Karl Ziegler, 26 November 1898 - 11 August 1973

Abstract

It is seldom that the discoveries of a single scientist directly influence the daily life of all of us, but such were those of Karl Ziegler; with his death, chemistry has lost one of its great experimenters and inventors. Ziegler was born in Helsa near Kassel, the son of a Lutheran Minister. He studied chemistry at the University of Marburg, his previous knowledge enabling him to omit the first two semesters, and was awarded his doctorate of philosophy by Karl von Auwers. Three years later he obtained his ‘Habilitation’, and remained at the University of Marburg until 1925 as a lecturer, before he accepted a position at the University of Frankfurt. After a brief stay there he moved in 1926 to the University of Heidelberg, becoming a Professor of Chemistry there in 1927. In 1936, he left Heidelberg to become Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Chemical Institute of the University of Halle-Saale. He served in this capacity for seven years, leaving in 1943 to become Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Coal Research at Mülheim in the Ruhr. From 1947, he simultaneously served as Honorary Professor at the Technical High School in Aachen. On his retirement he was succeeded in the Directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute at Mülheim by his close friend, colleague and collaborator, Professor Gunther Wilke, and he continued to work in the Institute as an Honorary Fellow.