Friedrich Wilhelm Semmler (11 May 1860, Hochzeit,

Province of Brandenburg The Province of Brandenburg (german: Provinz Brandenburg) was a province of Prussia from 1815 to 1945. Brandenburg was established in 1815 from the Kingdom of Prussia's core territory, comprised the bulk of the historic Margraviate of Brandenburg ...

– 15 March 1931) was a German

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...

Life

Semmler studied chemistry at the

University of Straßburg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the e ...

and at the University of Breslau. He received is PhD in Breslau in 1887 and his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

at the University of Greifswald in 1890. From 1896 till 1907 Semmler was professor at the University of Greifswald. After a two-year time working with

Hermann Emil Fischer Hermann Emil Louis Fischer (; 9 October 1852 – 15 July 1919) was a German chemist and 1902 recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He discovered the Fischer esterification. He also developed the Fischer projection, a symbolic way of dra ...

in Berlin Semmler accepted a position at the University of Breslau. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Semmler increased his involvement into politics and he was elected in January 1919 for the German National People's Party as member of the Weimar National Assembly. Subsequently, he was also elected for the German Parliament for the period between 1920 and 1924. From 1925 until his death in 1931 he was member of the Preußischer Landtag. During his academic career he focused on the research on

terpene Terpenes () are a class of natural products consisting of compounds with the formula (C5H8)n for n > 1. Comprising more than 30,000 compounds, these unsaturated hydrocarbons are produced predominantly by plants, particularly conifers. Terpenes ar ...

s. He was also able to determine the structure of various terpenes and of the main compound of garlic oil, diallyl disulfide.

Works

* ''Die ätherischen Öle nach ihren chemischen Bestandteilen : unter Berücksichtigung der geschichtlichen Entwicklung'' . Vol. 1-4 . Veit, Leipzig 1906-190
Digital edition
by the

University and State Library Düsseldorf The University and State Library Düsseldorf (german: Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Düsseldorf, abbreviated ULB Düsseldorf) is a central service institution of Heinrich Heine University. Along with Bonn and Münster, it is also one of th ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Semmler, Friedrich-Wilhelm 1860 births 1931 deaths People from Strzelce-Drezdenko County People from the Province of Brandenburg German Protestants German National People's Party politicians Members of the Weimar National Assembly Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic 20th-century German chemists University of Strasbourg alumni University of Breslau alumni 19th-century German chemists