Introduction and Overview - Important Figures of Analytical Chemistry from Germany in Brief Biographies - page 1

Chapter 1
Introduction and Overview

D. Thorburn Burns, R. Klaus Müller, Reiner Salzer and Gerhard Werner

The contributions of chemists of and who worked in Germany are vast and any
account must deal with three main problems: define what specifically is analytical
chemistry within the whole corpus of chemistry, determine the geographical area to
be designated as Germany from the variable areas occupied by the German speak-
ing states and the country as unified over the ages and selection of the system for
the periodization of developments in chemistry and their subdivisions over time.
The formulation of an agreed definition of analytical chemistry was first con-
sidered by the Working Party on Analytical Chemistry (WPAC) of the Federation
of European Chemical Societies (FECS) in 1975. Following an international com-
petition and further debate, the WPAC agreed in 1993 the definition to be:
Analytical chemistry is a scientific discipline which develops and applies methods, instru-
ments and strategies to obtain information on the composition and nature of matter in
space and time [ 1 ].

This definition could with advantage, at the present time, be further refined by
replacing analytical chemistry by analytical science. An “Inventory of Definitions
in Analytical Chemistry” is available to provide assistance with the categorization
of topics within the diverse subdivisions of the subject that have arisen particularly
from the development of instrumental methods [ 2 ].
An additional essential problem was the logical choice of the persons to be
included, who had to be dealt with not only based on their services for analytical
chemistry, but also by their national background. Our survey aimed not to boast
the importance of the country, but to express the feeling of obligation towards
essential contributions to our scientific area by persons correlated with Germany,
as it had been done similarly for other countries. But who is a German chemist?
Birthplace alone may mislead, for example, when somebody was born abroad, but
studied, lived or worked mainly in Germany. The place of the most relevant ana-
lytical studies might be considered as a criterion, or the language of their most
relevant publications (although then hardly any German researchers would remain
on this criterion). In a political sense, the changing borders between Germany and