Nobel Prizes

The Dutch scientist Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff studied mathematics at Leiden University and chemistry in Bonn and Paris. He received his doctorate from the University of Utrecht in 1874. From 1896 until his death, he worked as an honorary professor at the University of Berlin and was a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

Van't Hoff is, among other things, the founder of stereochemistry, a branch of science that investigates the spatial arrangement of atoms and groups of atoms within a molecule. In 1901, he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on the laws of chemical dynamics and osmotic pressure.

Emil Fischer came to the Friedrich Wilhelm University in 1892. In 1900, the 1st Chemical Institute was given a new, then ultra-modern building on Hessische Straße, where Fischer was head for almost 30 years. In 1911, he founded the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, the predecessor of the Max Planck Society.

As the founder of biochemistry, Fischer was one of the most important natural product chemists of the 19th and 20th centuries. Fischer carried out fundamental research into the structure, synthesis and reactivity of carbohydrates, amino acids, tannins and uric acid derivatives. He also developed the lock-and-key theory of enzyme action and synthesised glucose, caffeine and barbiturates as sleeping pills.

In 1902, he was the first German chemist to receive the Nobel Prize for his work on sugar and purine. The Institute of Chemistry on the Adlershof campus of Humboldt-Universität, the Emil Fischer House, is named after the chemist.

Eduard Buchner studied chemistry and botany at the University of Munich. This was followed by a lectureship and professorship. He spent the longest part of his career in Berlin, where he taught from 1898 to 1909 at the Berlin Agricultural College, which was incorporated into the university as a faculty in 1934.

Through fermentation experiments with chemically killed yeast cells, Buchner was able to prove that it is not the living yeast cells that are necessary for fermentation, but an enzyme produced by the cells.

In 1907, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his biochemical research and his discovery of cell-free fermentation.

Richard Willstätter had a picture-book career as an organic chemist. 1894 doctorate, 1896 habilitation, 1902 associate professor: all in Munich. In 1912 he joined the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry and at the same time taught at the Friedrich Wilhelm University. He returned to Munich in 1916, where he gave up his professorship in 1924 due to growing anti-Semitism. He later emigrated to Switzerland.

Willstätter's main areas of research included dye chemistry, photosynthesis and enzymes.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1915 for his investigations into the colouring agents in the plant kingdom, particularly chlorophyll.

Fritz Haber studied chemistry in Berlin, Heidelberg and Zurich. In 1906, he became a professor at the University of Berlin, where he was an honorary professor of physical chemistry from 1912 and a full professor of chemistry from 1920. In 1911, he was appointed head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry. He had to vacate his position in 1933 due to his Jewish origins. He emigrated to England.

Haber was the inventor of a method for producing ammonia from nitrogen and hydrogen. The Haber-Bosch process for obtaining reactive nitrogen, developed to application maturity by Carl Bosch, is not only used for fertiliser production, but was also used for the production of chlorine gas and fuelled both world wars.

Haber received the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1918 for the discovery of ammonia synthesis.

Walter Nernst was Professor of Physical Chemistry at Friedrich Wilhelm University from 1905 and also Director of the Institute of Physics from 1925. In the academic year 1921/22 he was rector of the university. From 1924 until his retirement in 1933, Nernst held the Chair of Experimental Physics.

Nernst, the co-founder of modern physical chemistry, was a pioneer in the field of electrochemistry and thermal chemistry. Among other things, he formulated Nernst's distribution theorem in 1890, invented the Nernst lamp named after him in 1897, a precursor to the light bulb, and discovered Nernst's stimulus threshold law in 1899. In 1906, he discovered Nernst's heat theorem, better known as the 3rd law of thermodynamics. In recognition of his thermochemical work, Nernst was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1920.

The chemistry/physics classroom building on the Adlershof science campus of Humboldt University is named Walther Nernst House in his honour.

After professorships in Utrecht, Zurich and Leipzig, Peter Debye was Professor of Physics in Berlin from 1934 to 1940 and Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics and, from 1937, a full member of the Academy of Sciences in Berlin. He emigrated to the USA in 1940.

Debye carried out pioneering work on determining the structure of substances in the solid, liquid and gaseous state. In 1912, he worked on chemistry at very low temperatures and recognised Debye's law. In 1915, together with Paul Scherrer (1890-1969), he developed the Debye-Scherrer method for determining crystal lattices.

