Biography:Adolf Butenandt

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Short description: German biochemist (1903–1995)
Adolf Butenandt
A. Butenandt 1921.jpg
Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt in 1921
Born
Lehe, Province of Hanover, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire
(now Bremerhaven, Bremen, Germany)
Died18 January 1995(1995-01-18) (aged 91)
Munich, Germany
NationalityGerman
AwardsNobel Prize for Chemistry (1939)
Kriegsverdienstkreuz (1942)
Scientific career
FieldsOrganic and biochemistry
InstitutionsKaiser Wilhelm Institute / Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry
Technical University of Danzig
ThesisUntersuchungen über das Rotenon, den physiologisch wirksamen Bestandteil der Derris elliptica (1928)
Doctoral advisorAdolf Windaus

Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (German pronunciation: [ˈaːdɔlf ˈbuːtənant] (About this soundlisten); 24 March 1903 – 18 January 1995) was a German biochemist.[1] He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1939 for his "work on sex hormones." He initially rejected the award in accordance with government policy, but accepted it in 1949 after World War II.[1][2][3][4] He was President of the Max Planck Society from 1960 to 1972. He was also the first, in 1959, to discover the structure of the sex pheromone of silkworms, which he named bombykol.

Education and early life

Born in Lehe, near Bremerhaven, he started his studies at the University of Marburg. For his PhD he joined the working group of the Nobel laureate Adolf Windaus at the University of Göttingen and he finished his studies with a PhD in chemistry in 1927. His doctoral research was on the chemistry of the insecticidal toxin found in the roots of Derris elliptica which he isolated and characterized. After his Habilitation he became lecturer in Göttingen 1931.

Professional career

He became a professor ordinarius at the Technical University of Danzig 1933–1936.[5] In 1933 Butenandt signed the Vow of allegiance of the Professors of the German Universities and High-Schools to Adolf Hitler and the National Socialistic State. In 1936 he applied for the directorship of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institut (later the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry) in Berlin-Dahlem[6] while also joining the NSDAP on 1 May 1936 (party member No. 3716562). The earlier director of the Kaiser Wilhelm institute was Carl Neuberg, who had been removed for being a Jew. His work on rotenones was considered useful by the Nazi leadership as it could be useful for controlling lice among soldiers in the trenches. As the head of a leading institute, he applied for government funding on concentrated research labeled kriegswichtig (important for the war), some of which focused on military projects like the improvement of oxygen uptake for high-altitude bomber pilots.[7]

Estrone

Adolf Windaus and Walter Schöller of Schering gave him the advice to work on hormones extracted from ovaries. This research lead to the discovery of estrone and other primary female sex hormones, which were extracted from several thousand liters of urine.[8][9] While working as professor in Danzig at the Chemisches Institut he was continuing his works over hormones extracting progesterone in 1934 and testosterone a year later, the research results were along with the synthesis of steroids by Leopold Ružička considered significant enough to be awarded later by Nobel Committee in 1939.[5] In 1940 he was involved in research on a hormone treatment to make long submarine voyages more comfortable for submariners in the Kriegsmarine.[7]

Butenand's involvement with the Nazi regime and various themes of research led to criticism after the war, and even after his death the exact nature of his political orientation during the Nazi era has never been fully resolved.[7] When the institute moved to Tübingen in 1945 he became a professor at the University of Tübingen. In 1948 he was considered for the chair for physiological medicine at the University of Basel.[10] He entered in negotiations but eventually was convinced to stay the chemical industry to stay in Germany.[10] In 1956, when the institute relocated to Martinsried, a suburb of Munich, Butenandt became a professor at the University of Munich. He also served as president of the Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science following Otto Hahn from 1960 to 1972.

Butenandt is credited with the discovery and naming of the silkworm moth pheromone Bombykol in 1959.

