death in 1965 and focusses on the Nobel Prize. The colourful reports published by
daily newspapers are included here for the first time.
Freiburg, Lugostrasse 14, on 5 November 1953, shortly after 8 a.m.: the man of
the house and his wife were still in bed this Thursday morning, so the cleaning lady
took it on herself to accept the telegram from Stockholm. What it said in a brief but
clear message was:
The Royal Academy of Sciences has awarded you the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Letter will
follow – Westgren, secretary (cf. [40], p. 24, and [41]).
The telegram was addressed to Prof. Dr. phil. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Dr. rer. nat. E. h.
Hermann Staudinger. It was not at all unusual for the Nobel committee to opt for a
chemist from Germany that year, because this honour had already been given to
19 other representatives of this subject who were German nationals before Staudinger,
although only two of them had been chosen since the Hitler dictatorship and the end
of the war (Otto Diels, 1876–1954, and Kurt Alder, 1902–1958) (cf. [42]). What is
more unusual is that Staudinger had dual nationality, so that he can be counted as both
a German and a Swiss winner of the Nobel Prize. What is most unusual, however, is
the fact that Staudinger received the prize as a 72-year-old retired professor for what
he had proposed as a 39-year-old and had proved soon afterwards – the existence of
“giant molecules” (macromolecules). With this groundbreaking concept, Staudinger
revolutionised polymer and plastics chemistry in the 1920s and 1930s, against
stubborn resistance (see Sect. 2: “1920–1932”). The Wochenend newspaper that
appeared in Nuremberg wrote:
The professor has demonstrated in his research that the most important natural products
consist of particles (molecules) of unusual size and that they are composed of numerous
(often millions) of atoms. The model for the technology to imitate and even reproduce these
natural products was available as a result. [41]
An achievement that definitely deserved the Nobel Prize: “The outstanding
university professor Dr Hermann Staudinger was already honoured indirectly
quite a long time ago, when two of his former pupils received the Nobel Prize,
i.e. Professor Dr (Leopold, editor’s note) Ruzicka (1887–1976, chemistry, editor’s
note) in 1939 and Professor Dr (Tadeus, editor’s note) Reichstein (1897–1996,
medicine, editor’s note) in 1950”, the Du ¨sseldorf publication Der Fortschritt
remembers [42]. Staudinger shared the fate of many scholars, especially natural
scientists, all the same: “He was famous in the scientific community, but was
practically unknown to a broader public”, as the Radio Revue from West Berlin
stated when the Nobel Prize was presented to Staudinger. It is a telling fact that the
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper (WAZ) gave him the wrong first name
in its article of 6 November 1953: instead of Hermann, Franz was celebrated as
being the winner of the Nobel Prize. That was the name of Staudinger’s father, who
had died as long ago as 1921. Journalists concluded in 1953 that Staudinger was
largely unknown and asked the following questions:
How many of the pretty young girls and women who draw particular attention to their
attractive legs by wearing nylon or perlon stockings, how many of the car drivers whose
vehicles are fitted with tyres made of synthetic rubber and how many of the people who sell
Courageous Questioning of Established Thinking: The Life and Work of Hermann. . .
125
daily newspapers are included here for the first time.
Freiburg, Lugostrasse 14, on 5 November 1953, shortly after 8 a.m.: the man of
the house and his wife were still in bed this Thursday morning, so the cleaning lady
took it on herself to accept the telegram from Stockholm. What it said in a brief but
clear message was:
The Royal Academy of Sciences has awarded you the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Letter will
follow – Westgren, secretary (cf. [40], p. 24, and [41]).
The telegram was addressed to Prof. Dr. phil. Dr.-Ing. E. h. Dr. rer. nat. E. h.
Hermann Staudinger. It was not at all unusual for the Nobel committee to opt for a
chemist from Germany that year, because this honour had already been given to
19 other representatives of this subject who were German nationals before Staudinger,
although only two of them had been chosen since the Hitler dictatorship and the end
of the war (Otto Diels, 1876–1954, and Kurt Alder, 1902–1958) (cf. [42]). What is
more unusual is that Staudinger had dual nationality, so that he can be counted as both
a German and a Swiss winner of the Nobel Prize. What is most unusual, however, is
the fact that Staudinger received the prize as a 72-year-old retired professor for what
he had proposed as a 39-year-old and had proved soon afterwards – the existence of
“giant molecules” (macromolecules). With this groundbreaking concept, Staudinger
revolutionised polymer and plastics chemistry in the 1920s and 1930s, against
stubborn resistance (see Sect. 2: “1920–1932”). The Wochenend newspaper that
appeared in Nuremberg wrote:
The professor has demonstrated in his research that the most important natural products
consist of particles (molecules) of unusual size and that they are composed of numerous
(often millions) of atoms. The model for the technology to imitate and even reproduce these
natural products was available as a result. [41]
An achievement that definitely deserved the Nobel Prize: “The outstanding
university professor Dr Hermann Staudinger was already honoured indirectly
quite a long time ago, when two of his former pupils received the Nobel Prize,
i.e. Professor Dr (Leopold, editor’s note) Ruzicka (1887–1976, chemistry, editor’s
note) in 1939 and Professor Dr (Tadeus, editor’s note) Reichstein (1897–1996,
medicine, editor’s note) in 1950”, the Du ¨sseldorf publication Der Fortschritt
remembers [42]. Staudinger shared the fate of many scholars, especially natural
scientists, all the same: “He was famous in the scientific community, but was
practically unknown to a broader public”, as the Radio Revue from West Berlin
stated when the Nobel Prize was presented to Staudinger. It is a telling fact that the
Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper (WAZ) gave him the wrong first name
in its article of 6 November 1953: instead of Hermann, Franz was celebrated as
being the winner of the Nobel Prize. That was the name of Staudinger’s father, who
had died as long ago as 1921. Journalists concluded in 1953 that Staudinger was
largely unknown and asked the following questions:
How many of the pretty young girls and women who draw particular attention to their
attractive legs by wearing nylon or perlon stockings, how many of the car drivers whose
vehicles are fitted with tyres made of synthetic rubber and how many of the people who sell
Courageous Questioning of Established Thinking: The Life and Work of Hermann. . .
125