In 1936, the physicist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his contributions to crystal physics, quantum theory and dipole theory.

Adolf Butenandt studied chemistry, physics and biology in Marburg and Göttingen. After a professorship in organic chemistry at the Technical University of Danzig (1933-36) and a research stay in the USA on a scholarship from the Rockefeller Foundation, he became head of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Biochemistry in 1936, a position he held until 1972. He was also listed as a member of the NSDAP from 1936. He taught at Berlin University as an honorary professor from 1938 to 1944. In 1939, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on sex hormones (together with Leopold Ružička).

In collaboration with Otmar von Verschuer, Butenandt was involved in racist research, even though historical research has not yet been able to prove his direct complicity in medical crimes. However, it became clear that Butenandt was opposed to the political and moral responsibility of science.

From 1906, the chemist Otto Hahn worked with Emil Fischer at Berlin University, where a "wood workshop" in the Institute of Chemistry became his laboratory. He worked as a private lecturer at the university from 1907 and became an associate professor of physical chemistry in 1910. From 1912, he set up a working group at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry. In 1926 he became director of his own department. In 1917, Hahn and his long-time colleague Lise Meitner discovered protactinium.

From 1934, both researched the irradiation of uranium with neutrons. Their joint work was brought to an end by National Socialism, as Lise Meitner had to flee. Together with Fritz Straßmann (1902-1980), Otto Hahn achieved the first nuclear fission in 1938. Lise Meitner was able to give the first physical interpretation of the process by letter in 1939.

In 1944, Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his discovery of the fission of heavy (uranium) atomic nuclei. He was not able to accept the prize until 1946, after his release from captivity as a prisoner of war.

Otto Diels completed his studies, doctorate and habilitation under Emil Fischer at the Institute of Chemistry at Friedrich Wilhelm University. From 1914 to 1916 he was Associate Professor of Organic Chemistry. He then moved to the University of Kiel.

Diels laid the foundations for a new field of research in chemistry, known as ketene chemistry. He also helped to elucidate the structure of certain chemical substances, steroids, including cholesterol.

He became famous for his discovery of a general principle of chemical reactions, the Diels-Alder reaction, which was later named after him and his student Kurt Alder. Both were awarded the Nobel Prize for this in 1950.

After studying law in Kiel, Theodor Mommsen took up professorships in Leipzig, Zurich and Breslau. In 1858, he joined the Prussian Academy of Sciences, where he was able to realise his long-standing project of compiling a collection of all Latin inscriptions, the Corpus inscriptionum Latinarum. In 1861, he also took over the chair of Roman antiquity at the University of Berlin. He worked at the university, of which he was rector in 1874/75, for over forty years until his death in 1903. The scholarly but also politically active Mommsen is known to a broad public through his "Roman History", which was published in four volumes. In 1902, he was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Literature for his source editions and work on Roman history and legal history. There is a monument in honour of the ancient historian and jurist in the courtyard of honour in front of the west wing of the main building.

The bacteriologist and serologist Emil von Behring received his medical training at the Berlin military medical institute, the "Pépinière". He received his doctorate from the University of Berlin in 1878. After various military medical posts, he joined Robert Koch's Institute for Infectious Diseases as an assistant in 1889. After only a short time, he was able to achieve success in the fight against diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus. Due to his research work on diphtheria, which killed almost every second child at the time, and his scientific successes in this field, he was dubbed the "saviour of children" for a long time. In 1901, he was awarded the first Nobel Prize in Medicine for the development of diphtheria serum.

The physician and microbiologist Robert Koch discovered the tuberculosis pathogen in 1882. Koch was the first physician to succeed in identifying a disease-causing microorganism. From 1880, Koch worked at the Imperial Health Department in Berlin. In 1885, he was appointed Professor of Internal Medicine and Hygiene at the Medical Faculty of Berlin University, in a chair set up especially for him. He was also head of the Institute of Hygiene and, from 1891, head of the newly founded Institute of Infectious Diseases. Koch, who also discovered the anthrax and cholera pathogens, is the founder of modern bacteriology and clinical infectiology, as well as partly of tropical medicine. In 1905, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his discovery of the pathogens that cause various infectious diseases.

