Edgar Leon Waldemar Otto Wedekind (31 January 1870 - 22 October 1938) was a German chemist and teacher at Hannoversch-Münden. He was one of the signatories for the ''

Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State officially translated into English as the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State was a document presented on 11 November 1933 at the Albert Hall in Leipzi ...

'' (1933). Wedekind was born in Altona (near Hamburg) and studied chemistry, receiving a doctorate from Munich in 1895 for studies on Tetrazolium under

Hans von Pechmann Hans Freiherr von Pechmann (1 April 1850 – 19 April 1902) was a German chemist, renowned for his discovery of diazomethane in 1894. Pechmann condensation and Pechmann pyrazole synthesis. He also first prepared 1,2-diketones (e.g., diacetyl), ...

, He received a habilitation from the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

in 1899. He then taught chemistry at the Universities of Tübingen, Strasbourg, Frankfurt, Göttingen as well as at the forestry university Hannoversch-Münden and from 1938, he was a member of the Erfurt academy. He worked with the mycologist

Richard Falck Richard Falck (7 May 1873 – 1 January 1955) was a German-American botanist and mycologist, who worked as a professor of mycology at the forest academy in Hannoversch Münden before he fled Nazi Germany and the persecution of Jews to finally set ...

and analyzed the antibiotic ''Sparassol''. He defended Falck against

anti-semitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

but was, in November 1933, a signatory to the ''Bekenntnis der Professoren an den Universitäten und Hochschulen zu Adolf Hitler und dem nationalsozialistischen Staat'' (or ''Vow of allegiance of professors at the German universities and colleges to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist state''). Wedekind worked on stereochemistry and magnetochemistry and was close to identifying ketenes when he treated Ph₂CHCOCl with n-Pr₃N in 1901 at Tübingen. He suggested that it produced the intermediate Ph₂C-C=O but ketene was later isolated by

Hermann Staudinger Hermann Staudinger (; 23 March 1881 – 8 September 1965) was a German organic chemist who demonstrated the existence of macromolecules, which he characterized as polymers. For this work he received the 1953 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He is also ...

in 1905. He died at Erfurt.

References

External links

Magnetochemie (1911)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wedekind, Edgar 20th-century German chemists People from Hann. Münden 1870 births 1938 deaths