Ludwig Darmstaedter
Ludwig Darmstaedter ( born August 9, 1846 in Mannheim, † October 18, 1927 in Berlin) was a German chemist and science historian. He put on an extensive collection of autographs and correspondence primarily by scholars of science. It forms an essential basis of the Manuscript Department of the Berlin State Library. For this he was appointed honorary director there. He also founded the Association of Friends of the Royal Library in 1914.
Life
He was born into a Jewish merchant family in Mannheim and had in childhood multiple inclinations for collecting and hiking in the nature with which he was closely connected. Beginning in 1864, he went to Heidelberg and studied at the mineralogist Johann Reinhard Blum.
But then he turned to studying chemistry and studied with Robert Wilhelm Bunsen and Emil Erlenmeyer. In 1867 he received his doctorate, then went to Leipzig to continue his studies with Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe. He then moved to Carl Hermann Wichelhaus (1842-1927) to enroll in his private laboratory to participate in work and studies that dealt with the alkali fusion of sulphonic acids.
In this time he wrote several publications in the field of organic chemistry. He lingered a few years to as " wandering years " abroad. In Berlin, he worked together with chemist Benno Jaffe (1840-1923) on problems of industrial glycerol extraction and its partners in the company Dr. Benno Jaffe & Darmstaedter. From the year 1884, the manufacturing to the preparation of pure lanolin is expanded, which is from 1890 shiny proven.
His particular interest was the history of the natural sciences. As a historian of science Darmstaedter wrote, inter alia, a standard work of history of science and technology.
He put on until 1906, an extensive collection of autographs, manuscripts, discounts, diaries, lecture notes and collectibles from china, mainly by scholars of science and technology. His inclinations to travel to other countries in Europe were dedicated to 1894 and mountaineering in the Alps.
In 1904 he published with René du Bois- Reymond ( 1863-1936 ) a collection of tables in the history of the exact sciences than 4000 years of pioneering work in the exact sciences. This work appeared in 1908 in a second edition under the title Handbook on the History of Science and Technology, in which the chronology of the development of scientific knowledge was shown.
When in 1907 his collection reached the stock of 23,000 documents and 9,000 names from the 15th century until 1900, he handed this collection of the Royal Library, Berlin State Library today. The collection Darmstaedter where it forms an important part of the collection of autographs. Wilhelm Doegen had from 1917 with the help and financial support of Darmstaedter built up a collection of portraits of famous personalities who served as a complement to the collection of autographs. These he gave on 22 March 1914, the Royal Library.
With the components of the Royal Prussian Phonographic Commission this collection was summarized in 1920 the new sound department of the Prussian State Library. Work on this was continued until 1944.
On 26 February 1914 he founded the Association of Friends of the Royal Library, whose work lasted until 1940 and was disbanded in 1945.
From 1907 until 1926 he worked every day in the Royal Library to catalog his collection, processing and zoom. He also wrote numerous biographical essays, which were published in the daily press. In 1926 he published the font Biographical miniatures, which dealt with the portraits of fifty scientists and inventors from the 16th to the 19th century. His latest release, dedicated to chemistry historian Marcellin Berthelot, was published in the Vossische newspaper in October 1927.
In the twenties, the turmoil spilled over to the financial support of Darmstaedter at the University of Frankfurt and the other collections. Since 1920, he got into his activities to the further construction of the collections the help of the botanist and Library Board Dr. Julius Schuster. Inflation forced Darmstaedter in 1924 to request the Prussian Ministry of Culture therefore, to relieve him from his commitments. His porcelain collection he made for these purposes auction in 1925. Nevertheless, the Jewish collectors still found many supporters, who provided him funds, including the Minister of Science, Culture and Public Education Carl Heinrich Becker.
At the end of his work, which was connected in the state library with an ever growing interest for the use of the collected documents and research, the collection had reached a volume of 190,000 documents and 45,000 names and thus became the largest autograph collection in the State Library. In recognition, he was therefore appointed honorary director there. With the physician Paul Ehrlich, he was joined by his brother's wife Franska Speyer, the research Ehrlich supported substantially at the request of Darmstaedter through financial means.
The name Ludwig Darmstaedters lives beyond further in the title of one of the most prestigious and highest prizes for medicine and natural sciences, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize, by the Paul Ehrlich Foundation in collaboration with the Johann Wolfgang Goethe- University in Frankfurt am Main and private donors for international excellence in the border area of chemistry and medicine is given.
Ludwig Darmstaedters final resting place is located in the Old Cemetery of the Twelve Apostles Community of Berlin ( honorary grave of Berlin ).
His nephew Ernst Darmstaedter (1877-1939), a chemist, and devoted himself in Munich as a private scholar of the history of the natural sciences and medicine (including Georg Agricola, Paracelsus ).
Writings
- L.Darmstaedter and R.du Bois -Raymond: 4000 years of pioneering work in the exact sciences ( by year ), Berlin, 1904, online at archive.org; - 2nd Edition: Handbook on the History of Science and Technology. Berlin 1908
- Ludwig Darmstaedter: Royal Library in Berlin. List of autograph collection. Berlin 1909.