Grave of Otto Wallach at Stadtfriedhof Göttingen 2017 01

Otto Wallach (; 27 March 1847 – 26 February 1931) was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe t ...

and recipient of the 1910

Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...

for his work on alicyclic compounds.

Biography

Wallach was born in

Königsberg Königsberg (, ) was the historic Prussian city that is now Kaliningrad, Russia. Königsberg was founded in 1255 on the site of the ancient Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teutonic Knights during the Northern Crusades, and was name ...

, the son of a

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n civil servant. His father, Gerhard Wallach, descended from a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family that had converted to

Lutheranism Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

. His mother, Otillie (Thoma), was an ethnic

Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century against what its followers perceived to b ...

religion. Wallach's father was transferred to Stettin (Szczecin) and later to

Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and, with around 183,000 inhabitants, largest city of the German state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream o ...

. Otto Wallach went to school, a ''Gymnasium'', in Potsdam, where he learned about

literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

and the

history of art The history of art focuses on objects made by humans for any number of spiritual, narrative, philosophical, symbolic, conceptual, documentary, decorative, and even functional and other purposes, but with a primary emphasis on its aesthetic visu ...

, two subjects he was interested his whole life. At this time he also started private chemical experiments at the house of his parents. In 1867 he started studying chemistry at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

, where at this time Friedrich Wöhler was head of organic chemistry. After one semester at the

University of Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (german: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, abbreviated HU Berlin) is a German public research university in the central borough of Mitte in Berlin. It was established by Frederick William III on the initiative ...

with

August Wilhelm von Hofmann August Wilhelm von Hofmann (8 April 18185 May 1892) was a German chemist who made considerable contributions to organic chemistry. His research on aniline helped lay the basis of the aniline-dye industry, and his research on coal tar laid the g ...

, Wallach received his Doctoral degree from the University of Göttingen in 1869, and worked as a Professor in the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine ...

(1870–89) and the University of Göttingen (1889–1915). Two of his doctoral students were

Adolf Sieverts Adolf Ferdinand Sieverts (7 October 1874 – 8 January 1947) was a German chemist, best known for his work on solubility of gases in metals. He originated Sieverts's law. He was a doctoral student of Otto Wallach Otto Wallach (; 27 March 1847 ...

and

Walter Haworth Sir Walter Norman Haworth FRS (19 March 1883 – 19 March 1950) was a British chemist best known for his groundbreaking work on ascorbic acid ( vitamin C) while working at the University of Birmingham. He received the 1937 Nobel Prize in Chem ...

. Wallach died at

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. In 1912, he was awarded the

Davy Medal The Davy Medal is awarded by the Royal Society of London "for an outstandingly important recent discovery in any branch of chemistry". Named after Humphry Davy, the medal is awarded with a monetary gift, initially of £1000 (currently £2000). H ...

. He died on February 26, 1931 and was buried in the

Major works

During his work with Friedrich Kekulé in Bonn he started a systematic analysis of the

terpene Terpenes () are a class of natural products consisting of compounds with the formula (C5H8)n for n > 1. Comprising more than 30,000 compounds, these unsaturated hydrocarbons are produced predominantly by plants, particularly conifers. Terpenes ...

s present in essential oils. Up to this time only a few had been isolated in pure form, and structural information was sparse.

Melting point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase exist in equilibrium. The melting point of a substance depen ...

comparison and the measurement of mixtures was one of the methods to confirm identical substances. For this method the mostly liquid terpenes had to be transformed into crystalline compounds. With stepwise derivatisation, especially additions to the

double bond In chemistry, a double bond is a covalent bond between two atoms involving four bonding electrons as opposed to two in a single bond. Double bonds occur most commonly between two carbon atoms, for example in alkenes. Many double bonds exist betwee ...

present in some of the terpenes, he achieved the goal of obtaining crystalline compounds. The investigation of the rearrangement reactions of cyclic unsaturated terpenes made it possible to obtain the structure of an unknown terpene by following the rearrangement to a known structure of a terpene. With these principal methods he opened the path to systematic research on terpenes. He was responsible for naming

and

pinene Pinene is a collection of unsaturated bicyclic monoterpenes. Two geometric isomers of pinene are found in nature, α-pinene and β-pinene. Both are chiral. As the name suggests, pinenes are found in pines. Specifically, pinene is the major comp ...

, and for undertaking the first systematic study of pinene. He wrote a book about the chemistry of terpenes, "Terpene und Campher" (1909). Otto Wallach is known for Wallach's rule, Wallach degradation, the

Leuckart-Wallach reaction The Leuckart reaction is the chemical reaction that converts aldehydes or ketones to amines by reductive amination in the presence of heat. The reaction, named after Rudolf Leuckart (chemist), Rudolf Leuckart, uses either ammonium formate or form ...

(which he developed along with

Rudolf Leuckart Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart (7 October 1822 – 22 February 1898) was a German zoologist born in Helmstedt. He was a nephew to naturalist Friedrich Sigismund Leuckart (1794–1843). Academic career He earned his degree from the Uni ...

) and the Wallach rearrangement.

Works

* ''Tabellen zur chemischen Analyse''. Weber, Bonn 1880
Digital edition
of the University and State Library Düsseldorf. *
1. Verhalten der Elemente und ihrer Verbindungen. 1880
*
2. Methoden zur Auffindung und Trennung der Elemente. 2. Aufl. von "Hülfstabellen für den chemisch-analytischen Unterricht" 1880
* ''Terpene und Campher : Zusammenfassung eigener Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiet der alicyclischen Kohlenstoffverbindungen''. 2. Aufl. Leipzig : von Veit, 1914
Digital edition
of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.

References

External links

* including the Nobel Lecture, December 12, 1910 ''Alicyclic Compounds''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wallach, Otto 1847 births 1931 deaths Nobel laureates in Chemistry German Nobel laureates 19th-century German chemists University of Göttingen alumni University of Göttingen faculty University of Bonn faculty Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Scientists from Königsberg People from the Province of Prussia 20th-century German chemists