your trip you mention that you saw an elephant 20 m high and 50 m long. Who
would believe you? Why don’t you stick to your trade?” This “argument” is topped
by the one of another renowned chemist who attended a lecture of Hermann
Staudinger in Munich 1935. He sat right behind the student Wilhelm Fresenius
(who later became the rector of my university) who heard him saying: “What is this
guy after with his sausage molecules?” Coming back to Herman Mark: There are a
few more joint moments to remember and they all shed light on his remarkable and
unusually open-minded personality.
I am sure that it was not only me to whom he told the story how he, as a man
with a Jewish family background, managed to bring part of his money to Canada
when he had to leave Europe. Yet, I tell students to back up my opinion that it is
always enriching to study chemistry. Teaching chemistry is about matter,
structure–property relationships and also about the economic value of scientific
achievements. “In 1938, he began preparing to leave Austria by clandestinely
buying platinum wire, which he bent into coat hangers while his wife knitted
covers so that the hangers could be taken out of the country. Mark’s son Hans
estimates that the value of the platinum was roughly $50,000, a lot of money in
the 1930s” (http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/
landmarks/polymerresearchinstitute/polmyer-research-institute-at-nyu-poly-histori
cal-resource.pdf. Accessed 26 August 2013).
Another emotional moment with Hermann Mark: In 1979 he attended the
IUPAC symposium in Mainz. After the meeting, I accompanied him to Mainz
train station. While waiting for the train, he had a tea, some toast and a baked
camembert cheese with lingonberry marmalade. We chatted about the symposium
and his next trips. Hermann Mark was not in good mood, he looked sorrowful. The
next day, I learnt from Helmut Ringsdorf that Mark had been sitting alone and
looking sadly in the conference hall, sipping tea, when Ringsdorf approached him
and asked: “Geheimrat, why are you sitting here so sad and lost?” He answered:
“Helmut, my son is about to die of cancer, back home – and I am here. What could
I do? I am here only to survive. Sitting at his bed, being unable to talk to him, I felt
my life running out. Please, sit down and let’s have a cup of tea together.” Coming
home, Herman Mark could still be with his son for several days.
In 1981 – I had just finished my Ph.D. – I had the chance to visit the famous
“Brooklyn Poly” in connection with a meeting in Atlanta. Hermann Mark and
Herbert Morawetz were sitting in their offices, crammed full with books, molecular
models, journals and laboratory equipment – a working place. We shared a tea and
some burnt toast. Herman Mark’s equanimity and his constant friendly openmindedness towards everybody, including youngsters like me, impressed and
touched me. I can never teach my students the Mark–Houwink equation without
mentioning who he was, what he had to live through and how he mastered this.
A good source of Hermann Mark’s own view of polymer history is one of his papers
“Aus den fru ¨hen Tagen der makromolekularen Chemie” [3].
As a teacher of polymer chemistry at Hochschule Fresenius since 1987, I always
included a lecture devoted to the history of polymer chemistry [4]. I tried to present the
conflicting theories of macromolecules and micelles and the arguments of their
8
H. Ringsdorf
would believe you? Why don’t you stick to your trade?” This “argument” is topped
by the one of another renowned chemist who attended a lecture of Hermann
Staudinger in Munich 1935. He sat right behind the student Wilhelm Fresenius
(who later became the rector of my university) who heard him saying: “What is this
guy after with his sausage molecules?” Coming back to Herman Mark: There are a
few more joint moments to remember and they all shed light on his remarkable and
unusually open-minded personality.
I am sure that it was not only me to whom he told the story how he, as a man
with a Jewish family background, managed to bring part of his money to Canada
when he had to leave Europe. Yet, I tell students to back up my opinion that it is
always enriching to study chemistry. Teaching chemistry is about matter,
structure–property relationships and also about the economic value of scientific
achievements. “In 1938, he began preparing to leave Austria by clandestinely
buying platinum wire, which he bent into coat hangers while his wife knitted
covers so that the hangers could be taken out of the country. Mark’s son Hans
estimates that the value of the platinum was roughly $50,000, a lot of money in
the 1930s” (http://www.acs.org/content/dam/acsorg/education/whatischemistry/
landmarks/polymerresearchinstitute/polmyer-research-institute-at-nyu-poly-histori
cal-resource.pdf. Accessed 26 August 2013).
Another emotional moment with Hermann Mark: In 1979 he attended the
IUPAC symposium in Mainz. After the meeting, I accompanied him to Mainz
train station. While waiting for the train, he had a tea, some toast and a baked
camembert cheese with lingonberry marmalade. We chatted about the symposium
and his next trips. Hermann Mark was not in good mood, he looked sorrowful. The
next day, I learnt from Helmut Ringsdorf that Mark had been sitting alone and
looking sadly in the conference hall, sipping tea, when Ringsdorf approached him
and asked: “Geheimrat, why are you sitting here so sad and lost?” He answered:
“Helmut, my son is about to die of cancer, back home – and I am here. What could
I do? I am here only to survive. Sitting at his bed, being unable to talk to him, I felt
my life running out. Please, sit down and let’s have a cup of tea together.” Coming
home, Herman Mark could still be with his son for several days.
In 1981 – I had just finished my Ph.D. – I had the chance to visit the famous
“Brooklyn Poly” in connection with a meeting in Atlanta. Hermann Mark and
Herbert Morawetz were sitting in their offices, crammed full with books, molecular
models, journals and laboratory equipment – a working place. We shared a tea and
some burnt toast. Herman Mark’s equanimity and his constant friendly openmindedness towards everybody, including youngsters like me, impressed and
touched me. I can never teach my students the Mark–Houwink equation without
mentioning who he was, what he had to live through and how he mastered this.
A good source of Hermann Mark’s own view of polymer history is one of his papers
“Aus den fru ¨hen Tagen der makromolekularen Chemie” [3].
As a teacher of polymer chemistry at Hochschule Fresenius since 1987, I always
included a lecture devoted to the history of polymer chemistry [4]. I tried to present the
conflicting theories of macromolecules and micelles and the arguments of their
8
H. Ringsdorf