Herbert Freundlich

Herbert Max Finlay Freundlich ( born January 28, 1880 in Charlottenburg, Berlin today, † March 30, 1941 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States ) was a leading basic research in colloid chemistry.

Life

Freundlich's mother Ellen Elizabeth Finlayson was Scottish, his father Friedrich Philipp Ernst friendly conducted an iron foundry in Wiesbaden, where he also grew up. Freundlich was the eldest child of seven siblings. His brother Erwin Finlay Freundlich (1885-1964) was an astrophysicist and director of the Einstein Tower in Potsdam. The mother came from a family of musicians and encouraged Herbert Freundlich, playing music and composing. He also was interested in the wildlife and butterflies, as well as for Greek literature. After graduation in 1898 his piano playing reached almost concert level. He was able to study piano and composition with Max Reger and also played organ. Friendly composer at that time mainly chamber music and songs. Initially played friendly with the idea of ​​becoming a pianist. However, after a meeting with the music teacher Josef Gabriel Rheinberger he decided to studying science, as Rheinberger by a pianist daily eight -hour practice and a lot of traveling and expected of a composer, the quality of a Brahms '.

First he went to Munich in 1898 for a year, then he became a student of the renowned chemist Wilhelm Ostwald in Leipzig. There he completed his habilitation in 1906 in physical and inorganic chemistry. In 1911 he became a professor at the Technical University of Braunschweig. Fritz Haber was aware of the talent of the young scientist and offered him 1916, a staff office at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at Berlin- Dahlem on today the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society. In 1919 he became deputy director of the Institute. From 1923 he also taught as an honorary professor at the University of Berlin and since 1925 also at the Technical College. He was also Board Council in the German Colloid Society.

The transfer of power in 1933, the Nazis began Freundlich successful research activity in Germany to an end. Because of the Jewish origins of his paternal grandmother he was henceforth regarded as " non-Aryans " and fell under § 3 of the " professional civil service law ." As Fritz Haber he refused to dismiss his non-Aryan people, both put their offices and emigrated to England. In December 1933, he his teaching license was revoked. The end of 1933 he accepted the offer of a visiting professor at University College London.

The British and Americans had set up specifically for scientists with professional ban an agency in the link road at Potsdamer Platz. Friendly emigrated with his entire Institute Department to England. The shipment of equipment that had been purchased with money from the Rockefeller Foundation, was not stopped by the Interim Director Otto Hahn. The Rockefeller Foundation gained revenge for 1937 with the financial participation of another physical institute. The commitment of the oil industry in the colloid chemistry is no coincidence, since the viscosity of crude oil, bitumen, tar, etc. is one of the main problems of oil production. The KWI for Physical Chemistry was converted to a military research institute for poison gas research for the umpteenth time by Freundlich's emigration.

To stop the exodus of their best researchers, the German industry sends Privy Max Planck prior to Hitler. The explosive stupidity of his answer was already taking the soon destruction following first: "Yes, what is it because even if Germany for a generation has no time leading physicists. I have received greater things at heart, Lord Privy me is the German racial purity at heart! "

In 1938, Friendly to a professorship at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis American. He died there in 1941 as an uprooted and broken man.

In his honor, dedicated the German Rheological Society their fourth meeting in 1954 in Berlin as Herbert - Friendly Memory Congress, where a Herbert - Friendly Medal to Dr. George Blair was awarded.

Research

Freundlich's area of ​​research covered the entire area of the colloids, in particular interested him the colloidal dispersion states of sols and gels. He introduced the term thixotropy within the meaning of thickening to describe the behavior of gels. The deflection of light scattered by particles was a research topic and also the electric charge, which he believed to be relevant to the scattering behavior of the particles. Further, he explored the properties of viscosity and elasticity, and the behavior of certain materials such as concrete by the action of mechanical forces. A result of these studies has been the development of non-drip paints.

Employee

Two of his graduate students made ​​in other ways off the colloid chemistry talked about:

• Robert Havemann and
• Friedrich Rogowski.

KPD member Havemann became politically active after 1933 in the resistance group " New Beginning " and was in the GDR to a highly respected colloid chemist. Later he made with intra-party criticism headlines and eventually was banned. Contrast Rogowski went through an unobtrusive, traditional science career. But shortly before his retirement, he discovered a trigonometric surveying system from ancient Greece.

Another graduate student was Morton Masius, who later translated the Planck's lectures on the theory of heat radiation into English. He became professor of physics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute ( USA).