Adv Polym Sci (2013) 261: 39–52
DOI: 10.1007/12_2013_272
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Published online: 6 November 2013
Hermann Staudinger: Aspects of Fame
and Memory, Motivation and Impact
Gerhard Wegner
Abstract This article searches for the origins of the concepts and scope of macromolecular science in the context of the time before and after World War I. Although
Hermann Staudinger’s contributions to the fundamentals of polymer science were
honored by a Nobel-Prize in 1953, an appropriate scientific community was only
slowly coming to life, mainly stimulated by the needs of an explosively growing
plastics (“polymer”) industry, which could only evolve once the fundamentals had
been laid down. The lack of this scientific community explains the surprisingly small
impact that Staudinger’s work on macromolecules found among his contemporaries in
the community of organic chemists, in which he holds a firm place for his work on
organic synthesis.
Keywords Hermann Franz Mark Á Hermann Staudinger Á History of polymer
science Á I.G. Farben Industries
Contents
1 How a House Got a Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2 The Birth of a Concept: Motivation, Reception, and Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
G. Wegner (*)
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany
e-mail: wegner@mpip-mainz.mpg.de
DOI: 10.1007/12_2013_272
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Published online: 6 November 2013
Hermann Staudinger: Aspects of Fame
and Memory, Motivation and Impact
Gerhard Wegner
Abstract This article searches for the origins of the concepts and scope of macromolecular science in the context of the time before and after World War I. Although
Hermann Staudinger’s contributions to the fundamentals of polymer science were
honored by a Nobel-Prize in 1953, an appropriate scientific community was only
slowly coming to life, mainly stimulated by the needs of an explosively growing
plastics (“polymer”) industry, which could only evolve once the fundamentals had
been laid down. The lack of this scientific community explains the surprisingly small
impact that Staudinger’s work on macromolecules found among his contemporaries in
the community of organic chemists, in which he holds a firm place for his work on
organic synthesis.
Keywords Hermann Franz Mark Á Hermann Staudinger Á History of polymer
science Á I.G. Farben Industries
Contents
1 How a House Got a Name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2 The Birth of a Concept: Motivation, Reception, and Impact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
G. Wegner (*)
Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128 Mainz, Germany
e-mail: wegner@mpip-mainz.mpg.de