• DOI:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1973.tb43252.x
• Corpus ID: 40633114

HANS FISCHER (1881–1945)

@article{Stern1973HANSF,
  title={HANS FISCHER (1881–1945)},
  author={Alan J. Stern},
  journal={Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences},
  year={1973},
  volume={206}
}

• A. J. Stern
• Published 1 October 1973
• Chemistry
• Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Born on July 27, 1881 in Hoechst am Main, the center of important chemical industries, where his father held a leading industrial position, nobody could have foreseen that Hans Fischer was to become one of the greatest organic chemists. In 1904, he took his doctorate (Ph.D.) a t the University of Marburg under Theodore Zincke, and shortly afterwards he was engaged as an assistant to Emil Fischer in Berlin. His initial interest in pyrrole pigments was stimulated by Friederich von Mueller who invited Fischer to join him at his renowned medical clinic at the University of Munich. Von Mueller and his coworkers were studying the relationship between the pigments of bile and blood. While studying medicine at the university, Fischer was allowed to devote almost all his time to research concerning bilirubin without being burdened with clinical duties. The first two papers of significance concerning the relationship of the structure of urobilin to pyrrole chemistry were published. Based upon the discovery of Neubauer that urobilinogen was responsible for Ehrlich’s aldehyde reaction in the urine of patients with liver disease, and knowing that urobilin was formed by the reduction of bilirubin in vitro, or in uivo by intestinal bacteria, Fischer improved reduction methods; thus, mesobilirubin, (urobilinogen) was first obtained in crystallized form (191 1). One year later, MeyerBetz isolated crystals from human urine and their identity with urobilinogen was established. Many papers about bile pigments were to follow. In 1915, Fischer succeeded Adolf Windaus as head of the Institute of Medical Chemistry at the University of Innsbruck. Not much research was possible during these first years of World War I and during the postwar period from 1918-1920, when Fischer was head of the Institute of Medical Chemistry at the University of Vienna, due to the disastrous aftermath of the war. In 1921, Hans Fischer succeeded Heinrich Wieland and took over as head of the Organic-chemical Institute at the Technical University of Munich and immediately an extensive program concerning the systematic exploration of all aspects of the chemistry of pyrrole, bile pigments, porphyrins and related compounds was designed and undertaken. The chemistry of pyrrole, in spite of the large number of naturally occurring derivatives was, at this time, practically untouched. Fischer’s first major objective was to elucidate the structures of porphyrins with a view toward synthesizing hemin. In doing so, Fischer’s magnetic personality attracted and inspired a great number of graduate students who, from the very beginning of his work in Munich, were his devoted disciples and ready to do anything to cooperate in achieving Fischer’s goals. In a short time, the “ Fischer School ” was to become one of the most remarkable research groups in Germany and well known internationally. He trained numerous excellent chemists, many of whom became leaders in chemical industryand in academiccareers at home and abroad. During the period 1921-1925, a very large number of new pyrrole derivatives were synthesized either by substitution methods or ring synthesis. Earlier, it had been shown by M. Nencki, W. Kuester, R. Willstaetter, and others that hemin and the bile pigments, such as bilirubin, are closely related. M. Nencki found that hemin could, by reduction, be