Otto Unverdorben (13 October 1806 – 28 November 1873) 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 t ...

and merchant who was born in Dahme/Marke. After completing his schooling in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label= Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth ...

, he studied chemistry at Halle,

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

and Berlin. In 1826 at the age of 20, Unverdorben discovered

aniline Aniline is an organic compound with the formula C6 H5 NH2. Consisting of a phenyl group attached to an amino group, aniline is the simplest aromatic amine. It is an industrially significant commodity chemical, as well as a versatile starti ...

, which he obtained from the distillation of natural vegetable

indigo Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...

. He called his discovery ''Crystallin''. Aniline is important in the manufacture of dyes, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. In 1829 he returned to his hometown of Dahme/Mark and became successful in the cigar industry. Today the ''Otto-Unverdorben Dahme-Oberschule'' is named in his honor.

References

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Biography from the Otto Unverdorben schoolwikisource: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie Otto Unverdorben
* * * * ''This article is based on a translation of an article from the German Wikipedia''. 1806 births 1873 deaths People from Dahme, Brandenburg People from the Electorate of Saxony 19th-century German chemists Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg alumni Leipzig University alumni Humboldt University of Berlin alumni {{Germany-chemist-stub