Wilhelm Carl Heraeus
Wilhelm Carl Heraeus (born March 6, 1827 in Hanau ; † September 14, 1904 there ) was a German pharmacist , chemist and entrepreneur . He is the founder of the global technology company Heraeus .
Life
Origin and education
Wilhelm Carl Heraeus came from a family of pharmacists who had been running the unicorn pharmacy in the Neustadt Hanau since 1660 on the corner of Nürnberger Strasse and Kölnische Strasse .
Wilhelm Carl Heraeus studied chemistry and pharmacy in Göttingen , among others with Friedrich Wöhler , whose father in turn was stable master of the prince and later elector Wilhelm II of Hessen-Kassel in Hanau. During his studies in 1849 he became a member of the Brunsviga fraternity in Göttingen.
Business activity
In 1851 Wilhelm Carl Heraeus took over the pharmacy that had been left behind by his father, who had died twenty years earlier. Here he experimented with metal waste from the Hanau jewelery trade to produce pure platinum , which was in demand by the industry. In 1856 he succeeded for the first time in an " oxyhydrogen flame ", a very effective process that was unknown until then. Customers worldwide were goldsmiths ' workshops , jewelry factories , dentists , chemical laboratories and numerous industries. For decades, the company “WC Heraeus” continued to work purely by hand: In 1886, Wilhelm Carl Heraeus was still running the later global company with only six employees in the building and on the property of his pharmacy. It also produced osmium and hydrofluoric acid . He also continued to run his pharmacy.
On January 1, 1889, Wilhelm Carl Heraeus handed over his business to his sons Wilhelm and Heinrich . This broke with the craft tradition and developed the family business into a global company.
Political commitment
Heraeus had been a member of the city council of Hanau since 1874 , deputy mayor and temporarily head of the city administration. He was also a member of the Chamber of Commerce . He received honorary citizenship of the city of Hanau in 1898 .
literature
- Helge Dvorak: Biographical Lexicon of the German Burschenschaft. Volume I: Politicians. Sub-Volume 2: F-H. Winter, Heidelberg 1999, ISBN 3-8253-0809-X , pp. 302-303.
- Fried Lübbecke : Hanau. City and county. Cologne, 1951, p. 323ff.
- Heinz-Günther Mehl: Wilhelm Carl Heraeus. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 8, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, ISBN 3-428-00189-3 , p. 570 f. ( Digitized version ).
- Karl Siebert: Hanauer biographies from three centuries. Hanauer Geschichtsverein 1844 , Hanau 1919 (= Hanauer Geschichtsblätter NF 3/4 ), pp. 81–83.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Heinrich Bünsow: History and directory of the members of the Brunsviga fraternity in Göttingen 1848–1933 , Göttingen 1933, p. 3 No. 35.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Heraeus, Wilhelm Carl |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | German pharmacist and chemist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 6, 1827 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Hanau |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 14, 1904 |
| Place of death | Hanau |