Background
He was born in Kassel, Germany and shortly after his sister Anneliese was born his family moved to Grenzach, Germany where he died at the age of 90.
He was born in Kassel, Germany and shortly after his sister Anneliese was born his family moved to Grenzach, Germany where he died at the age of 90.
Fritz Mindermann was a German chemist. Still, in school, he was drafted and served as a radioman in the signal corps of the German Air Force messaging in Morse code. At the end of World War II, he was taken prisoner of war by Russian troops. He was then transferred to the British sector and released in November 1945. After the war, he finished school with a High School Diploma from the Hans-Thoma-Gymnasium, Lörrach, Germany. Mindermann studied chemistry at the University of Basel, Switzerland and at the University of Tübingen, Germany. In 1952, he graduated with a diploma thesis from the University of Tübingen under the supervision of Georg Wittig. In 1953, Mindermann earned a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Tübingen. His Ph.D. thesis was supported by a research grant from the oldest chemical company of Basel, J.R. Geigy Ltd. It was done under the doctoral supervision of Georg Wittig who received the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1979.
Mindermann’s professional life was devoted to his work for the Basel chemical industry joining J.R. Geigy Ltd. (founded in Basel in 1758) in 1954, a company which was later merged with one of its competitors CIBA Ltd. to form CIBA-Geigy Ltd., which after another merger became Novartis Ltd. Mindermann spoke German, English, French, and some Italian. During his work life, he continued to publish and he created numerous patents for the Basel chemical industry. In the 1960ies and 70ies, he was repeatedly dispatched on professional assignments to the company’s subsidiaries in Pamplona, Spain and Mobile, Alabama. Mindermann also served as president of the Lions Club Lörrach and as a Lions Zone Chairperson. Throughout his life, he remained in close contact with Georg Wittig and at times presided over the association of former Georg Wittig doctorate students. Mindermann’s family donated his papers, offprints, and correspondence related to Nobel laureate Georg Wittig to the Chemical Heritage Foundation (nowadays the Science History Institute) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Fritz Mindermann was married to Gisela Mindermann, née Boldt (March 29, 1925 – April 5, 2008) from 1954 until Gisela’s passing in 2008. They had two sons, Thomas Mindermann and Achim Mindermann.