Richard Willstätter, 1872 - 1942

Abstract

Structural organic chemistry is about one hundred years old and Richard Willstätter’s scientific life began after the first forty years of this period. After Kekule came von Baeyer and, partly in parallel, Victor Meyer and Emil Fischer; then our own Perkin, and Willstätter. We must recognize Fischer as a very great pioneer, a man whose contribution to biochemistry is seen every day to have enhanced value and one who made stereo chemistry into a powerful tool for research. Perkin was the faithful disciple of his beloved teacher Baeyer. He carried on the good work with unexampled skill and industry. If we may say that Baeyer by his analytic and synthetic studies of indigo proved for the first time that the structure of a complex natural product was not beyond the reach of the organic chemist’s grasp, it can also be claimed for Willstätter that he was not content to work always on Baeyer’s level, but that he stepped higher and opened up a new stratum for exploration. Such analogies are imperfect, since Fischer also stepped higher, but in a different locality.