelkamperfehn and attended the local elementary school. Due to the situation after the First World War and in particular the inflation, his father could not pay him to attend high school. Instead, at the age of twelve and a half, he moved to live with his brother in Völlen , where he was pastor. Here he attended elementary school. At the same time, with the help of his brother, he acquired the content of high school education. A year and a half later, she entered the lower secondary school in Papenburg.

Since his brother had married and could not provide him with any further financial help, Aden's school days at the Papenburg secondary school ended four years later with an upper secondary degree. Then he went back to his parents in Stiekelkamperfehn. He worked in agriculture and studied alongside himself. In the spring of 1923 he passed the Abitur examination at the Quakenbrücker Realgymnasium as an external student. From 1923 he studied chemistry at the University of Göttingen , moved to the University of Kiel and again to Göttingen. For the university visit he had to fall back on natural produce from the court of his parents and dollars from his brother, which he sent him from America. He also worked in a lime mine.

In 1928 Aden received his doctorate from Göttingen University. He then worked in several companies in the chemical industry. From 1937 he held changing management positions at Gelsenberg Petrol AG in Gelsenkirchen , which produced synthetic fuel. Politically, he consciously positioned himself in a decidedly national way; at the beginning of the Nazi era he joined the NSDAP . In the following years he increasingly distanced himself from National Socialism, which he often criticized publicly. In 1936 he therefore had to defend himself before the district judge in Berlin. Because of his public statements, he often ran into professional problems. From 1941 he made no further contributions to the NSDAP.

Shortly before the end of the Second World War , the Allies completely destroyed the Gelsenberg AG plant in an air raid. Aden then had to move to the Schandelah satellite camp as a shift supervisor , where he exchanged ideas intensively with the prisoners. After conflicts with the local camp management and party structure, he fled there shortly before Easter 1945. The Gestapo , which had often threatened to shoot him, could no longer arrest him.

Since the Allies decided after the end of the war that Gelsenberg AG was initially not allowed to produce again, Aden's employment relationship ended in 1947. After that, he only received short-term jobs, most of which were also outside of the profession, which caused problems for a family. From 1956 until his retirement in 1968 he headed the laboratory of the Wilhelmshaven waterworks.

In retirement, Aden went back to East Frisia , where he built a house. He conducted intensive research on the region and was involved as a member of the working group on nature conservation and the preservation of the homeland of the East Frisian landscape . In doing so, he conveyed new details about historical and biological relationships to many people living there, which he also published extensively on.

literature

• Hannes Hothan: Aden, Theodor Jakobus . in: Martin Tielke (Hrsg.): Biographisches Lexikon für Ostfriesland. Ostfriesische Landschaftliche Verlags- und Vertriebsgesellschaft, Aurich, Vol. 3 ISBN 3-932206-22-3 (2001), pages 15-16.