Growth into a Scientific Discipline: The Nineteenth Century - Important Figures of Analytical Chemistry from Germany in Brief Biographies - page 49

Fig. 3.1 Portrait of Otto
Bernhard Kühn (1800-1863).
Photo Universitätsarchiv
Leipzig, with permission
PhD, and Kastner recommended him for a study at the Sorbonne in Paris with
Gay-Lussac, Th￩nard and Vauquelin. Another recommendation by Alexander von
Humboldt led to the appointment of Justus Liebig (then 21!) as Professor at the
Ludwigs-Universität (now Justus-Liebig-Universität) Giessen in 1824. Poor support
by his university led him to the establishment of a private Institute for Pharmacy
and Technical Craftmanship (together with several colleagues). He became inter-
nationally famous for his teaching, his experimental results and his publications,
already during his activities in Giessen. There he became friends with Friedrich
Wöhler (1826) for lifetime, and in 1845, he was awarded the nobility title Freiherr
von Liebig (equivalent to baron). After he had declined offered positions at various
universities, he finally accepted that of Max von Pettenkofer and King Maximilian
II of Bavaria and changed 1852 to the Chair at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität
München.
Liebig was an important promoter of organic chemistry, and his role in ana-
lytical chemistry is also very fundamental. He invented the system of elementary
organic analysis, developed adequate apparatus (“five-globe-apparatus”) and cre-
ated the experimental basis for the structural elucidation of organic compounds [ 5 ,
6 ]. His extensive analyses of biological samples of plants and animals [ 7 ] brought
improvements in agricultural chemistry, with the introduction of mineral ferti-
lizers, mainly with superphosphate. After many objections in the beginning, this
gained much popularity. His topics Anleitung zur Analyse organischer Körper [ 8 ],
Die organische Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agrikultur und Physiologie [ 9 ],