ADOLF VON BAEYER RALPH E. OESPER University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio
ADOLFBAEYER(born at Berlin, October 31, 1835) succeeded Liebig a t the University of Munich in 1875. Here he built up not only the physical facilities but developed the most outstanding chemical school in Germany-perhaps in the world. He trained many leaders of the growing German chemical industry and an astounding number of the most distinguished university teachers and investigators came from his circle of students. He had an uncanny ability t o pick out men of oromise and t o keen the ineot at a distance. He was the leader of the movement to insure a hieh :::. quality of chemical instruction throu~hout all of G&many. His work on phthaleins, acetylene, indigo, the constitution of benzene, oxonium compounds, etc., testifies to his caliber as an organic chenist. His strain theory rendered yeoman service for many years. He followed the advice he gave his young associates: "Whatever you choose, do not seek to carry out easy tasks; devote yourselves especially to difficult problems." He was a master in limiting himself t o the essential things; he had no love for the complicated. Test-tube experimentation was his specialty. He once wrote: "What makes the great scientist? He should not dominate but listen, and adapt himself to what he has heard and change himself accordingly. The old empiricists did this, they laid their ears t o nature. The modern scientist does the same, and I have tried t o follow this method. Men are affected in a peculiar manner when they get close to nature. They then develop in a manner quite different from one who approaches nature with a.preconceived idea." - . His health was excellent throughout his entire life. Not until he reached 80 did the hfirmities of old age died on August 20, 1917, and is buried in the Waldbecome insistent enough to lead t o his retirement. He friedhof in Munich. ~
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