Werner Zerweck

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Werner Hugo Zerweck (born March 14, 1899 in Munich ; † September 10, 1965 in Königstein ) was a German chemist, manager and chairman of the board of Cassella Farbwerke Mainkur from 1953 to 1963. He had been a member of the advisory board of Deutsche Bank since 1953 and was an honorary professor from the Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg .

Life

Education

Werner Zerweck studied chemistry at the Technical University of Munich . He completed his doctoral thesis in Hans Fischer's laboratory . There he mainly worked on the elucidation of the blood pigment haemin . He completed his studies in 1922 with a doctorate on the subject of "Synthesis of Substituted Pyrroles" with Hans Fischer. Then he was Fischer's assistant for two years.

Career with Cassella

In August 1923 Werner Zerweck applied to the Cassella company . His teacher, Hans Fischer, had given him a letter of recommendation. a. meant: "... I could make one of the most capable of my assistants, Mr. Zerweck, in the foreseeable future ... He has a good, comprehensive general education, and I consider him a first-class chemist, with whom you would ride excellently ... "

On April 1, 1924, Zerweck's career began at Cassella , initially in the scientific laboratory under the direction of Arthur von Weinberg . Werner Zerweck soon worked closely with the Cassella dye pioneer, Richard Herz . The main areas of work were the vat dyes , especially the anthanthrone, anthraquinone and indigoid series, as well as the Naphtol AS dyes.

In 1932, W. Zerweck and Otto Bayer took over the management of scientific research at the Mainkur ink works. In 1933, at the age of 34, W. Zerweck was entrusted with the overall management of scientific research at Cassella Farbwerke Mainkur AG, after 0. Bayer had been appointed head of the main laboratory at the Bayer paint factories. This significantly expanded the production program. In addition there were u. a. Plastics, especially the melamine resins invented by Zerweck , adhesives, an abundance of finishing products for various branches of industry, pesticides and also pharmaceutical products.

In the late 1930s, Cassella developed the PAN fiber based on polyacrylonitrile . The breakthrough came from the collaboration with Herbert Rein (Wolfen and Augsburg) through the use of unusual solvents such as dimethylformamide . The development of PAN fiber was slowed down by the war. Herbert Rein headed the plastics department at Cassella from 1950. The PAN project at Cassella was already in the pilot plant stage when it was sold to Bayer AG. Bayer then launched the fiber under the name Dralon .

Between 1934 and 1959, the Cassella scientific laboratory produced more than 1,250 German patents and patent applications, around 500 of which bear the name of von Zerweck.

In 1936 Zerweck had been granted power of attorney. In 1939 he became deputy works manager and the number of his employees gradually increased to 25 chemists. Following the dissolution of IG Farbenindustrie, Zerweck was appointed to the management board as deputy chairman in 1947 and he was given responsibility for the entire scientific management of the plant, including the color and application technology department and the patent department. When the Cassella Farbwerke Mainkur AG was founded. he received the chairmanship of the board. He held this position and that of head of research until his retirement in 1963.

Under the leadership of Zerweck, Cassella's activities expanded significantly in the direction of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. In 1953 Cassella took over Curta & Co GmbH, which later became Jade Cosmetic GmbH. In 1955, Cassella acquired a stake in Riedel-de Haën AG (Seelze), which was later increased to over 95%. Cassella-Riedel-Pharma GmbH was founded in 1962 together with Riedel-de Haen. Cassella's pharmaceutical research resulted in numerous successful preparations, most notably Intensain (1951, Carbocromen ), a vasodilator used to combat heart disease.

Academic teaching

In 1948 the University of Erlangen gave Zerweck a teaching position for “Newer Processes in the Field of Aliphatic Chemistry.” In view of the great scientific achievements, especially the extensive constitutional elucidation of the sulfur dyes, the University applied for his appointment as honorary professor with teaching position for “Chemical Technology of Organic Matter ". Zerweck's other lectures concerned plastics and vat dyes.

Honors

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Personal details , deaths . In: Chem.-Ztg., Chem. Appar. tape 89 , no. 19 , 1965, ISSN  0375-8710 , p. 683 .
  2. ↑ Werner Abelshauser, Wolfgang von Hippel, Jeffrey Allan Johnson, Raymond G. Stokes, German Industry and Global Enterprise: BASF: The History of a Company , p. 458, Cambridge University Press, 2003
  3. ↑ Who is it . In: Nachr. Chem. Tech. tape 7 , 1959, pp. 79 , doi : 10.1002 / nadc.19590070503 .
  4. ↑ Patent DE000000763813A : Process for the production of melamine. Registered on March 19, 1937 , published on May 23, 1952 , applicant: IG Farbenindustrie AG, inventor: Werner Zerweck, Karl Keller. ‌
  5. ↑ Patent DE000R0000213MAZ : Process for the regeneration of polyacrylonitrile solutions. Registered on October 29, 1949 , published on May 10, 1951 , applicant: Cassella Farbwerke Mainkur, Frankfurt / M.-Fechenheim, inventor: Rein, Herbert, Dr., Augsburg. ‌
  6. ^ A b Hansjörg W. Vollmann: CASSELLA - Development of a pioneering company in the German chemical industry after the Second World War . In: K. Krug, H. Bode (Ed.): Contemporary witness reports X - Chemical Industry - (=  GDCh monograph . Volume 43 ). Society of German Chemists, Frankfurt 2011, ISBN 978-3-936028-67-6 , p. 71-85 .
  7. ↑ Ralf Koenen, Thomas Kaltsuni: structural analysis of a city district: The center of Frankfurt-Fechenheim . In: Elke Tharun (Ed.): KSR36 . tape 1 , no. 2 . Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University Frankfurt, 2001, ISBN 3-935918-02-X , ISSN  1617-7584 , p. 34-35 .
  8. ^ W. Zerweck, H. Ritter, M. Schubert: To the constitution of the sulfur dyes . In: Applied Chemistry A . tape 60 , no. 6 , 1948, pp. 141 , doi : 10.1002 / anie.19480600602 .
personal data
SURNAME Zerweck, Werner
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zerweck, Werner Hugo (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German chemist
DATE OF BIRTH March 14, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Munich
DATE OF DEATH September 10, 1965
Place of death Koenigstein