Fritz Hofmann (chemist)
Friedrich Hofmann ( born November 2, 1866 in Kölleda, † October 29, 1956 in Hannover ) was a chemist and pharmacist.
Life
Fritz Hofmann grew up as the sixth child of a merchant family in Kölleda in Auenstraße 16, now Professor Hofmann road on.
After three years of convent school in Donndorf he moved in 1881 to the humanist school after Schulpforta. At 20 he began his apprenticeship in the Ratsapotheke to Göttingen.
After graduating as a pharmacist 's assistant, he began the study of pharmacy at the University in Berlin and earned after four years of the license as a pharmacist to be right after enrolling at the University of Rostock. There he stayed from 1894 to 1895 for the study of chemistry and his doctorate of philosophy.
On 1 August 1897 he started work as a chemist in the famous colors of plants in Elberfeld, ie in Wuppertal main factory of the world group Bayer. During this time, the talented chemist developed in the laboratory of Arthur Green Oak medicines, such as sleeping pills, malaria protection products and many other pharmaceutical preparations.
In 1906 he left the pharmaceutical- chemical department and developed in three years, the world's first method for the production of synthetic rubber, the " methyl rubber ". Through this invention Fritz Hofmann 1909 become world famous. For his many years of research on the production of various types of rubber, he was with the golden Emil Fischer Medal from the society of German chemists and the plaque of Honour of the German Rubber society awarded. from the autumn of 1918 to October 1934 he was director of the " Silesian coal Research Institute " of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society in Breslau.
His pupils achieved the decisive breakthrough to Buna process.
On his 70th birthday he was made an honorary citizen of the city of Wroclaw and also his hometown Kölleda. To mark this anniversary, a plaque was attached to his birthplace, which can still be seen there today. In Kölleda then was the occasion of his 75th birthday Auenstraße in which he spent his earliest childhood, renamed on 1 November 1941 in which Professor Hofmann road. This street is also named after him Gymnasium.
To this end, the newspaper wrote at the time:
" With the name change we fulfill our esteemed honorary citizen Prof. Dr. Dr. Hofmann against a natural duty of grateful piety. May the Prof. Hofmann street transmit the name of the famous scholar and inventor later generations and particularly encourage the children of our city that leads the fate into the unknown, to be men own power and the home to keep faith. "
In 1945 he returned to Kölleda and worked in the field of cancer research.
Swell
- Manfred Rasch: The Silesian Coal Research Institute of the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, in: The Kaiser Wilhelm / Max Planck Society and its institutes, Berlin 1996.