Max Bergmann (12 February 1886 – 7 November 1944) was a Jewish- German

biochemist Biochemists are scientists who are trained in biochemistry. They study chemical processes and chemical transformations in living organisms. Biochemists study DNA, proteins and Cell (biology), cell parts. The word "biochemist" is a portmanteau of ...

. Together with Leonidas Zervas, the discoverer of the group, they were the first to use the carboxybenzyl

protecting group A protecting group or protective group is introduced into a molecule by chemical modification of a functional group to obtain chemoselectivity in a subsequent chemical reaction. It plays an important role in multistep organic synthesis. In many ...

for the synthesis of oligopeptides.

Life and work

Bergmann was born in Fürth, Bavaria, Germany on February 12, 1886, the seventh child of coal wholesalers Salomon and Rosalie Bergmann. Bergmann started studying Biology at the

Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

, but lectures by Adolf von Baeyer captured his interest and eventually persuaded him to switch to Organic Chemistry. He continued his chemical studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, where he was taught by Emil Fischer. After receiving his PhD under the supervision of Ignaz Bloch de">:de:Ignaz_Bloch.html" ;"title="nowiki/>:de:Ignaz_Bloch">de/small> in 1911 for his thesis on Polysulfide#Organic polysulfides">acyl(polysulfides), he became the assistant to Fischer at the University of Berlin, where he stayed until Fischer's death in 1919. He received his habilitation in 1921. In 1922 Bergmann was made the first director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Leather Research in Dresden, which was created in 1921 and from which the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry descends.Winfried R. Pötsch, Annelore Fischer, and Wolfgang Müller with contributions of Heinz Cassenbaum: ''Lexikon bedeutender Chemiker'', VEB Bibliographisches Institut Leipzig, 1988, p. 40, . It was there that he worked with his former doctoral student, Leonidas Zervas, who eventually rose to vice-director of the institute and briefly succeeded Bergmann as director. In the early 1930s, the two scientists developed the

Bergmann-Zervas carbobenzoxy method Benzyl chloroformate, also known as benzyl chlorocarbonate or Z-chloride, is the benzyl ester of chloroformic acid. It can be also described as the chloride of the benzyloxycarbonyl (Cbz or Z) group. In its pure form it is a water-sensitive oily ...

for the synthesis of polypeptides, which started the field of controlled peptide chemical synthesis and remained the dominant method in it for the next 20 years. Bergmann and Zervas gained international academic fame as a result. Bergmann was nonetheless forced to abandon his institute due to his Jewish origin after the passage of the

Civil Service Law The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Hitler Service (german: Gesetz zur Wiederherstellung des Berufsbeamtentums, shortened to ''Berufsbeamtengesetz''), also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-es ...

and emigrated from Nazi Germany in 1933. He moved to the USA and was thereafter active as a senior researcher at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. There, he was the main specialist in protein chemistry and contributed to the great progress of the US in the area of molecular biology. Two eventual Nobel Prize winners ( William Howard Stein and

Stanford Moore Stanford Moore (September 4, 1913 – August 23, 1982) was an American biochemist. He shared a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1972, with Christian B. Anfinsen and William Howard Stein, for work done at Rockefeller University on the structure of ...

), as well as numerous postdoctoral students (including

Klaus H. Hofmann Klaus H. Hofmann (February 21, 1911 – December 25, 1995) was an American biological chemist and medical researcher. The New York Times called Hofmann an "expert on synthesis of body compounds". His career was highlighted by synthesis of a prot ...

) worked in his laboratory. Bergmann is considered an important figure in synthetic organic chemistry and biochemistry. He specialized in decoding peptide structures, while also researching their synthesis. He died in the Mount Sinai Hospital, New York City, on 7 November 1944. He was elected in 1936 a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

. Since 1980, the Max-Bergmann-Kreis (MBK) company of German peptide chemists awards the Bergmann golden medal for peptide science, with the first medal given to Zervas. In 2002 the Max Bergmann Center was created in Dresden.

References

External links

* 1886 births 1944 deaths German biochemists 19th-century German Jews People from Fürth Humboldt University of Berlin alumni Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Humboldt University of Berlin faculty Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science German emigrants to the United States Max Planck Institute directors {{Germany-biochemist-stub