Butenandt died in Munich in 1995, at the age of 91.[11] His wife Erika Butenandt (de), born in 1906, died in 1995 at 88.[12] They had seven children.[13]

Honours and awards

  • 1939: Nobel Prize in Chemistry (shared with Leopold Ruzicka) for the identification of the sex hormones, oestrogen, progesterone and androsterone[14]
  • 1942: War Merit Cross, Second Class (Germany)
  • 1943: War Merit Cross, First Class (Germany)
  • 1953: Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize[15]
  • 1959/1964: Knight Commander's Cross and Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany[16]
  • 1960: Honorary Citizen of the City of Bremerhaven[17]
  • 1960: President of the Max Planck Society[18]
  • 1961: Wilhelm Normann Medal of the German Society for Fat Research
  • 1962: Bavarian Order of Merit
  • 1962: Pour le Mérite[19]
  • 1964: Austrian Decoration for Science and Art[20]
  • 1967: Cultural Award of the City of Munich
  • 1969: Commander of the French Legion of Honour
  • 1972: Ordre des Palmes Académiques
  • 1981: Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art[21]
  • 1985: Grand Cross 1st class of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany[22]
  • 1985: Honorary Citizen of the City of Munich[23]
  • 1994: Grand Gold Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria[24]
  • 1951–1992: 31 participations in the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings (record)[25][26]

Honorary doctorates

Butenandt received 14 honorary doctorates,[27] including Tübingen (1949), Munich (1950), Graz (1957), Leeds (1961), Thessaloniki (1961), Madrid (1963), Vienna (1965), St. Louis (1965), Berlin (1966), Cambridge (1966) and Gdansk (1994).[28][29]

