Background

Karl Friedrich von Auwers was born on September 16, 1863 in Gotha, Germany, the son of the renowned astronomer Arthur Auwers.

Education

Auwers studied at first at the University of Heidelberg and later with August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the University of Berlin where he received his Ph.D. in 1885.

Career

Auwers was a student of A. W. von Hofmann at Berlin, an assistant to Victor Meyer at Gottingen and Heidelberg, and then director of the chemical institute at the University of Marburg. On joining Victor Meyer, he became involved in stereochemical studies. In 1888 Auwers and Meyer substituted the name “stereochemistry” for van’t Hoff’s “chemistry in space.” At this time the concept of geometrical isomerism had not been extended to structures other than those involving carbon atoms. Auwers and Meyer found that there were three isomeric forms of benzildioxime.

And proposed, contrary to van’t Hoff’s principle of the free rotation of single bonds, that the isomerism resulted from the restricted rotation about the singly bound carbon atoms. Arthur Hantzsch and Alfred Werner elaborated the presently accepted theory in 1890 by extending geometric isomerism from doublebonded carbon atoms to double-bonded carbon and nitrogen atoms. Auwers and Meyer themselves aided in the confirmation of the Hantzsch and Werner theory.

He stayed at Heidelberg until he became professor at the University of Greifswald in 1900. He was responsible for the construction of a new chemistry department which he became head of. He left in 1913 to become head of the chemistry department of the University of Marburg where he stayed until his retirement in 1928.

He died on May 3, 1939 at the age of 75 in Marburg, Germany.

Achievements

• Auwers’ achieved remarkable success in his studies on isomerism, which led him into a lifelong investigation of stereochemical problems. He mastered the difficult art of assigning configuration to stereoisomers, establishing the configuration of the crotonic acids as well as many other geometric isomers. Auwers also investigated the spectrochemistry of organic compounds, the relation of physical properties to molecular structure, and molecular rearrangements, the most outstanding result of these studies being the determination of the keto-enol proportions in many tautomeric mixtures.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Die Entwicklung Der Stereochemie 2009
  • Die Entwicklung der Stereochemie 2009
  • Tabellen zur Berechnung der "theoretischen" Molrefraktionen organischer Verbindungen 1914
  • Die Entwicklung Der Stereochemie 2012
  • Die Entwicklung der Stereochemie 2019

Membership

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina.

Connections

Father:

Arthur von Auwers

collaborator:

Victor Meyer

Viktor Meyer (8 September 1848 – 8 August 1897) was a German chemist and significant contributor to both organic and inorganic chemistry. He is best known for inventing an apparatus for determining vapour densities, the Viktor Meyer apparatus, and for discovering thiophene, a heterocyclic compound.

teacher:

August von Hofmann

References

• dictionary of scientific biography
  1970