Background
Otto Ruff was born in Schwäbisch Hall, Württemberg.
Otto Ruff was born in Schwäbisch Hall, Württemberg.
After becoming an pharmacist under the supervision of Carl Magnus von Hell (known from the Hell-Volhard-Zelinsky halogenation) at the University of Stuttgart he joined the group of Hermann Emil Fischer at the University of Berlin. Fischer was noted for his work on carbohydrates (sugars) and so Ruff started his career as an organic chemistry In 1898 he published his work on the transformation of d-Glucose to d-Arabinose, later called the Ruff degradation.
Supported by the far-sighted Fischer, who recognized that while organic chemistry was now mature, physical chemistry was growing rapidly, Ruff became head of the new inorganic department in Berlin, working alongside Alfred Stock who was five years his junior.
This drastic change in subject benefited Ruff during his work on chlorides sulfur compounds. In 1904 he became a professor at the Technical University of Danzig and from 1916 onward he was head of the inorganic chemistry department at the Technical University of Breslau.
He died three years after his retirement in 1939. His last years of teaching were made miserable by a privatdozent and assistant, Helmut Hartmann, who had joined the Nazi party and became an "insolent politician" who made life unbearable for many.