- Person
- Richard Willstätter
- Lived
- 1872–1942
- Field
- Organic chemistry
- From
- German
The story
In 1916 Richard Willstätter, newly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, returned to the University of Munich as successor to his old teacher Adolf von Baeyer, in one of the most prestigious chairs in German science. He insisted on a remodelled institute with new laboratories and a large lecture hall, finished in 1920. But after the First World War antisemitism was rising in Munich, feeding the growth of the Nazi party. Right-wing posters declared that no German youth should sit at the feet of a Jewish teacher.
The breaking point came in 1924. The mineralogist Paul von Groth was retiring and had named the eminent geochemist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt, then working in Oslo, as the only person who could replace him. Willstätter backed the appointment, but the faculty refused, and in his view the only reason was that Goldschmidt was Jewish. Goldschmidt later took the chair of mineralogy at Göttingen in 1929.
Willstätter announced his resignation. In a letter to the dean he asked to be released from the Bavarian civil service and said his decision was final. The news caused a great stir. Students and colleagues held demonstrations of sympathy and begged him to stay, and the education minister also expressed confidence in him. The psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin remarked that he should have stayed and thrown everyone else out. Willstätter did not change his mind.
He stayed only long enough to see his students finish their research and to install Heinrich Wieland as his successor, and he left in September 1925. He turned down tempting offers from universities and industry in Germany and abroad, and he carried on research privately from his home, working with his former student Margarete Rohdewald largely by telephone. He remained in Munich until the Gestapo came for him after the November pogrom of 1938, and in March 1939 he emigrated to Switzerland, where he died in 1942.
It was a rare public stand by a leading scientist, made years before most German academics were forced to confront where antisemitism would lead. Today a bust of Willstätter stands in the Hall of Fame at the Bavaria statue on Munich's Theresienwiese, honouring the scientist who gave up his chair on principle.
Why it matters
Willstätter's resignation stands as an example of a scientist sacrificing status and career on principle to oppose discrimination against colleagues.
About Richard Willstätter
Nobel-winning chemist who unravelled chlorophyll and the colours of flowers, refused to convert, resigned his chair in protest at antisemitism and died a refugee in Switzerland.
More about Richard Willstätter
- Richard Willstätter helped explain why carrots are orangeWhile purifying chlorophyll, Richard Willstätter found yellow by-products that turned out to be carotenoids, beginning the scientific study of the pigments in carrots, tomatoes and egg yolks.
- Richard Willstätter decoded the colours of flowersRichard Willstätter discovered that most red, purple and blue flowers owe their colour to three related pigments, and that acidity or alkalinity in the sap helps decide the shade.
- Richard Willstätter discovered chlorophyll a and bAfter studying chlorophyll from more than 200 kinds of plants, Richard Willstätter showed it is always a mix of two pigments, chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b, in a ratio of about three to one.
- Richard Willstätter corrected the structure of cocaineAs a young doctoral student in Munich, Richard Willstätter showed that the accepted chemical structure of cocaine was wrong, launching his career in the chemistry of plant alkaloids.
- Richard Willstätter made a molecule that tested a theoryRichard Willstätter synthesised cyclooctatetraene, a ring of eight carbon atoms, and showed it does not behave like benzene, an important test of ideas about chemical stability.
- Richard Willstätter treated enzymes as chemicalsIn the 1920s Richard Willstätter developed methods to purify enzymes and helped establish that they are chemical substances that can be studied with the tools of chemistry.
- Richard Willstätter built a gas mask filter in five weeksRefusing to work on poison gas, Richard Willstätter instead designed a protective gas mask filter in about five weeks in 1915, shielding soldiers from chlorine and phosgene.
- Richard Willstätter found magnesium at chlorophyll's heartRichard Willstätter showed that magnesium is an essential part of chlorophyll, the green pigment plants use to capture sunlight, work that won him the 1915 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
Sources
- Richard Willstätter Encyclopedia.com
- Richard Willstätter, Great Inventors German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA)
- Richard Willstätter: Biographical NobelPrize.org
Another act of tikkun olam. This is part of tikkun olam, the Jewish idea of repairing the world, and every one of us can add to it.