Emil Fischer Age, Death, Wife, Family, Biography & more

 

Some Lesser Known Facts About Emil Fischer

• After finishing high school in 1869, Emil Fischer worked at his father’s business and helped him in solving chemistry-related problems in brewing and dye-making.

• After attending the classes of August Kekule at the University of Bonn for a year, he transferred to the University of Strasbourg in 1872.

• Before leaving for the University of Bonn, he suffered from attacks of gastritis due to which he had to take a year-long leave at the age of eighteen. He even had to refuse an offer to take the Chair of Chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich because of the attacks.

• During his time at the University of Bonn, he was disappointed with the analytical chemistry lessons, and he decided to transfer to the University of Strasbourg for further studies.

• He worked as an assistant instructor at Strasbourg University in 1874.

• Emil Fischer became an assistant to Adolf Von Baeyer in 1875 at the University of Munich, where Baeyer was called to succeed Liebig. He worked with his cousin Otto Fischer and proposed a new theory on the constitution of triphenyl-methane dyes experimentally during his time in Munich.

• He qualified to be Privatdozent in Munich in 1878. He was appointed as the associate professor of analytical chemistry in 1879.
  

  Emil Fischer sitting third from right in 1878

• He was called for the Chair of Chemistry at Aachen in 1879, but he declined the offer.

• He was offered the position of scientific director in 1883, but he declined the lucrative offer because of his passion for academics

• Fischer was appointed at the University of Erlangen to replace Jacob Volhard, a German chemist, in 1881. He worked there for seven years. In 1888, he was appointed as the professor of chemistry at the University of Würzburg.
  

  Emil Fischer’s private laboratory in Würzburg, 1889

• He proved his excellence when he successfully prepared glucose, fructose, and mannose from glycerol in 1890. He also determined the stereochemical configuration of all the known sugars in the next four years.

• In 1892, he was called to the University of Berlin to succeed A. W. Hofmann as the Chair of Chemistry. He worked in Berlin until his death.
  

  Emil Fischer at the University of Berlin

• He enjoyed walking among the grassy hills at Würzburg. He also frequently spent his time in the black forest in southwest Germany, bordering France, as he was keen on hiking.

• Emil Fischer discovered the lock-and-key principle, an important study of glucosides, which he had prepared by methylation of glucose, exhibiting perfect specificity to enzymes in hydrolysis in 1894.

• He also studied and worked on other areas of research such as the enzymes and the analysis of lichens, which he found during his hikes in the Black Forest, esterification studies, and experimental verification of tetrahedral asymmetry of carbon and substances used in tanning.

• Some prominent chemists from Berlin including Emil Fischer wanted to develop an institute dedicated to research in chemistry; the Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute was built under Emil Fischer’s guidance in 1900.
  

  Emil Fischer at the inauguration of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in 1911

• Fischer was part of the chemical operations in Germany during WWI (1914-1918). He helped develop methods for making potassium nitrate, nitric acid, camphor, and sulphur, all needed to make explosives.

• Emil Fischer’s son, Walter Fischer was killed in combat in WWI in 1916, and his youngest son, Alfred Fischer, killed himself at the age of 25 in 1917.

• He was diagnosed with intestinal carcinoma in 1919, which was reportedly caused by regular handling of phenylhydrazine, leading to chronic poisoning.

• Emil Fischer’s eldest son, Hermann Otto Laurenz Fischer, donated all of his father’s scientific articles, writings, letters, and books, which now form the Emil Fischer Library at UC, Berkeley.

• The Gesellschaft Deutscher Chemiker (The Society of German Chemists) has instituted ‘The Emil Fischer Medal’ to honour scientists for extraordinary achievements in organic chemistry.
  

  The Emil Fischer medal

• A sandstone monument was built by Fritz Klimsch, a German sculptor, in honour of Emil Fischer near the I Chemical Institute of the Friedrich Wilhelm University (now Humboldt University) on Hessische Straße in 1921, and it was destroyed during World War II.

• Emil Fischer wrote his memoir in 1918 during his stays in Locarno and Karlsbad. It was published in 1922 under the title ‘From My Life (Aus meinem Leben)’ by his former assistant Max Bergmann.