Karl Ziegler was born in Helsa
near Kassel in Germany, on November 26, 1898. He graduated in
1920 under Prof. von Auwers at the University of
Marburg/Lahn, and qualified as a lecturer in 1923. After
working for a short period at the University of
Frankfurt/Main, he spent 10 years as a lecturer at Heidelberg.
His research work in the field of radicals with trivalent carbon
and his syntheses of multi-membered ring systems earned him the
Liebig Medal in 1935. In 1936 he became Professor and Director of
the Chemisches Institut at the University of Halle/Saale. In the
same year he lectured as a visiting professor at Chicago
University.
From 1943 until 1969 he was Director of the Max-Planck-Institut
fur Kohlenforschung (formerly known as the
Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut fur Kohlenforschung) in
Mülheim/Ruhr. He continues his active association with the
Institute in his capacity of Scientific Member. After the war he
was instrumental in the foundation of the Gesellschaft Deutscher
Chemiker, whose president he was for five years. From 1954 until
1957 he was president of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Mineralölwissenschaft und Kohlechemie.
His research work at the above-mentioned institute over the past
20 years on syntheses and reactions in the chemistry of organ
aluminium compounds, his discovery of organometallic mixed
catalysts for the polymerization of olefins (e.g. the
synthesis of high-density polyethylene) - all these are widely
known.
Many honours have been bestowed upon him. He holds honorary
doctorates at the Technische Hochschulen of Hannover and
Darmstadt, and of the Universities of Heidelberg and Giessen. He
has received the Liebig Medal from the Verein Deutscher Chemiker,
the Carl Duisberg Plakette from the Gesellschaft Deutscher
Chemiker, the Carl Engler Medal from the Deutsche Gesellschaft
für Mineralölwissenschaft und Kohlechemie, and the
Lavoisier Medal from the Société Chimique de France.
The Werner von Siemens Foundation awarded him the Siemens Ring.
His Nobel Prize was followed by the award of a distinguished
order by the German Federal Government, the Swinburne Medal by
the Plastics Institute, London, the International Synthetic
Rubber Medal by Rubber and Plastics Age, London, and, in
1971, the Carl Dietrich Harries Plakette by the Deutsche
Kautschuk Gesellschaft, as well as the Wilhelm Exner Medal by the
Österreichischer Gewerbeverein, Vienna. He is an honorary
senator of the Max-Planck Gesellschaft, founder president
(1970-1972 ) of the Rheinisch-Westfalische Akademie der
Wissenschaften, as well as member or honorary member of various
German and foreign scientific societies and academies. In 1971,
The Royal
Society, London, elected him as a Foreign Member.
On the death of Otto Hahn, Karl
Ziegler was appointed the latter's successor to the Order "Pour
le mérite für Wissenschaften und Künste".
Karl Ziegler has been married to Maria Kurtz, since 1922. His
daughter, Marianne Witte, is a doctor of medicine and is married
to the chief physician of a children's hospital in the Ruhr. His
son, Dr. Erhart Ziegler, is a physicist and patent attorney. Karl
Ziegler has five grandchildren by his daughter and five by his
son.
From Nobel Lectures, Chemistry 1963-1970, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1972
This autobiography/biography was written at the time of the award and first published in the book series Les Prix Nobel. It was later edited and republished in Nobel Lectures. To cite this document, always state the source as shown above.
Karl Ziegler died on August 12, 1973.
Copyright © The Nobel Foundation 1963
Karl Ziegler
