essay about Hermann Staudinger was not written at all to stress and summarize his
research areas and scientific successes. The paper was written to look behind the
curtain of science, to look at the acting personalities, functioning in very different
historical periods. For many of us being able to do research and teach in more
peaceful times, we have sometimes to be reminded of the tense backdrop against
which everyone carried out research and taught in the 1920s and 1930s and not
forget two world wars: science as an alliance of scientific objectivity and direct
involvement in socio-political responsibilities. These were the critical time periods
that scientists like Staudinger and Haber had to work and to live in.
But all this happened about 100 years ago! Sure, but aren’t we writing a special
issue reporting about Staudinger’s scientific results and their consequences for
modern science? Isn’t there as much to learn from the way these “historical
personalities” handled science and life in conflicting scientific and socio-political
situations? If I had been asked to re-write the Angewandte Chemie 2004 essay,
I probably would only have changed a few words and I may have added a subtitle
such as “Hermann Staudinger between two world wars and between two women”
(see Sect. 3.5).
3.3 When and Why did Hermann Staudinger Step into
Polymer Science? A Matter of Opinion? Sure,
Especially After 100 Years!
To predict the future is mostly like reading tea leaves. And to do this even for past
events may in addition be snow from yesterday. Nevertheless, it is from time to time
fun to look back and read and think about “old stories” – especially if one can cite
“the master” as witness. There is a pretty logical road from Hermann Staudinger’s
fascination for synthetically oriented research to his beloved macromolecules:
analytical chemistry as the basic concept to know what you have in your hands.
We all know that the “hot phase” of his fight for macromolecules started with
three papers in 1920, 1922 and 1924: “U ¨ ber Polymerisation” [9], “U ¨ ber die
Hydrierung des Kautschuks” [10] (with the first definition of macromolecules as
primary valence chain systems), and “U ¨ ber die Konstitution des Kautschuks”
[11]. This was many years after his interest in terpenoid hydrocarbons had pulled
him into the synthesis of isoprene. The pyrolysis of these systems yielded isoprene
[12]. Because isoprene was obtainable by this procedure on an industrial scale, a
patent was applied for in 1910 [13] and taken over by BASF (Ludwigshafen). They
reported in 1914 on the industrial polymerization of isoprene into rubber [14]. In
praise of the purity of his isoprene, Staudinger wrote in the paper with Klever
[12]. “. . .. it contains only small amounts of trimethyl-ethylene as was determined
through its conversion into rubber”. Polymerization as proof of purity! How this
was determined he failed to mention in his article. The first Ph.D. thesis in
Staudinger’s group about polymerization [15] is mentioned in 1913 (Karlsruhe)
although still together with the auto-oxidation of olefins – one of his main topics in
A Moment of Reflection: Sixty Years After the Nobel Prize for Hermann Staudinger
11
research areas and scientific successes. The paper was written to look behind the
curtain of science, to look at the acting personalities, functioning in very different
historical periods. For many of us being able to do research and teach in more
peaceful times, we have sometimes to be reminded of the tense backdrop against
which everyone carried out research and taught in the 1920s and 1930s and not
forget two world wars: science as an alliance of scientific objectivity and direct
involvement in socio-political responsibilities. These were the critical time periods
that scientists like Staudinger and Haber had to work and to live in.
But all this happened about 100 years ago! Sure, but aren’t we writing a special
issue reporting about Staudinger’s scientific results and their consequences for
modern science? Isn’t there as much to learn from the way these “historical
personalities” handled science and life in conflicting scientific and socio-political
situations? If I had been asked to re-write the Angewandte Chemie 2004 essay,
I probably would only have changed a few words and I may have added a subtitle
such as “Hermann Staudinger between two world wars and between two women”
(see Sect. 3.5).
3.3 When and Why did Hermann Staudinger Step into
Polymer Science? A Matter of Opinion? Sure,
Especially After 100 Years!
To predict the future is mostly like reading tea leaves. And to do this even for past
events may in addition be snow from yesterday. Nevertheless, it is from time to time
fun to look back and read and think about “old stories” – especially if one can cite
“the master” as witness. There is a pretty logical road from Hermann Staudinger’s
fascination for synthetically oriented research to his beloved macromolecules:
analytical chemistry as the basic concept to know what you have in your hands.
We all know that the “hot phase” of his fight for macromolecules started with
three papers in 1920, 1922 and 1924: “U ¨ ber Polymerisation” [9], “U ¨ ber die
Hydrierung des Kautschuks” [10] (with the first definition of macromolecules as
primary valence chain systems), and “U ¨ ber die Konstitution des Kautschuks”
[11]. This was many years after his interest in terpenoid hydrocarbons had pulled
him into the synthesis of isoprene. The pyrolysis of these systems yielded isoprene
[12]. Because isoprene was obtainable by this procedure on an industrial scale, a
patent was applied for in 1910 [13] and taken over by BASF (Ludwigshafen). They
reported in 1914 on the industrial polymerization of isoprene into rubber [14]. In
praise of the purity of his isoprene, Staudinger wrote in the paper with Klever
[12]. “. . .. it contains only small amounts of trimethyl-ethylene as was determined
through its conversion into rubber”. Polymerization as proof of purity! How this
was determined he failed to mention in his article. The first Ph.D. thesis in
Staudinger’s group about polymerization [15] is mentioned in 1913 (Karlsruhe)
although still together with the auto-oxidation of olefins – one of his main topics in
A Moment of Reflection: Sixty Years After the Nobel Prize for Hermann Staudinger
11