The chemist, physician, serologist and immunologist Paul Ehrlich is considered the founder of chemotherapy. After studying medicine, he continued his clinical training in Berlin at the Charité. He worked at the Charité from 1878 to 1887, first as an assistant physician and later as a senior physician. In 1891, Robert Koch appointed him to the newly founded Institute for Infectious Diseases. In 1899, Ehrlich moved to Frankfurt am Main. Ehrlich was the first to develop a drug treatment for syphilis and was also involved in the development of a serum against diphtheria. In 1908, he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine - together with the Russian Ilya Metschnikoff - in recognition of their work on immunity.

From 1883, the physician and physiologist Albrecht Kossel was head of the Chemistry Department of the Physiological Institute at the Medical Faculty of Berlin University, where he was appointed associate professor in 1887. Almost ten years later, he accepted a professorship at the University of Marburg. Albrecht Kossel's field of work was physiological chemistry, in particular the chemistry of tissues and cells. In 1910, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on cell chemistry.

Otto Warburg was a biochemist, physician and physiologist. He obtained his doctorate under Emil Fischer at the University of Berlin and completed his medical studies in Heidelberg with a doctorate. In 1918, he was appointed head of the Department of Physiology at the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Biology in Berlin-Dahlem. From 1921 to 1923, he also held an extraordinary professorship for physiology at the Medical Faculty of Friedrich Wilhelm University. In the course of the differentiation of scientific disciplines, the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Cell Physiology was opened in 1930, of which Warburg became director and remained so until 1967. His scientific contributions included the photosynthesis of plants and the metabolism of tumours. He deciphered the mechanism of cellular respiration, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1931.

In 1914, the biologist Hans Spemann joined the newly founded Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Biology in Berlin-Dahlem and took over the Department of Animal Developmental Mechanics. At the same time, he was appointed Honorary Professor of Zoology at the Friedrich Wilhelm University. His main area of research was the early embryonic stage of various newt and frog species. Spemann carried out the first important experiments on cell division as early as 1902. For example, he succeeded in separating the two cells of the two-cell stage of a salamander, thereby artificially producing twins. In 1919, he moved to the University of Freiburg. In 1935, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for his work on experimental developmental physiology.

Werner Forßmann is known for his self-experiment with cardiac catheterisation. After studying medicine and completing his doctorate at Berlin University, he worked at a small clinic in Eberswalde. In 1929, after patient attempts had been rejected, the 25-year-old inserted a rubber tube from the arm vein to the right ventricle and documented this with an X-ray. However, this spectacular experiment met with little response from experts. Professor Sauerbruch from the Charité, where Forßmann's new place of work was, also thought little of the experiment. The method of diagnosing heart disease with a catheter was not taken up by American scientists until ten years later. In late recognition of his work, Forßmann received the Nobel Prize for Medicine on 18 October 1956 - together with Andrè Frédéric Cournand and Dickinson Woodruff Richards. The prize was awarded for her discoveries on cardiac catheterisation and pathological changes in the circulatory system. In 1977, Forßmann received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Medicine at Humboldt-Universität.

Wilhelm Wien studied mathematics and natural sciences in Göttingen and continued his studies with mathematics and physics in Berlin: from 1883 to 1885 he worked at the laboratory of Hermann von Helmholtz and obtained his doctorate in 1886. In 1892 he habilitated at the University of Berlin, but left to take up a professorship in Aachen. Wien thought about the relationship between the maximum intensity of radiation and the temperature of the radiator. In 1893/94 he formulated the displacement law named after him and in 1896 Wien's radiation law. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1911 for his research in this field.

Max von Laue studied physics at several universities, including Berlin. In 1903, he completed his doctorate under Max Planck at Berlin University, followed three years later by his habilitation and his work as a private lecturer in Berlin until he moved to Munich in 1909. In 1919, he returned to Berlin University as a professor and began working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics. In 1912, together with Walter Friedrich and Paul Knipping, von Laue discovered the diffraction of X-rays on crystals. This explained both the wave character of X-rays and the lattice structure of crystals. In 1914, von Laue was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work.

While studying physics, Max Planck spent a year in Berlin in 1878/79, where he listened to Hermann von Helmholtz and Gustav Kirchhoff. Ten years later, in 1889, he was appointed Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics at Friedrich Wilhelm University. Three years later, he was awarded the Chair of Theoretical Physics. In 1913/14 he was appointed rector. Even after his retirement in 1926, he remained actively associated with the university for almost ten years. Planck is considered the founder of quantum theory. He discovered that energy is not emitted from a body at regular intervals, but in bursts, the quanta. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 for this quantum of action named after him. A memorial in the courtyard of honour in front of the west wing of the main university building commemorates the outstanding physicist.

