✍ Scribed by Gerd Sandstede
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
It is a particular pleasure and honour for me to welcome you on behalf of DECHEMA, the German Society for Chemical Apparatus, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, to Karlsruhe for the 5th International Fischer Symposium. This symposium, held since 1979 in the week after ACHEMA, has in the meantime become a significant occasion in the international conference calendar. This time, the 5th Hellmuth Fischer Symposium is taking place at the same time as and as a welcome addition to the 4th World Congress of Chemical Engineers in Karlsruhe, which is being held by DECHEMA. The theme for this congress is "Strategies 2000" and it will deal with the special responsibility of chemical engineers for the environment, raw materials and energy resources, the chemical plant of the future, the application of biological sciences, developing countries, product quality and the effects of all these problems on training and research.
Professor Hellmuth Fischer was a member of the board of DECHEMA. He was an outstanding scientist in the fields of electrochemistry and materials sciences as well as corrosion and corrosion protection. He was born in Berlin on 24 August 1902 and died in Karlsruhe on 2 February 1976. He completed his dissertation in 1926, under the guidance of Prof. Walter Nemst, who offered him a position as Assistant Professor for Physical Chemistry. However, he preferred to take up a position in industry with the Siemens & Halske company, where he became head of the metallurgical and analytical laboratory. After first introducing dithizone into metal analysis, he later devoted himself more and more to the electrochemistry of metals and consequently to the principles of corrosion and corrosion protection. In 1937, he submitted his habilitation thesis to the Technical University of Berlin and in 1938 was given the status of an outside lecturer. In that dark period of German history, university lecturers in particular were subject to the political pressure of the Nazis. It is characteristic of Hellmuth Fischer's high moral principles that, under these circumstances, he relinquished his rights as a university lecturer. Immediately after the end of the Second World War, in 1946 he began teaching at the university, along with continuing his industrial activities. In 1950, he became Honorary Professor at the University of Karlsruhe and 10 years later-in 1960-he accepted a nomination to become full professor for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry at this university. At that time, it was pleasing just how many physicochemical university posts were filled by outstanding electrochemists, such as Heinz Get&her in Munich and Kurt Schwabe in Dresden. It would be very desirable for this electrochemical tradition at German universities to be continued in the future.
In 1958, Prof. Fischer joined with Prof. Behrens in launching a joint research programme for corrosion and corrosion protection, initially with the GDCh (German Chemical Society) and since 1964 under the auspices of DECHEMA, which has remained relevant right up to the present day and has established the high standing of corrosion science and practical corrosion protection in Germany. As Chairman of the DECHEMA Technical Committee on Electrochemical Processes, he was my predecessor and the founder of this DECHEMA Committee, which has been active right
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