Bernhard Christian Gottfried Tollens (30 July 184131 January 1918) was a German chemist.
Life and work
Tollens attended school at the
Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums
The ''Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums'' ( ''Academic School of the Johanneum'', short: Johanneum) is a Gymnasium (or Grammar School ) in Hamburg, Germany. It is Hamburg's oldest school and was founded in 1529 by Johannes Bugenhagen. The school's f ...
in
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
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where he was influenced by his science teacher,
Karl Möbius
Karl August Möbius (7 February 1825 in Eilenburg – 26 April 1908 in Berlin) was a German zoologist who was a pioneer in the field of ecology and a former director of the Museum für Naturkunde in Berlin.
Early life
Möbius was born in Eilen ...
. After graduating in 1857, Tollens started an
apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system for training a new generation of practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study (classroom work and reading). Apprenticeships can also enable practitioners to gain a ...
in
pharmacy. He finished in 1862 and began studying chemistry in Göttingen in
Wöhler's laboratory, then supervised by
Friedrich Konrad Beilstein
Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (russian: Фёдор Фёдорович Бейльштейн) (17 February 183818 October 1906), was a Russian chemist and founder of the famous ''Handbuch der organischen Chemie'' (''Handbook of Organic Chemistry''). T ...
and
Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig
Wilhelm Rudolph Fittig (6 December 183519 November 1910) was a German chemist. He discovered the pinacol coupling reaction, mesitylene, diacetyl and biphenyl. Fittig studied the action of sodium on ketones and hydrocarbons. He discovered the Fi ...
. In 1864, Tollens submitted his thesis and received his PhD without a defense. The latter was possible through the intercession of Wöhler so that Tollens could accept and begin an attractive job at a bronze factory. Tollens left the job after six months and joined the group of
Emil Erlenmeyer
Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (28 June 182522 January 1909), known simply as Emil Erlenmeyer, was a German chemist known for contributing to the early development of the theory of structure, formulating the Erlenmeyer rule, and designing ...
at the
University of Heidelberg
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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, ...
for six months. He later worked with
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz in Paris and, for 11 months, as chief of the chemical laboratory at the
University of Coimbra
The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The u ...
in Portugal.
Unable to resist the call of his former professor Wöhler, Tollens returned to Göttingen in 1872 and there he remained in various positions until his death in 1918. It was during this final time in Göttingen that he started his work on
carbohydrates, which yielded structures of several sugars, the
Tollens' reagent
Tollens' reagent (chemical formula Ag(NH3)2OH) is a chemical reagent used to distinguish between aldehydes and ketones along with some alpha-hydroxy ketones which can tautomerize into aldehydes. The reagent consists of a solution of silver nit ...
, and most of his publications.
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tollens, Bernhard
1841 births
1918 deaths
20th-century German chemists
Scientists from Hamburg
University of Göttingen alumni
Heidelberg University faculty
University of Coimbra
University of Göttingen faculty
People educated at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums
19th-century agronomists
19th-century German chemists