In 1914, Max Planck succeeded in recruiting Albert Einstein as a member of the Prussian Academy of Sciences in Berlin, and on 1 April 1914 he was appointed Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Physics. From the summer semester of 1915 to the winter semester of 1928/29, he lectured at Berlin University. Einstein's main work, the theory of relativity, revolutionised the understanding of space and time. His work entitled "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies" was published in 1905. In Berlin, Einstein found time and peace to finish his great work. He was able to publish it in 1916, together with a paper on the Einstein-de Haas effect. For his work on the photoelectric effect, which he had also published in 1905, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1921.

Gustav Hertz studied physics in Göttingen, Munich and Berlin, specialising in the newly developing field of quantum mechanics. Between 1909 and 1911, he completed his doctorate under Heinrich Rubens at the University of Berlin and became an assistant at the Institute of Physics, where he worked until 1925. This was followed by a brief interlude in Halle and then a professorship at the TH Charlottenburg, which he resigned from in 1935 due to the National Socialist racial laws. In Berlin, Hertz studied the effect of electron collisions on atoms together with James Franck. In 1925, the two scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the Franck-Hertz experiment.

James Franck studied in Berlin and obtained his doctorate there under Emil Warburg, qualifying as a professor in 1911. It was during this time that he began his collaboration with Gustav Hertz at the Institute of Physics at Friedrich Wilhelm University. After just two years of research, it led to a spectacular result. In 1913, the physicists carried out collision experiments between electrons and atoms and made the discovery, important for the development of quantum theory, that (mercury) atoms in their ground state cannot absorb energy below a certain threshold. Both scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1925 for their discovery of these laws.

The physicist Werner Heisenberg completed his studies in Munich in the minimum period of three years and was appointed to the University of Leipzig in 1927 at the age of just 26. From 1942 to 1945, he headed the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics in Berlin-Dahlem and also taught as a professor at Berlin University. He played a leading role in the Army Weapons Office's uranium project, which some colleagues later criticised. Heisenberg had already been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1932 for the principle of indeterminacy named after him, also known as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. With this principle, Heisenberg formulated a fundamental statement of quantum mechanics, namely that the position and momentum of a particle can never be measured simultaneously.

After working as a professor in Breslau, Jena and Zurich, the Viennese physicist Erwin Schrödinger accepted a position at Berlin University in 1927 and became Max Planck's successor in the Chair of Theoretical Physics. Schrödinger is known for the wave mechanics he founded in 1926. He introduced the wave properties of electrons into the existing atomic models and developed a differential equation to describe electrons in atoms, the Schrödinger equation. The co-founder of quantum mechanics resigned from his position in Berlin in 1933 in protest against the National Socialists and moved to England. Immediately after his arrival in Oxford in October 1933, Schrödinger received the news that he and Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac had been awarded the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics in recognition of their discovery and application of new formulations of atomic theory. The Humboldt Universitäts Information and Communication Centre on the natural sciences campus in Adlershof is named the Erwin Schrödinger Centre in his honour.

The experimental physicist Walther Bothe studied physics at Berlin University from 1908 to 1912 and a year later became an assistant at the Physics Institute of the Berlin Agricultural College, before moving to the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt. In 1925 he habilitated under Max Planck and became an associate professor at the University of Berlin. In 1929 he moved to Giessen. Bothe's work was an important contribution to the foundation of modern nuclear physics, which deals with the structure and behaviour of atomic nuclei. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 for the development of the coincidence method and the discoveries made with it.

From 1901, Max Born studied law and moral philosophy in Breslau, Heidelberg, Zurich, Cambridge and Göttingen, and later mathematics, physics and astronomy. He gained his doctorate in Göttingen in 1906, where he was initially a private lecturer. He then became an associate professor of theoretical physics at the University of Berlin, where he worked with Max Planck, Albert Einstein and Walther Nernst. In 1919, he was awarded his first professorship in Frankfurt am Main.

Born worked on the foundations of quantum mechanics, which is used to describe processes in the atomic and subatomic range. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1954 for this research.