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Szöllösi-Janze, Margit (2001). Science in the Third Reich (German Historical Perspectives). Oxford, UK: Berg Publishers. ISBN 1-85973-421-9. 
  2. ↑ Akhtar, M.; Akhtar, M. E. (1998). "Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt. 24 March 1903-18 January 1995". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 44: 79–92. doi:10.1098/rsbm.1998.0006. PMID 11623990. 
  3. ↑ Karlson, P. (1995). "Adolf Butenandt (1903–1995)". Nature 373 (6516): 660. doi:10.1038/373660b0. PMID 7854440. Bibcode: 1995Natur.373..660K. 
  4. ↑ Jaenicke, L. (1995). "Adolf Butenandt: 24. 3. 1903 - 18. 1. 1995". Chemie in unserer Zeit 29 (3): 163–165. doi:10.1002/ciuz.19950290313. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Piosik, R. (2003). "Adolf Butenandt und sein Wirken an der Technischen Hochschule Danzig". Chemkon 10 (3): 135–138. doi:10.1002/ckon.200390038. 
  6. ↑ Mertens, L. (2003). "Nur"Zweite Wahl" oder Die Berufung Adolf Butenandts zum Direktor des KWI für Biochemie". Berichte zur Wissenschafts-Geschichte 26 (3): 213–222. doi:10.1002/bewi.200390058. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Trunk, A. (2006). "Biochemistry in Wartime: The Life and Lessons of Adolf Butenandt, 1936–1946". Minerva 44 (3): 285–306. doi:10.1007/s11024-006-9002-2. 
  8. ↑ Butenandt, A. (1929). "Über "Progynon" ein krystallisiertes weibliches Sexualhormon". Die Naturwissenschaften 17 (45): 879. doi:10.1007/BF01506919. Bibcode: 1929NW.....17..879B. 
  9. ↑ Butenandt, A. (1931). "Über die chemische Untersuchung der Sexualhormone". Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie 44 (46): 905–908. doi:10.1002/ange.19310444602. Bibcode: 1931AngCh..44..905B. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Simon, Christian (2009). "Aus der Geschichte der Universität Basel" (in de). Schwabe Verlag. pp. 9–10. https://schwabe.ch/produkttypen/zeitschriften/basler-zeitschrift-fuer-geschichte-und-altertumskunde/. 
  11. ↑ "Beileid zum tode von adolf butenandt" (in de). https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/service/bulletin/beileid-zum-tode-von-adolf-butenandt-801982. 
  12. ↑ "Familie Adolf Butenandt" (in de). https://www.archivportal-d.de/item/VMMNV5B2RYC2PACEOUFMIN3NICTXAA2Z. 
  13. ↑ "Der ehemalige Präsident der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Adolf Butenandt, wusste viel und sagte nichts: Ein Normalfall im Dritten Reich" (in de). 3 September 2004. https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/archiv/der-ehemalige-praesident-der-max-planck-gesellschaft-adolf-butenandt-wusste-viel-und-sagte-nichts-ein-normalfall-im-dritten-reich-li.802572. 
  14. ↑ "MAX PLANCK GESELLSCHAFT" (in de). https://www.nobel.mpg.de/de/adolf-butenandt. 
  15. ↑ "70 Years Paul Ehrlich und Ludwig Darmstaedter-Prize" (in de). 7 March 1986. https://www.goethe-university-frankfurt.de/102698505/70_Years_Paul_Ehrlich_und_Ludwig_Darmstaedter_Prize. 
  16. ↑ "BR Retro: Bundesverdienstkreuz-Verleihung 1959" (in de). 30 January 1959. https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/br-retro/bundesverdienstkreuz-verleihung-1959/br-fernsehen/Y3JpZDovL2JyLmRlL3ZpZGVvLzJjNWVlZWM1LTVkZDctNGUxMy04ZTA3LThkNjEyYWY3ZDFmMg. 
  17. ↑ "Adolf Butenandt – Bremerhaven.de" (in de). 15 August 2011. https://www.bremerhaven.de/de/freizeit-kultur/stadtarchiv/adolf-butenandt.28587.html. 
  18. ↑ "The Max Planck Society and Harnack House". 4 December 2023. https://www.harnackhaus-berlin.mpg.de/history/max-planck-society-and-harnack-house. 
  19. ↑ "Butenandt" (in de). https://www.orden-pourlemerite.de/mitglieder/adolf-butenandt. 
  20. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (in de). p. 166. https://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf. 
  21. ↑ "Auszeichnungen und zivile Orden (nach 1945)" (in de). https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Auszeichnungen_und_zivile_Orden_(nach_1945). 
  22. ↑ Chronik University of Munich, p.166
  23. ↑ "Adolf Butenandt: Der Jäger der Sexualhormone" (in de). 25 February 2017. https://www.br.de/fernsehen/ard-alpha/sendungen/entdeckungen-grosser-forscher/butenandt-adolf-biochemie-100.html. 
  24. ↑ "Reply to a parliamentary question" (in de). p. 972. https://www.parlament.gv.at/PAKT/VHG/XXIV/AB/AB_10542/imfname_251156.pdf. 
  25. ↑ "Prof. Dr. Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt". 19 June 2015. https://mediatheque.lindau-nobel.org/laureates/butenandt. 
  26. ↑ "Wirtschafts-Nobelpreisträger in Lindau" (in de). 5 December 2008. https://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/wirtschafts-nobelpreistraeger-in-lindau-nachzuegler-am-bodensee-1.817340. 
  27. ↑ University of Marburg
  28. ↑ Piosik, Romuald (1998). "Doktor Honoris Causa der Technischen Hochschule Danzig". Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego. https://dspace.uni.lodz.pl/handle/11089/15438. 
  29. ↑ "Prof. Adolf Butenandt" (in pl). https://pg.edu.pl/uczelnia/ludzie-pg/doktorzy-honoris-causa/prof-adolf-butenandt. 

Bibliography

  • Angelika Ebbinghaus, Karl-Heinz Roth (2002). "Von der Rockefeller Foundation zur Kaiser-Wilhelm/Max-Planck-Gesellschaft: Adolf Butenandt als Biochemiker und Wissenschaftspolitiker des 20. Jahrhunderts". Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft 50 (5): 389–418. Schieder, Wolfgang (2004). Adolf Butenandt und die Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft: Wissenschaft, Industrie und Politik im "Dritten Reich". Göttingen: Wallstein-Verlag. pp. 450. ISBN 3-89244-752-7. 

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