Background
His father was Jewish descendable German, and his mother (Finlay) was from Scotland.
His father was Jewish descendable German, and his mother (Finlay) was from Scotland.
He was director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry from 1919 until 1933, when the racial policies of the Nazi party demanded the dismissal of non-Aryans from senior posts. Emigrating to England, Freundlich accepted a guest professorship at University College London. Five years later, he accepted a professorship at the University of Minnesota.
He died in Minneapolis two years later.
His most prominent student was Robert Havemann who became a well known colloid chemist of the German Democratic Republic. Freundlich"s main works dealt with the coagulation and stability of colloidal solutions.
His work is of continuing importance, with his 1906 paper "Over the adsorption in solution" becoming highly cited at the beginning of the 21st century.
Royal Society; German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.