Georg Wilhelm Steinkopf (28 June 1879 – 12 March 1949) 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 ...

. Today he is mostly remembered for his work on the production of mustard gas during

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 ...

Life

Georg Wilhelm Steinkopf was born on 28 June 1879 in

Staßfurt Staßfurt (Stassfurt) () is a town in the Salzlandkreis district, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated on both sides of the river Bode, approximately northeast of Aschersleben, and south of Magdeburg. Pop. (2005) 23,538. It was one of th ...

, in the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an ...

n Province of Saxony in the German Empire, the son of Gustav Friedrich Steinkopf, a merchant, and his wife Elise Steinkopf (née Heine). In 1898 he began studying chemistry and

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

at the

University of Heidelberg } Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg, (german: Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg; la, Universitas Ruperto Carola Heidelbergensis) is a public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, ...

. In 1899 he moved to the ''

Technische Hochschule Karlsruhe The Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT; german: Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) is a public research university in Karlsruhe, Germany. The institute is a national research center of the Helmholtz Association. KIT was created in 2009 w ...

'' (today the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology), where he finished his studies with a degree as '' Diplomingenieur'' in 1905. In Karlsruhe, he also met his future colleagues

Fritz Haber Fritz Haber (; 9 December 186829 January 1934) was a German chemist who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1918 for his invention of the Haber–Bosch process, a method used in industry to synthesize ammonia from nitrogen gas and hydroge ...

and

Roland Scholl Roland Heinrich Scholl (30 September 1865 – 22 August 1945) was a Swiss chemist who taught at various European universities. Among his most notable achievements are the synthesis of coronene, the co-development of the Bally-Scholl synthesis, a ...

. After receiving his

Doctor of Science Doctor of Science ( la, links=no, Scientiae Doctor), usually abbreviated Sc.D., D.Sc., S.D., or D.S., is an academic research degree awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. In some countries, "Doctor of Science" is the degree used f ...

and eventually his Habilitation in 1909, he worked as an associate professor at the ''TU Karlsruhe'' until 1914, when he volunteered for service in World War I. In 1916 Fritz Haber, who was now the director of the

Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI) is a science research institute located at the heart of the academic district of Dahlem, in Berlin, Germany. The original Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochem ...

(''KWIPC'', today the

Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society The Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society (FHI) is a science research institute located at the heart of the academic district of Dahlem, in Berlin, Germany. The original Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochem ...

) in Berlin, invited Steinkopf to join his institute as the head of a team devoted to research on

chemical weapons A chemical weapon (CW) is a specialized munition that uses chemicals formulated to inflict death or harm on humans. According to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), this can be any chemical compound intended as a ...

. Together with chemical engineer Wilhelm Lommel, Steinkopf developed a method for the large-scale production of bis(2-chloroethyl) sulfide, commonly known as mustard gas. Mustard gas was subsequently assigned the

acronym An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

LOST (LOmmel/STeinkopf) by the German military. Steinkopf's work on mustard gas and related substances had a negative impact on his health, which caused him to switch to another department of the KWIPC in 1917, supervising the production of gas ammunition. Although Fritz Haber wanted him to stay in Berlin, Steinkopf moved to

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 ...

after the end of World War I. Succeeding as the associate professor in

organic chemistry Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms.Clayden, ...

at the

Technische Universität Dresden TU Dresden (for german: Technische Universität Dresden, abbreviated as TUD and often wrongly translated as "Dresden University of Technology") is a public research university, the largest institute of higher education in the city of Dresden, th ...

, he worked there from 1919 until his retirement. His research focussed on organic

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element with the symbol As and atomic number 33. Arsenic occurs in many minerals, usually in combination with sulfur and metals, but also as a pure elemental crystal. Arsenic is a metalloid. It has various allotropes, ...

compounds,

thiophene Thiophene is a heterocyclic compound with the formula C4H4S. Consisting of a planar five-membered ring, it is aromatic as indicated by its extensive substitution reactions. It is a colorless liquid with a benzene-like odor. In most of its react ...

compounds, and the formation of

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil, or simply oil, is a naturally occurring yellowish-black liquid mixture of mainly hydrocarbons, and is found in geological formations. The name ''petroleum'' covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crud ...

. In 1924, Steinkopf became a member of the ''Beirat des Heereswaffenamts'' (''

Heereswaffenamt ''Waffenamt'' (WaA) was the German Army Weapons Agency. It was the centre for research and development of the Weimar Republic and later the Third Reich for weapons, ammunition and army equipment to the German Reichswehr and then Wehrmacht ...

'' advisory council), an agency of the German military responsible for weapons research and development. He worked under strict secrecy and most of his friends and colleagues in Dresden did not know about this activity. After the '' Machtergreifung'' of the

National Socialists Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

in 1933, '' Reichswehrminister''

Werner von Blomberg Werner Eduard Fritz von Blomberg (2 September 1878 – 13 March 1946) was a German General Staff officer and the first Minister of War in Adolf Hitler's government. After serving on the Western Front in World War I, Blomberg was appointed chi ...

demanded the Saxonian ''Volksbildungsministerium'' (Ministry of the People's Education) to show more recognition for Steinkopf's work during World War I. In 1935, Steinkopf was promoted to

full professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

, and continued to work at the TU Dresden until his retirement in 1940. His health being fragile due to his work with mustard gas and related substances, Steinkopf died on 12 March 1949 in Stuttgart. Aside from his scientific research, Steinkopf wrote several

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

s, novellas, and novels.

Notable works

Scientific

* Steinkopf was a co-author of this book. *

Fiction

* * * * *

Non-fiction

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Steinkopf, Wilhelm 1879 births 1949 deaths People from Staßfurt People from the Province of Saxony 20th-century German engineers Chemical warfare Academic staff of TU Dresden German chemical engineers Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni Engineers from Saxony-Anhalt