Walter Fuchs (chemist)

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Walter Maximilian Fuchs (born June 8, 1891 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died August 30, 1957 in Aachen ) was an Austro-German chemist .

Life

Walter Fuchs was born on June 8, 1891 to Jewish parents in Vienna . He himself described his father as an Austrian of German nationality. Fuchs studied chemistry at the University of Vienna and received his doctorate in 1915 under Guido Goldschmiedt , a master in the structure elucidation of organic natural substances . Fuchs was then called up for military service and took part in the fighting during the First World War as an officer in the Austro-Hungarian Army . A more coincidental contact with Max Hönig from the Brno University of Technology during the First World War led to Fuchs being given a position as a research assistant in Brno after the end of the war, an offer that Fuchs gladly accepted, since his doctoral supervisor Goldschmiedt had since passed away. With his place of residence in Brno , Fuchs, like all residents of the now independent Czechoslovakia, became a Czechoslovak citizen.

Hönig carried out research work to elucidate the structure of the organic natural substance lignin , a main component of wood, and Fuchs participated in this work. So it came about that in the following years Fuchs became a recognized expert in questions of lignin and - because of the connection between wood and lignin and coal formation - for questions of coal formation . For this reason, Franz Fischer engaged Fuchs in 1927 as head of department at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr. Fuchs's activity at the institute ended abruptly in 1931. The reasons are not exactly known. Financial bottlenecks were probably the reason to close a department focusing on the production of coal, since no industrial application was to be expected. Fuchs then founded a company for products for the food industry in Berlin, but was appointed professor for chemical technology at the Technical University of Aachen as early as 1932 . With the appointment, Fuchs became a German citizen.

In the spring of 1933, denunciation measures by the student body began at RWTH Aachen University . The ASTA ( General Student Committee ) and the student leaders sent the denunciation committee specially set up for this purpose, consisting of Hermann Bonin , Hubert Hoff , Felix Rötscher , Adolf Wallichs , and Robert Hans Wentzel, about which of the lecturers and professors were not of Aryan descent or were supposed to be actually had an undesirable political attitude. According to the law for the restoration of the civil service due to his Jewish origin, Fuchs, together with the other non-Aryan professors Otto Blumenthal , Arthur Guttmann , Ludwig Hopf , Theodore von Kármán , Paul Ernst Levy , Karl Walter Mautner , Alfred Meusel , Leopold Karl Pick , Rudolf Ruer , Hermann Salmang and Ludwig Strauss ' teaching permits are withdrawn.

In September 1933 he was finally dismissed from civil service by the NS government, not because of his Jewish descent, but because of his previous political activities, which probably meant his membership in the SPD . Fuchs emigrated to the USA via Czechoslovakia and England , where he was initially offered a temporary job at Rutgers University and then at Pennsylvania State University . The latter activity ended in 1942. Here, too, the reasons are not known; they may have something to do with the USA's entry into World War II.

Until 1949, Fuchs worked as an industrial consultant in the USA. In 1949, Fuchs was brought back to the Technical University of Aachen by the North Rhine-Westphalian Minister of Education, Christine Teusch, at the age of 58. Here he developed a lively research activity in numerous fields of technical chemistry with a large number of employees. On August 30, 1957, at the age of 66, he died of a heart attack. His scientific drafts and suggestions were so diverse that up to nine years after his death, his colleagues continued to publish publications who named Walter Fuchs as a co-author.

Services

Walter Fuchs' importance as a researcher lies in his feeling for technically feasible processes. In his Aachen institute he worked intensively in various fields of technical chemistry , for example in the field of tar and petroleum chemistry, technical electrochemistry , technical gas reactions, synthetic textile fibers and other areas. In the few years of his post-war activity in Aachen, 79 doctoral theses by his colleagues were published. In doing so, he has given significant scientific impetus to the country's industry and economy. Walter Fuchs deserves special mention as a researcher of coal formation.

Fonts

Walter Fuchs has published well over 200 scientific papers , mostly articles in scientific journals. The two books deserve special mention

  • The chemistry of lignin . Springer, Berlin 1926,
  • The chemistry of coal . Springer, Berlin 1931,

which established its scientific reputation. A full list of publications can be found in the biography of Valentin Wehefritz.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fuchs, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fuchs, Walter Maximilian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austro-German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH June 8, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 1957
Place of death Aachen