Carl Graebe (; 24 February 1841 – 19 January 1927) was a German industrial and academic

chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a graduated scientist trained in the study of chemistry, or an officially enrolled student in the field. Chemists study the composition of ...

from

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

who held professorships in his field at

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Königsberg Königsberg (; ; ; ; ; ; , ) is the historic Germany, German and Prussian name of the city now called Kaliningrad, Russia. The city was founded in 1255 on the site of the small Old Prussians, Old Prussian settlement ''Twangste'' by the Teuton ...

, and

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. He is known for the first synthesis of the economically important dye, alizarin, with Liebermann, and for contributing to the fundamental nomenclature of

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

Biography

Graebe was born in Frankfurt in 1841. He studied at a vocational high school in

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

and Karlsruhe Polytechnic and in

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

. Later he worked for the chemical company ''Meister Lucius und Brüning'' (today

Hoechst AG Hoechst AG () was a German chemicals, later life sciences, company that became Aventis Deutschland after its merger with France's Rhône-Poulenc S.A. in 1999. With the new company's 2004 merger with Sanofi-Synthélabo, it became a subsidiar ...

). He supervised the production of Fuchsine and researched violet colorants made using

iodine Iodine is a chemical element; it has symbol I and atomic number 53. The heaviest of the stable halogens, it exists at standard conditions as a semi-lustrous, non-metallic solid that melts to form a deep violet liquid at , and boils to a vi ...

. The work with iodine resulted in eye problems, so he returned to academia. Carl Graebe received his Ph.D. from the

University of Heidelberg Heidelberg University, officially the Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg (; ), is a public university, public research university in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386 on instruction of Pope Urban VI, Heidelberg is List ...

in 1862 under the supervision of Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. In 1868 he wrote his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

, and became a professor in

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 December 1409 by Frederick I, Electo ...

. Graebe was Professor of Chemistry at the

University of Königsberg The University of Königsberg () was the university of Königsberg in Duchy of Prussia, which was a fief of Poland. It was founded in 1544 as the world's second Protestant Reformation, Protestant academy (after the University of Marburg) by Duke A ...

from 1870 until 1877, and at the

University of Geneva The University of Geneva (French: ''Université de Genève'') is a public university, public research university located in Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded in 1559 by French theologian John Calvin as a Theology, theological seminary. It rema ...

from 1878 until 1906. This was a period rich in the development of structural theory and nomenclature, and Graebe is known for introducing the "ortho", "meta" and "para" nomenclature for

naphthalene Naphthalene is an organic compound with formula . It is the simplest polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, and is a white Crystal, crystalline solid with a characteristic odor that is detectable at concentrations as low as 0.08 Parts-per notation ...

ring substitution.In 1869, Graebe first used the prefixes ortho-, meta-, para- to denote specific relative locations of the substituents on a di-substituted aromatic ring (viz, naphthalene): Graebe (1869
"Ueber die Constitution des Naphthalins"
(On the structure of naphthalene), ''Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie'', 149 : 20–28 ; see especially p. 26. In 1870, the German chemist Viktor Meyer first applied Graebe's nomenclature to benzene: Victor Meyer (1870
"Untersuchungen über die Constitution der zweifach-substituirten Benzole"
(Investigations into the structure of di-substituted benzenes), ''Annalen der Chemie und Pharmacie'', 156 : 265–301 ; see especially pp. 299–300. See also: Hermann von Fehling, ed., ''Neues Handwörterbuch der Chemie'' ew concise dictionary of chemistry(Braunschweig, Germany: Friedrich Vieweg und Sohn, 1874), vol. 1
p. 1142.
/ref> Amongst Graebe's students was Vera Bogdanovskaia, an early victim of the inherent risks of chemical research (dying as a result of later independent research on methylidynephosphane); her doctoral dissertation under Graebe was on dibenzyl ketone (1892). Graebe synthesized the

dye Juan de Guillebon, better known by his stage name DyE, is a French musician. He is known for the music video of the single "Fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical ele ...

alizarin in 1868 with Carl Theodore Liebermann. Alizarin had been isolated from madder root some forty years earlier in 1826 by the French chemist Pierre Robiquet. Its

chemical synthesis Chemical synthesis (chemical combination) is the artificial execution of chemical reactions to obtain one or several products. This occurs by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions. In modern laboratory uses ...

was a milestone in the development of the German and international dye industry, and foreshadowed collapse of the French agricultural sector that produced madder root (after synthesis became the more economical means of producing alizarin). Graebe died in Frankfurt in 1927.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Graebe, Carl 1841 births 1927 deaths 19th-century German chemists Scientists from Frankfurt Academic staff of the University of Königsberg Academic staff of the University of Geneva Karlsruhe Institute of Technology alumni Heidelberg University alumni Burials at Frankfurt Main Cemetery Sanofi people Academic staff of Leipzig University