Background
Peter Griess was born on September 6, 1829, in Waldkappel, Werra-Meißner-Kreis, Germany. He was the son of a blacksmith.
Fürstengraben 1, 07743 Jena, Germany
Peter started his studies at the University of Jena (now Friedrich Schiller University Jena) in 1850.
Biegenstraße 10, 35037 Marburg, Germany
Peter entered the University of Marburg in 1851. During his student life he was several times sentenced to the Karzer (campus jail) and was also banned from the city for one year.
Peter Griess was born on September 6, 1829, in Waldkappel, Werra-Meißner-Kreis, Germany. He was the son of a blacksmith.
After he finished an agricultural private school, Peter joined the Hessian cavalry, but left the military shortly after. He started his studies at the University of Jena (now Friedrich Schiller University Jena) in 1850 but changed to the University of Marburg in 1851. During his student life, he was several times sentenced to the Karzer (campus jail) and was also banned from the city for one year.
After most of the family possession had been spent, Griess had to start working at the chemical factory of Oehler in Offenbach am Main in 1856. This was only possible after the recommendation of Hermann Kolbe, who was head of the chemistry department in Marburg. The devastating fire of 1857 ended the production of chemicals at the factory and Griess rejoined Hermann Kolbe at the University of Marburg. His career was launched in 1858, when A. W. von Hofmann, who had been impressed by an early paper, invited him to London, where Griess took his new position at the Royal College of Chemistry. In 1862 he left and started a position at the Samuel Allsopp & Sons brewery where he worked until his retirement.
Griess’s main contribution to chemistry had nothing to do with brewing but stemmed from the early discovery which Hofmann had noted, the formation of a new type of organic nitrogen compound by the action of nitrous acid on certain amines. Between 1860 and 1866 Griess developed the chemistry of this diazo reaction, which was mainly of theoretical interest at first, extending the work of Rafaelle Piria and Ernst Gerland, who had noted the action of nitrous fumes on anthranilic acid, yielding salicylic acid and nitrogen. Griess found that the reaction with picramic acid in alcohol yielded a new type of nitrogen compound for which he devised the name diazodinitrophenol, the first use of the term “diazo.” Studies on aniline produced explosive compounds too unstable to have any application. Further studies with other reactions showed that the diazo reaction was a versatile route to new compounds, but it was not until 1864 that, by coupling diazotized aniline with napthylamine, Griess opened up the general way to a new class of coloring substances. The azo dyes came under intense investigation and thousands were patented.
In 1884 Griess, simultaneously with Böttiger, discovered dyes capable of coloring cotton without a mordant. None of Griess’s patents proved lucrative, although others made fortunes.
Griess was a fellow of the Royal Society and was one of the founders of the Institute of Chemistry.
Griess married Louisa Anna Mason in 1869. They had two sons and two daughters.